Global Mobile Network Experience

Awards 2023
February 2023
Sam Fenwick, Senior Analyst

© Opensignal | Global Mobile Network Experience Awards 202 3 1

Key Findings

SK telecom users have the best overall multiplayer Asia Pacific operators perform strongly on year-on-
gaming experience year improvement
SK telecom is the outright Global Winner for Games Of the 83 operators that are a Global Rising Star in at
Experience with an impressive score of 86.3 points on a least one category, 33.7% (28) hail from Asia Pacific,
100-point scale, placing it in the Excellent (85 or followed by 25.3% from Africa and the Middle East,
above) category. Its two national rivals, LG U+ and KT, 20.5% from Europe, and 19.3% from South and Central
tie for second place with scores of 84.7-85.5 points. SK America. In total, 41.4% of all Global Rising Star awards
telecom’s score is 26 points above the global average are won by Asia Pacific operators.
of 60.3 points.
Ufone Pakistan is a Global Rising Star in all five
The Global Winner for Download Speed Experience is categories
SK telecom When we look at the percentage improvement in
Our SK telecom users see average overall download our users’ mobile experience over the last year,
speeds of 131.7Mbps — making it the sole Global Winner Pakistan’s Ufone has achieved an impressive feat; it
for Download Speed Experience. SK telecom wins by an is the only operator in the global top 30 in every
impressive margin, given second-placed KT’s score of category. Six operators are Global Rising Stars across
105.7Mbps — the only other operator to score above four categories: Banglalink, WOM Colombia, Orange
100Mbps. The average download speeds seen by our Egypt, Celcom and Yes in Malaysia, and Globe in
SK telecom users are 4.2 times the global average the Philippines.
of 31.5Mbps.
LG U+ users spend the most time using 4G or 5G
3 Denmark comes top for Upload Speed Experience Our LG U+ users in South Korea spend 99.7% of their
Our 3 users in Denmark observe the fastest average time connected to 4G or 5G, making the operator the
overall upload speeds globally — an impressive Global Winner for Time on 4G/5G. India’s Jio and
22.9Mbps — around 4.5Mbps faster than Swisscom and Japan’s au follow closely behind with statistically tied
TDC Denmark’s statistically tied scores of 18.2- scores of 99.3-99.4%. The average Time on 4G/5G
18.6Mbps. The operator with the largest percentage score across global operators is 88.9% — which LG U+
improvement in its Upload Speed Experience between exceeds by 10.8 percentage points. Meanwhile, the
H2 2021 and H2 2022 is Ufone Pakistan with a operator with the largest year-on-year percentage
spectacular rise of 77.2%. increase in Time on 4G/5G is Iraq’s Asiacell with a rise
of 23.6%.
Telia Finland and Telia Estonia jointly win
Excellent Consistent Quality 11 operators share first place for Video Experience
Telia Finland is the sole Global Winner for Core The contest for Video Experience is so fierce that 11
Consistent Quality and in Excellent Consistent Quality it operators are Global Winners with statistically tied
shares the award with Telia Estonia. This is the first time scores of 66.7-71.1 points on a 100-point scale, far
that either category has appeared in the Global above the global average of 49.4 points. The Global
Awards. The two operators win Excellent Consistent Winners are: StarHub, Denmark’s 3 and TDC, The
Quality with statistically tied scores of 90.8-91.1%. For Netherlands’ KPN and T-Mobile, SK telecom, Norway’s
Core Consistent Quality, Telia Finland wins outright with Telenor and Telia, Telemach Croatia, Telia Lithuania,
a score of 97.2%, narrowly ahead of TDC Denmark’s and Telia Estonia.
and Elisa Finland’s identical scores of 97%.

Operators from Denmark, Estonia, Japan, Lithuania

and South Korea are Global Winners for Voice App
Experience
Nine operators jointly win: 3 Denmark, Telia and BITĖ
from Lithuania, all three South Korean operators (LG
U+, KT, SK telecom), Japan’s au and NTT docomo, along
with Estonia’s Telia. These operators have statistically
tied scores for Voice App Experience.

© Opensignal | Global Mobile Network Experience Awards 202 3 2

 Opensignal Global Awards 2023
The Global Winners and Leaders

StarHub T-Mobile Telemach

Singapore Netherlands Croatia
3 SK telecom Telia
Denmark South Korea Lithuania
TDC Telenor Telia
Video Experience Denmark Norway Estonia
KPN Telia
Netherlands Norway

LG U+ SoftBank KPN Orange Telenor

South Korea Japan Netherlands Slovakia Denmark
SK telecom KT TDC 3 3 Telia
South Korea South Korea Denmark Denmark Hong Kong Lithuania
Games StarHub au Telekom T-Mobile
Experience Singapore Japan Slovakia Netherlands

3 SK telecom au SoftBank TDC Telia Telekom Tele2

Denmark South Korea Japan Japan Denmark Denmark Hungary Sweden
Telia LG U+ BITĖ StarHub Telenor Orange Telenor LMT
Lithuania South Korea Lithuania Singapore Denmark Slovakia Norway Latvia
Voice App KT NTT docomo Telia T-Mobile KPN
Experience South Korea Japan Estonia Netherlands Netherlands

KT Telenor KPN T-Mobile Telia

South Korea Norway Netherlands Netherlands Norway
SK telecom LG U+ T-Mobile 3 StarHub
South Korea South Korea Puerto Rico Denmark Singapore
Download Speed
Experience

Swisscom LG U+ SK telecom KPN Telia

Switzerland South Korea South Korea Netherlands Norway
3 TDC T-Mobile Telenor Salt Telia
Denmark Denmark Netherlands Norway Switzerland Lithuania
Upload Speed Rakuten
Experience Japan

Jio SK telecom Liberty NTT docomo Airtel

India South Korea Puerto Rico Japan India
LG U+ au AT&T SIMBA KT ice
South Korea Japan USA Singapore South Korea Norway
Time
on 4G/5G

