FILIPINO households spent less on internet connectivity in 2024 even as access and usage continued to expand across the country, according to results from the 2024 National Information and Communications Technology Household Survey (NICTHS) released by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) on Monday, July 21, 2025.
According to PSA, a household with internet access at home means that the internet is generally available for use by all members of the household at any time, regardless of whether it is actually used.
The average household monthly spending for internet dropped to P1,069.10 in 2024, down by P211.49 from P1,280.59 in 2019. Households in the National Capital Region (NCR) spent the most at P1,290.90 per month, while those in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (Barmm) had the lowest at P583.
Nearly half of all households nationwide — or 48.8 percent or 13.56 million — had access to the internet at home, a significant increase from just 17.7 percent in 2019. Internet access was highest in NCR (68.7 percent) and Central Luzon (61.3 percent), while Zamboanga Peninsula (21.2 percent) and Barmm (27.7 percent) reported the lowest rates.
The majority of connected households (58.8 percent) used fixed wired broadband, followed by mobile broadband (39.3 percent) and fixed wireless broadband (11.6 percent). Satellite broadband remained rare at
2.2 percent.
Among individuals aged 10 years and older, 67.3 percent or approximately 61.46 million Filipinos said they had used the internet, with most (73.1 percent) going online from home.
Cellphones were the most commonly used device for internet access at 98.8 percent, far ahead of laptops (14.7 percent) and smart TVs (11.3 percent).
Users spent an average of 4.6 hours online daily, with those in NCR leading at 6.1 hours. Most internet users (76.9 percent) reported going online every day.
Making voice and video calls was the most common internet activity at 94.2 percent, followed by social media use (87.3 percent) and media streaming or downloading (63.6 percent). Online job applications (6.6 percent), booking health appointments (5.4 percent) and participation in professional networks (4.4 percent) were the least frequent.
Despite these gains, affordability remained a key hurdle. The high cost of subscriptions was the top reason cited by both unconnected households (58.3 percent) and individuals not using the internet (41.7 percent), followed by the cost of equipment.
The 2024 NICTHS, jointly conducted by the PSA and the Department of Information and Communications Technology, is the first in a planned series of reports designed to monitor the impact of digital technologies on Filipino households. / KOC