MANILA - Regulators will press the country's two telecommunications giants on improving internet speeds by the middle of next year, an official of the National Telecommunications Commission said Friday.

Improving service is among conditions set by the NTC when it allowed Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. and Globe Telecom to use the 700 mhz spectrum that they acquired from San Miguel Corp. last May.

"Nasa kondisyon po sa approval ng full use na within one year, mayroong substantial improvement sa quality of service [It is part of the conditions for approval of full use that within one year, there will be a substantial improvement in quality of service]," NTC deputy commissioner Edgardo Cabarios told DZMM.

PLDT and Globe started installing cell sites using the 700 mhz spectrum in June.

The Philippines has the second slowest internet connection in the Asia Pacific according to Akamai’s State of the Internet report for the second quarter.

Average speed, however, increased 37 percent from 2015, according to the study.

For mobile internet, the country was sixth in terms of average speed (8.5 Mbps), and third for average peak speed (105.1 Mbps) in the Asia Pacific region.