Elisa DNA KPN T-Mobile ice

Telia Finland Finland Netherlands Netherlands Norway
Finland TDC Telenor SK telecom 3
Telia Denmark Norway South Korea Sweden
Excellent Estonia
Consistent Quality

TDC Telia Telenor Tele2 DNA

Denmark Estonia Denmark Sweden Finland
Telia Elisa 3 Telekom Telia Orange
Finland Finland Sweden Slovakia Denmark Slovakia
Core Consistent
Quality

© Opensignal | Global Mobile Network Experience Awards 202 3

 Opensignal Global Awards 2023
Global Rising Stars
(most improved year-on-year)

Orange Zong WOM Ufone Ooredoo

Morocco Pakistan Colombia Pakistan Oman
inwi Movistar Etisalat 3 Personal
Morocco Chile Egypt Hong Kong Paraguay
Tigo Claro Ooredoo DITO csl
Paraguay Chile Tunisia Philippines Hong Kong
Dialog Globe Turkcell Kölbi Mobitel
Games Experience Sri Lanka Philippines Turkey Costa Rica Sri Lanka
Maroc Telecom Orange Yes Pelephone stc
Morocco Egypt Malaysia Israel Saudi Arabia
Omantel Movistar XL Celcom stc
Oman El Salvador Indonesia Malaysia Bahrain

inwi Globe Etisalat XL Djezzy

Morocco Philippines Egypt Indonesia Algeria
Orange Ufone Jazz Maroc Telecom TeleTalk
Egypt Pakistan Pakistan Morocco Bangladesh
Grameenphone Zong Movistar Yes Movistar
Bangladesh Pakistan El Salvador Malaysia Chile
WOM Airtel DITO TrueMove H csl
Colombia Sri Lanka Philippines Thailand Hong Kong
Voice App Experience Orange Banglalink Zain Turkcell Celcom
Morocco Bangladesh Saudi Arabia Turkey Malaysia
Robi Mobitel Claro Entel Telekom
Bangladesh Sri Lanka Chile Peru Romania
Dialog Hutch
Sri Lanka Sri Lanka

T-Mobile Grameenphone Tigo Ooredoo Ufone

Puerto Rico Bangladesh Honduras Algeria Pakistan
Celcom DITO T-Mobile 3 Claro
Malaysia Philippines USA UK Puerto Rico
Yes A1 Maxis Cellcard Zong
Malaysia Bulgaria Malaysia Cambodia Pakistan
GT Movistar Bitel Digi Pelephone
Download Speed Taiwan Chile Peru Malaysia Israel
Experience Banglalink 3 3 Hot Mobile Chunghwa
Bangladesh Denmark Sweden Israel Taiwan
stc WOM Partner Cellcom Telemach
Bahrain Chile Israel Israel Croatia
Ufone 4ka Mobitel China Unicom A1
Pakistan Slovakia Sri Lanka China Bulgaria
Grameenphone Globe Ooredoo 3 mts
Bangladesh Philippines Algeria Sweden Serbia
Robi Celcom WOM China Telecom Mobilis
Bangladesh Malaysia Colombia China Algeria
Banglalink Orange Orange Partner Unifi
Upload Speed Experience Bangladesh Morocco Egypt Israel Malaysia
Hutch Tigo Digi Mobil Cellcom Magenta
Sri Lanka Honduras Romania Israel Austria
Claro Yes GT Claro Asiacell
El Salvador Malaysia Taiwan Colombia Iraq
Asiacell Telekom Dialog Jazz Salt
Iraq Romania Sri Lanka Pakistan Switzerland
Ufone Cellcom Claro Globe Movistar
Pakistan Israel Chile Philippines El Salvador
Digicel Yettel Hutch 3 A1
El Salvador Serbia Sri Lanka UK Croatia
Zain Telemach WOM U Mobile Banglalink
Time Iraq Croatia Colombia Malaysia Bangladesh
on 4G/5G Vodafone Partner Airtel TIM A1
Ireland Israel Sri Lanka Italy Bulgaria
3 Digi Claro Orange Free Mobile
Ireland Malaysia Colombia Egypt France

© Opensignal | Global Mobile Network Experience Awards 202 3

Users’ mobile experience continues to improve
In the fourth Global Awards report, Opensignal once again compares operators from around the
world — recognizing those on which our users had the best mobile experience and celebrating
the mobile industry’s achievements. In addition, we again highlight the operators on which our
users have seen the greatest improvement in their mobile experience — these operators are the
Global Rising Stars.

This is the first time that we have also analyzed the consistency of our users’ experience across
global operators. We have added two new award categories: Excellent Consistent Quality and
Core Consistent Quality. These assess what proportion of users’ tests met the recommended
performance thresholds for common applications. For Excellent Consistent Quality, this includes
watching HD video, completing group video conference calls and playing games; Core
Consistent Quality looks at less demanding applications such as SD video, voice calls and
web browsing.

Unlike Opensignal’s 5G Global Awards, this report looks at the overall mobile experience of our
users across all mobile network technologies. This means that these results are significantly
different. But 5G has become an increasingly important driver of users’ overall experience. In
markets where operators have launched 5G services, both the overall experiential scores —
Video Experience, Games Experience and Voice App Experience — and the speed awards are
heavily influenced by the boost that 5G gives to users’ experience over older 3G and 4G
technologies. The more time that users spend connected to 5G the more influence 5G has on the
overall experience of users.

Using eight key measures of the mobile network experience, we have analyzed the data
provided by our users over the first 180 days of the second half of 2022 and determined the
Global Winner(s) using confidence intervals in the same way we do with all Opensignal reports.
If the confidence intervals overlap then the result is a statistical tie and we declare two or
more operators to be joint winners. Otherwise, an operator takes home the award as an
outright winner.

We have also used confidence intervals to determine the Global Leaders and the Global High
Performers, which are composed of the top 10 and top 30 scoring operators, respectively
(excluding Global Winners). The exact number of operators in these categories can vary due to
statistical ties between operators’ scores. The use of confidence intervals means that in some
cases operators with the same scores place in different categories.

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© Opensignal | Global Mobile Network Experience Awards 202 3 6
Opensignal’s Video Experience quantifies the quality of video streamed to mobile devices
by measuring real-world video streams over an operator's network. The videos tested include
a mixture of resolutions and are streamed directly from the world’s largest video
content providers.

There is an 11-way statistical tie for first place and, as a result, StarHub, 3 Denmark, TDC
Denmark, KPN Netherlands, T-Mobile Netherlands, SK telecom, Telenor Norway, Telia Norway,
Telemach Croatia, Telia Lithuania and Telia Estonia are all Global Winners for Video Experience.
Their scores of 66.7-71.1 points on a 100-point scale compare favorably with the global average
of 49.4 points. Because there are so many Global Winners, there are no Global Leaders in this
category on this occasion.

Of the 11 Global Winners, nine hail from Europe, with Singapore’s StarHub
and South Korea’s SK telecom coming from the Asia Pacific region. StarHub has the highest
score for Video Experience in South East Asia (71.1 points).

Looking at the Global High Performers, a similar pattern plays out as there are 15 from Europe —
including A1 Austria, Orange Slovakia and Swisscom — with four from Asia Pacific making up the
remainder (KT, Singtel, Chunghwa and LG U+).

While it is not a Global High Performer for Video Experience, Ooredoo Maldives has the highest
score in South Asia (57.4 points). Over in Puerto Rico, T-Mobile has the highest score for Video
Experience in South and Central America (61 points) and by an impressive margin as the regional
runners-up — all three of Uruguay’s national operators along with Argentina’s Personal — have
statistically tied scores of 50.8-52.1 points.

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Opensignal’s Games Experience is a measure of how mobile users experience real-time
multiplayer mobile gaming on an operator’s network. Measured on a scale of 0-100, it analyzes
how our users’ multiplayer mobile gaming experience is affected by mobile network conditions
including latency, packet loss and jitter.

In contrast to Video Experience, there is just one Global Winner for Games Experience: SK
telecom. The South Korean operator wins outright with a score of 86.3 points on a 100-point
scale, placing it in the Excellent (85 or above) category. This means that the vast majority of our
SK telecom users deem their network experience acceptable. Nearly all respondents feel like
they have control over the game and they receive immediate feedback on their actions. There is
not a noticeable delay in almost all cases.

South Korea’s other national operators, LG U+ and KT, tie for second place with statistically tied
scores of 84.7-85.5 points. SK telecom’s score is 26 points above the global average of 60.3
points, which places in the Poor category (40-65).

Eight out of 14 Global Leaders hail from Europe with the remaining six coming from the Asia
Pacific region. The European Global Leaders consist of Telekom and Orange in Slovakia, three
out of four Danish operators (3, TDC and Telenor), KPN and T-Mobile from the Netherlands, and
Telia Lithuania. The Global Leaders hailing from Asia Pacific are: LG U+, KT, StarHub, Japan’s
SoftBank and au, along with 3 Hong Kong.

As with Video Experience, our Ooredoo Maldives users observe the best Games Experience in
South Asia, given its score of 67.3 points, while StarHub has the highest score in South East Asia
(82.7 points). In North America, Telus comes top for Games Experience, with its score of 68.3
points, giving it around a 1.2 point lead over T-Mobile U.S. and Bell, which statistically tie for
second place. Over in South and Central America, our users have their best Games Experience
on Movistar Urguay’s network, due to its score of 69.1 points, comfortably ahead of its national
rival Claro’s 65.6 points.

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Opensignal's Voice App Experience measures the quality of experience for over-the-top (OTT)
voice services using a model derived from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
approach for quantifying overall voice call quality and a series of calibrated technical
parameters. Examples of these mobile voice apps include WhatsApp, Skype, LINE, WeChat,
Viber and Facebook Messenger.

Nine operators are Global Winners for Voice App Experience, due to their statistically tied
scores of 81.3-82.3 points on a 100-point scale. They are 3 Denmark, Telia and BITĖ from
Lithuania, all three South Korean operators (LG U+, KT, SK telecom), Japan’s au and NTT
docomo, as well as Estonia’s Telia. Their scores compare favorably with the global average
of 75.7 points.

Five Global Winners hail from the Asia Pacific region, while the remaining four are European.
However, 10 out of 12 Global Leaders come from Europe, with Japan’s SoftBank and Singapore’s
StarHub making up the remainder. Similarly, nine out of 11 Global High Performers for Voice App
Experience are based in Europe, including Orange Slovakia, with Singtel and Vietnam’s Viettel
Mobile hailing from the Asia Pacific region.

All of Denmark’s national operators are either Global Winners (3 Denmark) or Global Leaders
(TDC, Telenor and Telia) for Voice App Experience.

Global High Performers for Voice App Experience include Singapore’s Singtel, Telekom Slovakia,
and all three of Finland’s national operators (DNA, Elisa and Telia).

All the Global Winners, Global Leaders and Global High Performers place in the Good (80-87)
category. This means many of our users on their networks are satisfied. Minor quality
impairments are experienced by some users. Sometimes the background is not quite clear, it can
be either hazy or not loud enough. Clicking sounds or distortion are very rarely present.

In contrast, the global average of 75.7 points indicates an Acceptable (74-80) Voice App
Experience. This means that some users are satisfied. Some users experience perceptible call
quality impairments. Clicking sounds of short duration or distortion are heard, and/or the volume
may not be sufficiently loud. However, listeners are generally able to comprehend without
repetition.

StarHub has the highest Voice App Experience score in South East Asia — 81.6 points on a 100-
point scale. In South and Central America, Movistar Uruguay has the highest regional score (79.4
points). In North America, T-Mobile U.S. comes top regionally with a score of 76.9 points,
narrowly ahead of Telus and Verizon’s statistically tied scores of 76.5-76.6 points.

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© Opensignal | Global Mobile Network Experience Awards 202 3 12
SK telecom is the only Global winner for Download Speed Experience, as our users on its network
observe average overall download speeds of 131.7Mbps. In addition, it is one of only two
operators in the world on which our users reported speeds in excess of 100Mbps — the other
being fellow South Korean operator KT, which places second with a score of 105.7Mbps.

However, four operators have scores in the low 90s and it will be interesting to see if any of them
can join the exclusive 100Mbps club in 2023 as the 5G experience improves and drives up the
overall experience. SK telecom wins with a lead of 26Mbps over the next closest operator, and a
score that is 4.2 times higher than the global average of 31.5Mbps.

Looking at the nine Global Leaders, five hail from Europe: Norway’s Telenor and Telia, KPN and
T-Mobile in the Netherlands and Danish 3. Three Global Leaders are from the Asia Pacific region
— South Korea’s KT and LG U+, along with Singapore’s StarHub.

Four of the 22 Global High Performers hail from North America — T-Mobile U.S. and all three
Canadian national operators — Bell, Telus and Rogers. Of the four, T-Mobile has the fastest
average overall download speeds in North America — 74.4Mbps, beating the runner-up Bell by
4.6Mbps. Other Global High Performers for Download Speed Experience include Taiwan’s
Chunghwa and FarEasTone, Singtel, Swisscom, TDC Denmark and Telemach Croatia.

Our users in South East Asia observe their fastest download speeds on StarHub’s network, given
its score of 87.1 points. In Europe, the regional top spot is shared by KPN Netherlands and
Telenor Norway, given their statistically tied scores of 91-93.8Mbps.

Our users in Africa and the Middle East observe their fastest download speeds on Ooredoo
Qatar’s network, due to its score of 53.2Mbps, 4.4Mbps ahead of the regional runner-up Etisalat
in the UAE.

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© Opensignal | Global Mobile Network Experience Awards 202 3 14
Traditionally much of the focus on the mobile experience has been on download speeds.
However, upload speeds are becoming increasingly important given the rise of social media
and cloud services which encourage users to upload photos, videos and other bandwidth-
intensive content.

The fastest global overall average upload speeds are seen by our users in Denmark on 3’s
network, who clocked up an impressive 22.9Mbps — around 4.5Mbps faster than Swisscom’s
and TDC Denmark’s statistically tied scores of 18.2-18.6Mbps. 3 Denmark is therefore the sole
Global Winner for Upload Speed Experience. The operator’s score is 2.7 times higher than the
global average of 8.6Mbps.

Turning to the Global Leaders, they include two out of three national operators for the following
markets: South Korea (LG U+ and SK telecom), Norway (Telenor and Telia), Switzerland
(Swisscom and Salt) and the Netherlands (KPN and T-Mobile). There are two exceptions to this
rule: Rakuten, which is the only Japanese operator to be recognized as a Global Leader for
Upload Speed Experience, and Telia Lithuania. Rakuten and LG U+ are statistically tied for the
fastest average upload speeds in the Asia Pacific region, with scores of 17.6-17.7Mbps.

European operators continue to dominate the rankings for Upload Speed Experience when we
look at the Global High Performers. 15 out of 23 come from Europe — including Telemach Croatia
— while the next largest contingent hails from the Asia Pacific (four operators), followed by
Africa and the Middle East (three operators). Only one operator from the Americas is recognized
for its average upload speeds at the global level: Claro Guatemala, with 13.3Mbps — the highest
score recorded in this region this time around. When we look specifically at North America,
Canadian Rogers comes top with 10.7Mbps.

Singapore’s StarHub and Ooredoo in the Maldives come top for Upload Speed Experience in
South East Asia and South Asia respectively, with scores of 14.9Mbps and 7.6Mbps.

© Opensignal | Global Mobile Network Experience Awards 202 3 15

© Opensignal | Global Mobile Network Experience Awards 202 3 16
Time on 4G/5G is the percentage of time our users spend with a 4G or better connection. It is an
important measure of the mobile experience as users can only enjoy the superior experience
they typically observe with 4G or 5G over older generations of mobile technology when they
have an active 4G or 5G connection. In addition, the majority of the 5G networks in use today
use 5G non-standalone access technology. As this requires 5G users to be connected to 4G
when using 5G and users on 5G can benefit from carrier aggregation with 4G bands, 4G is still an
important part of the mobile experience, even for 5G users.

LG U+ is the sole Global Winner for Time on 4G/5G, as our users on its network connect to 4G or
5G for an impressive 99.7% of their time. Jio and au follow closely behind the Global Winner with
statistically tied scores of 99.3-99.4%. The average Time on 4G/5G score across all operators
analyzed was 88.9% — which LG U+ exceeds by 10.8 percentage points.

As might be expected, operators which have never operated legacy 2G and 3G networks
perform strongly in terms of this measure of the mobile experience; Jio and Singapore’s SIMBA
place as Global Leaders, while Japan’s Rakuten and DITO in the Philippines are Global High
Performers. Our Jio users spend the most time connected to 4G or 5G in South Asia (99.4%).

Seven out of 10 Global Leaders for Time on 4G/5G hail from the Asia Pacific region. AT&T U.S
and Liberty Puerto Rico are the only Global Leaders from the Americas for Time on 4G/5G and
they are the top operators for this metric in North America, and South and Central America,
respectively.

While there is only one European Global Leader (ice Norway), Europe is better represented when
we look at Global High Performers. 10 Global High Performers out of 21 come from Europe,
compared to eight for Asia Pacific and the remaining three hailing from the Americas.

© Opensignal | Global Mobile Network Experience Awards 202 3 17

© Opensignal | Global Mobile Network Experience Awards 202 3 18
Opensignal’s Consistent Quality metrics (Excellent Consistent Quality and Core Consistent
Quality) measure how often users’ experience on a network was sufficient to support common
applications’ requirements. They measure download speed, upload speed, latency, jitter, packet
loss, time to first byte and the percentage of tests attempted which did not succeed due to a
connectivity issue on either the download or server response component.

Excellent Consistent Quality is the percentage of users' tests that met the minimum
recommended thresholds for users to watch HD video, complete group video conference calls
and play games.

This methodology is very different from Opensignal’s experiential metrics (Video Experience,
Games Experience and Voice App Experience), which use MOS (mean opinion score) models to
place users’ experience, based on a number of technical measurements, onto a 100-point scale
and use the mean values for each operator calculated across all our users on its network.

Telia Finland and Telia Estonia are joint Global Winners for Excellent Consistent Quality, due to
their statistically tied scores of 90.8-91.1% — compared to the global average of 65.4%.

Both of Telia Finland’s national rivals, Elisa and DNA, are Global Leaders. SK telecom is the only
operator from outside Europe to be recognized as a Global Leader for Excellent Consistent
Quality and it has the highest score in the Asia Pacific region (89.1%).

European operators continue to dominate when we turn to the Global High Performers. Out of
the 21 operators that place in this category, only five are from another region — all being from
the Asia Pacific region. They are: Taiwan Mobile, SoftBank, FarEasTone, KT and NTT docomo.
European Global High Perfomers for Excellent Consistent Quality include Telekom and Orange
from Slovakia, A1 Austria, Vodafone Netherlands and Telia Sweden.

Singapore’s StarHub comes top in South East Asia with a score of 83.3%, while out of all the
operators analyzed in Africa and the Middle East, Turkcell has the highest score for Excellent
Consistent Quality — 77.5%. Turning to the Americas, T-Mobile Puerto Rico has the highest score
in South and Central America with 76.8%, while in North America, T-Mobile U.S. and Canada’s
Telus tie for regional first place with statistically tied scores of 80.8-80.9%.

© Opensignal | Global Mobile Network Experience Awards 202 3 19

© Opensignal | Global Mobile Network Experience Awards 202 3 20
Core Consistent Quality is the percentage of users' tests that met the minimum recommended
performance thresholds for lower-performance applications including SD video, voice calls and
web browsing.

Given high inflation, Core Consistent Quality is becoming increasingly relevant. This is because it
helps our users understand how often they can rely on their cellular connections to carry out
simple common tasks. This is key when users are looking for an operator that can meet their
basic requirements at a competitive price.

There is only one Global Winner for Core Consistent Quality: Telia Finland with a score of 97.2%
— far ahead of the global average of 82%. However, it wins by a slender margin, given TDC
Denmark and Elisa Finland’s identical scores of 97%. Telia Finland is also one of two joint Global
Winners for Excellent Consistent Quality, alongside Telia Estonia. Finland’s other two national
operators, DNA and Elisa, are Global Leaders for Core Consistent Quality, along with three out
of four Danish operators (TDC, Telia and Telenor), Swedish 3 and Tele2, Slovakia’s Orange and
Telekom, and Telia Estonia.

Europan Global High Performers include all three of Norway’s national operators (ice, Telenor
and Telia), A1 Austria and Swisscom — the only operator from Switzerland to be recognized for
Core Consistent Quality.

Only three out of 21 Global High Performers for Core Consistent Quality hail from outside
Europe: Taiwan Mobile, SoftBank and FarEasTone. Taiwan Mobile and SoftBank are statistically
tied for the regional top spot in Asia Pacific with scores of 93.7-93.8%, while StarHub has the
highest score in South East Asia (92.3%). Out of all the operators analyzed in Africa and the
Middle East, Turkcell takes regional first place with 90.7% — the same position it has for
Excellent Consistent Quality.

In South and Central America, T-Mobile Puerto Rico comes top with 88.6%, giving it a slender
lead over Movistar Uruguay’s 88.3%. Finally, T-Mobile U.S. has the highest score for Core
Consistent Quality in North America — 91.6% ahead of second-placed Telus’ 90.7%.

© Opensignal | Global Mobile Network Experience Awards 202 3 21

Opensignal’s 2023 Global Rising Stars
We now take a look at the Global Rising Stars: the top 30 operators around the world on which
our users have seen the greatest percentage improvement in mobile network experience in the
last year. We compare their experience between the second half of 2022 and the same period
in 2021.

We have Global Rising Stars awards for five key measures of the real-world mobile network
experience: Games Experience, Voice App Experience, Download Speed Experience, Upload
Speed Experience and Time on 4G/5G.

Global Rising Stars celebrate the recent achievements of those operators that have made rapid
progress in improving the experience of their users in a short period of time. By contrast,
Opensignal’s Global Winner awards highlight the fruits of many years of cumulative effort and
investment in comparing the current state of users’ mobile experience on different operators.

Some operators have significantly improved the mobile experience of users across most of the
metrics we’ve analyzed. Ufone Pakistan has managed the remarkable feat of being a Global
Rising Star across all five categories, while a further six operators are Global Rising Stars across
four categories: Banglalink, WOM Colombia, Orange Egypt, Celcom and Yes in Malaysia and
Globe in the Philippines. Globe is a Global Rising Star for Games Experience, Voice App
Experience, Upload Speed Experience and Time on 4G/5G. The Philippines’ new operator,
DITO, is a Global Rising Star for Games Experience, Voice App Experience and Download
Speed Experience.

T-Mobile is the only operator in the U.S. to be recognized as a Global Rising Star — it earns this
recognition due to a 62.4% increase in the average overall download speeds observed by our
users on its network. Out of the four national operators in the U.K., only 3 is a Global Rising Star —
achieving this accolade for the percentage improvement in its Download Speed Experience and
Time on 4G/5G scores — 51.5% and 9.6%, respectively. In Hong, Kong only 3 (Games Experience)
and csl (Games Experience, Voice App Experience) are Global Rising Stars.

In Europe, only one operator is a Global Rising Star across three categories — A1 Bulgaria
(Download Speed Experience, Upload Speed Experience and Time on 4G/5G). Four European
operators have two such accolades to their name: Telemach Croatia (Download Speed
Experience and Time on 4G/5G), Telekom Romania, 3 Sweden and 3 U.K.

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© Opensignal | Global Mobile Network Experience Awards 202 3 23
Here we recognize operators for the percentage improvement in our user’s experience when
playing multiplayer mobile games over cellular connections between H2 2021 and H2 2022. Out
of the 30 operators whose scores have risen the most, 12 hail from Africa and the Middle East,
including the operator with the greatest global percentage improvement, Orange Morocco
(47.4%) and its national rivals, inwi (44.3%) and Maroc Telecom (35.8%). Other operators from
this region that gain this accolade include Oman’s two established operators — Omantel and
Ooredoo — as well as Orange Egypt and stc Saudi Arabia.

The region with the second largest representation in the top 30 is Asia Pacific with 11 operators,
including Globe (31.8%) and DITO (19.3%) in the Philippines, along with 3 (19.3%) and csl (18.5%)
in Hong Kong. The operator in the region with the largest improvement is Dialog Sri Lanka (37%),
while our Globe users reported the greatest increase in South East Asia (31.8%).

South and Central America makes up the balance, with seven operators making it through to the
top 30, such as Tigo Paraguay (37.3%) — the operator with the greatest improvement in the
region — along with Chile’s Movistar (33.2) and Claro (32%), El Salvador’s Movistar (28.4%) and
Kölbi Costa Rica (19.2%).

Neither European nor North American operators have placed in the top 30. While not being
Global Rising Stars, Telenet Belgium (15.6%) and AT&T Mexico (5.1%) saw the greatest
percentage improvement in their Games Experience scores in these two regions.

All of our Global Rising Stars for Games Experience increased their scores by at least 12
percentage points more than the Global average improvement of 6.1%.

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© Opensignal | Global Mobile Network Experience Awards 202 3 25
Our users on inwi Morocco’s network saw the greatest improvement in their Voice App
Experience between H2 2021 and H2 2022 — an impressive 16.6%, which moved their experience
when using over-the-top voice apps from the Very Poor (60-66) category to Acceptable (74-
80). Out of all 32 Global Rising Stars for Voice App Experience, inwi is the only operator to go up
two categories.

In total, eight Global Rising Stars come from Africa and the Middle East, including inwi and
Orange Egypt, which saw the second largest percentage improvement in Voice App Experience
(13%). All three of Morocco’s national operators (inwi, Maroc Telecom and Orange) are Global
Rising Stars for Voice App Experience.

More than half of the Global Rising Stars in this category hail from the Asia Pacific region,
including Bangladesh’s Grameenphone, which saw the greatest percentage improvement in the
region (12.7%). All of Bangladesh’s and Sri Lanka’s national operators are Global Rising Stars for
Voice App Experience.

Looking at South East Asia, the Philippines’ Globe comes top with 10.8% and is closely
followed by DITO with 7.3%. In East Asia, our csl users in Hong Kong saw the greatest
improvement — 4.5%.

South and Central America contributes five Global Rising Stars, including WOM Colombia —
which saw the greatest improvement in the region (11.6%) — Movistar El Salvador (7.8%), Chile’s
Claro (6.4%) and Movistar (4.5%) and Entel Peru (4.8%).

Only one Global Rising Star for Voice App Experience comes from Europe — Romania’s Telekom
with an improvement of 4.5%.

All of our Global Rising Stars for Voice App Experience increased their scores by at least 3.1
percentage points more than the Global average improvement of 1.4%.

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© Opensignal | Global Mobile Network Experience Awards 202 3 27
While South and Central America accounts for only six of the 30 Global Rising Stars for
Download Speed Experience, these six include T-Mobile Puerto Rico, which saw its average
overall download speeds increase by a massive 113.6% between H2 2021 and H2 2022. Also
hailing from this region are Movistar Chile (70.6%), Tigo Honduras (63.6%), Bitel Peru (61%) and
Claro Puerto Rico (48.6%).

There are 12 Global Rising Stars that are based in the Asia Pacific region, including Celcom
Malaysia, which saw the largest percentage improvement in the region (95.6%) and three of its
national rivals. Other Global Rising Stars for Download Speed Experience from Asia Pacific
include Bangladesh’s Banglalink (78.5%) and Grameenphone (72.1%), DITO in the Philippines
(71.7%), Cambodia’s Cellcard (51.4%) and Chunghwa Taiwan (46.5%).

All four of Israel’s operators are in the top 30 — Cellcom, Hot Mobile, Partner and Pelephone.

T-Mobile is the only operator in North America to be recognized as a Global Rising Star for
Download Speed Experience — due to a 62.4% increase in the average overall download speeds
observed by our users on its network.

Of the five European operators that have made it through to the top 30, our users saw the
greatest improvement on A1 Bulgaria’s network — a rise of 71.6%. The other European operators
that are Global Rising Stars for Download Speed Experience are 3 Denmark (66.4%), 3 Sweden
(58.5%), 3 U.K. (51.5%) and Telemach Croatia (45.7%).

All of our Global Rising Stars for Download Speed Experience increased their scores by at least
27 percentage points more than the Global average improvement of 18.7%.

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© Opensignal | Global Mobile Network Experience Awards 202 3 29
The top five operators for the highest percentage in our users’ average upload speeds between
H2 2021 and H2 2022 all hail from South Asia, with those on Ufone Pakistan’s network reporting
the largest global increase of 77.2%. Ufone is followed by three out of four of Bangladesh’s
national operators — Grameenphone (72.3%), Robi (60.3%) and Banglalink (59.5%) along with
Sri Lanka’s Hutch (50.8%).

The next three operators have the greatest improvements in their respective regions: Claro El
Salvador (South and Central America, 50.1%), 4ka Slovakia (Europe, 49.8%) and Globe in the
Philippines (South East Asia, 48.1%). Out of all the operators analyzed from Africa and the Middle
East, Orange Morocco comes top with an increase of 44.1%.

Altogether, 13 of 30 Global Rising Stars for Upload Speed Experience hail from the Asia Pacific
region, followed by seven from Africa and the Middle East, six from Europe and four from South
And Central America.

All of our Global Rising Stars for Upload Speed Experience increased their scores by at least 17.8
percentage points more than the Global average improvement of 8.2%.

While it is not a Global Rising Star for Upload Speed Experience, our users on T-Mobile U.S.’s
network saw the greatest improvement in their average upload speeds in North America —
10.3%.

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© Opensignal | Global Mobile Network Experience Awards 202 3 31
Iraq’s Asiacell comes top of the global pack for the percentage improvement in Time on 4G/5G
with a remarkable increase of 23.6%. Our users on fellow Iraqi operator Zain saw the fourth
largest increase — 16.5%. Users on Ufone Pakistan and Digicel El Salvador reported the greatest
percentage improvement in South Asia, and South and Central America respectively, with gains
of 20.8% and 18.2%, respectively.

Over in Europe, Vodafone Ireland narrowly saw the greatest percentage increase in Time on
4G/5G (15.2%), with 3 Ireland behind it by just 0.1 percentage points.

All of our Global Rising Stars for Time on 4G/5G increased their scores by at least 3.9
percentage points more than the Global average improvement of 3.6%.

While it is not a Global Rising Star for Time on 4G/5G, our Chunghwa users in Taiwan saw the
largest percentage increase in the proportion of time they spend connected to 4G/5G in
East Asia — 3.3%.

© Opensignal | Global Mobile Network Experience Awards 202 3 32

It is the best of times, it is the worst of times —
good mobile experience is vital either way
Looking ahead, there are a number of factors that will play an important role in shaping the
mobile industry. Given the economic pressures caused by high inflation, consumers will keep
hold of their old smartphones for longer, meaning that it will take longer for new network
standards to achieve the mass adoption required for operators and app developers to take full
advantage of them. Users will increasingly want to ensure their overall experience is good
enough to support all of their needs — so measures such as Core Consistent Quality and
Excellent Consistent Quality will prove even more important. In addition, high energy prices are
prompting operators to invest in energy-saving initiatives to defend their margins and work
faster to retire older generations of mobile technology.

While there was much talk of the metaverse in 2022, currently XR/VR/MR/AR is overwhelmingly
an indoor experience — so without massive innovation and investment in producing light
unobtrusive headgear that can safely be used on the move, the business case for including
relatively expensive 5G hardware in headsets will be limited in the near to medium term.
Therefore, when users are outside the home or workplace, traditional multiplayer gaming or
video streaming will be the mainstays of smartphone users’ entertainment. Opensignal’s Games
Experience and Video Experience categories highlight the operators best suited to entertaining
users and distracting them from the often gloomy news headlines.

One of the biggest new developments is the arrival of smartphone satellite connectivity to fill in
gaps in mobile coverage. To date, partnerships have been announced between Qualcomm and
Iridium, Apple and Globalstar, Bullitt and MediaTek, T-Mobile U.S. and SpaceX, and Huawei
and BeiDou among others. While it is still early days and the current solutions are proprietary,
satellite connectivity is a part of upcoming 3GPP 5G standards. Satellite connectivity means
that the coverage available to someone with a modern phone capable of supporting it will vary
depending on the application they are trying to use.

But at best, smartphone satellite connectivity is a service to enable mobile messaging — to

embrace web browsing, browse social media apps, play multiplayer games, download apps or
watch video users still need access to a 4G or 5G network. This is why the time users spend
connected to 4G/5G continues to be such an important measure.

To help operators, regulators and users navigate these trends — and as part of its mission to
advance connectivity for all — Opensignal will continue to share its deep analysis of the mobile
network experience. Look out for an in-depth look at the experience of our users when watching
live video streams over cellular connections in the next few weeks.

© Opensignal | Global Mobile Network Experience Awards 202 3 33

Operators analyzed
3 – Austria Claro – Puerto Rico Maroc Telecom – Morocco
+Móvil – Panama * Claro – Uruguay Maxis – Malaysia
2degrees – New Zealand CMHK – Hong Kong MEO – Portugal
3 – Austria Cosmote – Greece Metfone – Cambodia
3 – Denmark csl – Hong Kong MobiFone – Vietnam
3 – Hong Kong Dhiraagu – Maldives Mobilis – Algeria
3 – Indonesia Dialog – Sri Lanka Mobily – Saudi Arabia
3 – Ireland Digi – Malaysia *** Mobitel – Sri Lanka
3 – Sweden Digi Mobil – Romania Movistar – Argentina
3 – UK Digicel – El Salvador Movistar – Chile
4ka – Slovakia Digicel – Panama Movistar – Colombia
A1 – Austria DIGIMobil – Hungary Movistar – El Salvador
A1 – Bulgaria DITO – Philippines Movistar – Mexico
A1 – Croatia Djezzy – Algeria Movistar – Peru
A1 – Serbia DNA – Finland Movistar – Spain
A1 – Slovenia DTAC – Thailand Movistar – Uruguay
Airtel – India du – United Arab Emirates MTN – Afghanistan
Airtel – Sri Lanka EE – UK MTN – South Africa
AIS – Thailand eir – Ireland mts – Serbia
ALBtelecom – Albania ** Elisa – Estonia NOS – Portugal
Antel – Uruguay Elisa – Finland Nova – Greece ****
Asiacell – Iraq Entel – Bolivia NTT docomo – Japan
AT&T – Mexico Entel – Chile O2 – Czech Republic
AT&T – USA Entel – Peru O2 – Germany
au – Japan Etisalat – Afghanistan O2 – Slovakia
AWCC – Afghanistan Etisalat – Egypt O2 – UK
Banglalink – Bangladesh Etisalat – United Arab Omantel – Oman
Batelco – Bahrain Emirates ONE – Albania **
Bell – Canada FarEasTone – Taiwan Ooredoo – Algeria
Bite – Latvia Free Mobile – France Ooredoo – Kuwait
BITĖ – Lithuania Globe – Philippines Ooredoo – Maldives
Bitel – Peru Grameenphone – Ooredoo – Oman
Bouygues – France Bangladesh Ooredoo – Palestine
BSNL – India GT – Taiwan Ooredoo – Qatar
Celcom – Malaysia *** Hot Mobile – Israel Ooredoo – Tunisia
Cell C – South Africa HT – Croatia Optus – Australia
Cellcard – Cambodia Hutch – Sri Lanka Orange – Belgium
Cellcom – Israel ice – Norway Orange – Egypt
China Mobile – China Iliad – Italy Orange – France
China Telecom – China Indosat – Indonesia Orange – Morocco
China Unicom – China inwi – Morocco Orange – Poland
Chunghwa – Taiwan Jawwal – Palestine Orange – Romania
Claro – Argentina Jazz – Pakistan Orange – Slovakia
Claro – Brazil Jio – India Orange – Spain
Claro – Chile Kölbi – Costa Rica Orange – Tunisia
Claro – Colombia Korek – Iraq Partner – Israel
Claro – Costa Rica KPN – Netherlands Pelephone – Israel
Claro – El Salvador KT – South Korea Personal – Argentina
Claro – Guatemala LG U+ – South Korea Personal – Paraguay
Claro – Honduras Liberty – Costa Rica Play – Poland
Claro – Nicaragua Liberty – Puerto Rico Plus – Poland
Claro – Panama * LMT – Latvia Proximus – Belgium
Claro – Paraguay M1 – Singapore Rakuten – Japan
Claro – Peru Magenta – Austria Robi – Bangladesh

© Opensignal | Global Mobile Network Experience Awards 202 3 34

Rogers – Canada Telia – Sweden WOM – Colombia
Roshan – Afghanistan Telkom – South Africa XL – Indonesia
Salt – Switzerland Telkomsel – Indonesia Yes – Malaysia
SFR – France Telstra – Australia Yettel – Bulgaria
SIMBA – Singapore Telus – Canada Yettel – Hungary
Singtel – Singapore Tigo – Bolivia Yettel – Serbia
SK telecom – South Korea Tigo – Colombia Yoigo – Spain
Smart – Cambodia Tigo – El Salvador Zain – Bahrain
Smart – Philippines Tigo – Guatemala Zain – Iraq
Smartfren – Indonesia Tigo – Honduras Zain – Kuwait
SmarTone – Hong Kong Tigo – Nicaragua Zain – Saudi Arabia
SoftBank – Japan Tigo – Panama Zong – Pakistan
Spark – New Zealand Tigo – Paraguay
StarHub – Singapore TIM – Brazil * Cable & Wireless Panama
stc – Bahrain TIM – Italy (CWP, +Móvil) completed its
stc – Kuwait TrueMove H – Thailand acquisition of Claro Panama
stc – Saudi Arabia Tunisie Telecom – Tunisia in July 2022 and integrated its
Sunrise – Switzerland Türk Telekom – Turkey mobile networks in October
Swisscom – Switzerland Turkcell – Turkey 2022. However, as of the
T Star – Taiwan U Mobile – Malaysia time of writing this report,
T-2 – Slovenia Ufone – Pakistan they were still trading as
T-Mobile – Czech Republic Unifi – Malaysia separate brands — so we
T-Mobile – Netherlands Verizon – USA have analyzed them
T-Mobile – Poland Vi – India separately.
T-Mobile – Puerto Rico Vietnamobile – Vietnam
T-Mobile – USA Viettel Mobile – Vietnam ** The legal merger
Taiwan Mobile – Taiwan Vinaphone – Vietnam between ALBtelecom and
TDC – Denmark Viva – Bolivia ONE Telecommunications
Telcel – Mexico Vivacom – Bulgaria came into effect on
Tele2 – Estonia Vivo – Brazil January 1, 2023. As the
Tele2 – Latvia Vodacom – South Africa operators were separate
Tele2 – Lithuania Vodafone – Albania entities during both H2
Tele2 – Sweden Vodafone – Australia 2022 and H2 2021, we have
Telekom – Germany Vodafone – Czech Republic analysed them individually.
Telekom – Hungary Vodafone – Egypt
Telekom – Romania Vodafone – Germany *** The merger of Celcom
Telekom – Slovakia Vodafone – Greece and Digi and the creation of
Telekom Slovenije – Vodafone – Hungary a new entity, Celcom Digi
Slovenia Vodafone – Ireland took place in late 2022. As
Telemach – Croatia Vodafone – Italy both brands are still in use
Telemach – Slovenia Vodafone – Netherlands and operated using
Telenet – Belgium Vodafone – New Zealand separate networks for the
Telenor – Denmark Vodafone – Oman data collection period, we
Telenor – Norway Vodafone – Portugal have treated them
Telenor – Pakistan Vodafone – Qatar separately in this analysis.
Telenor – Sweden Vodafone – Romania
TeleTalk – Bangladesh Vodafone – Spain **** Nova has replaced the
Telia – Denmark Vodafone – Turkey Wind brand and now
Telia – Estonia Vodafone – UK includes Wind’s mobile
Telia – Finland WE – Egypt operations. We therefore
Telia – Lithuania WindTre – Italy refer to Nova in this report.
Telia – Norway WOM – Chile

© Opensignal | Global Mobile Network Experience Awards 202 3 35

How Opensignal measures mobile network experience
We report as accurately as possible the real-world mobile experience as recorded by mobile
network users. To make decisions based on our market insights, network operators, regulators,
analysts and consumers need to know the facts we present are accurate and that the
comparisons we make are valid.
Please visit: https://www.opensignal.com/methodology-overview

About this report

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© Opensignal | Global Mobile Network Experience Awards 202 3 36