Opensignal has analyzed our users’ real-world data across Colombia, nationally and also focusing on five cities – Bogota, Medellin, Cali, Barranquilla and Cartagena. To reflect the varying ways in which broadband is used, we have analyzed five different measures of the broadband user experience: Broadband Consistent Quality, Broadband Video Experience, Broadband Download Speed, Broadband Peak Download Speed and Broadband Upload Speed.
Key findings
National results:
Our Movistar users see unmatched speed experience on average across the country. Movistar outperforms the compared providers — Claro and Tigo — in Broadband Download Speed, Broadband Peak Download Speed, and Broadband Upload Speed. Our Movistar users’ average download and upload speeds are 33% and 169.1% faster than those seen on second-placed Claro, respectively.
Claro users have the best experience in Broadband Consistent Quality across Colombia on average, with a 4.9 percentage point advantage over second-placed Movistar.
Our users on Claro and Movistar share the best Broadband Video Experience in Colombia, statistically tying with scores that straddle the ‘Good’ and ‘Very Good’ user experience categories.
City results:
Our Movistar users have the best experience in 15 of the 25 comparisons made, and share the best experience in another seven, across the investigated cities — Bogota, Medellin, Cali, Barranquilla and Cartagena. Movistar secures outright wins in all five included metrics in Bogota; in Cali it secures four outright wins and an additional tie for first place. Our Movistar users observe average upload speeds that are much faster than those with the nearest competition – ranging from 89.8% in Bogota to 231.6% in Cali.
Our Claro users have the best experience in Medellin and Cartagena out of the compared providers for Broadband Consistent Quality, and Claro is a joint winner in Cali and Barranquilla. Claro users have the outright best Video Experience in Cartagena, and share best Video Experience in Medellin and Barranquilla.
National broadband experience
In Colombia, Claro claims the top spot for Broadband Consistent Quality, with a score of 69.1%. This places it 4.9 percentage points ahead of its closest competitor, Movistar, which comes in at 64.2%. These scores indicate the extent to which our users can reliably perform demanding internet activities such as HD video streaming, group video conferencing, and online gaming.
Claro and Movistar come top for Broadband Video Experience with statistically tied scores of 67.8-68.4 points on a 100-point scale. Their nearest competitor, Tigo, is behind with a score of 66.1. The winners’ scores straddle the Good (58-68) and Very Good (68-78) user experience categories. The Good category means our users are, on average, able to stream video at 720p or better with satisfactory loading times and little stalling while the Very Good category suggests the same with 1080p or better.
Movistar leads in Broadband Download Speed. Our users on the provider see average speeds of 71.4Mbps, 17.7Mbps (33%) faster than Claro users’ 53.6Mbps. This impressive lead highlights Movistarusers’ unmatched experience for download speeds on average across Colombia.
In terms of Broadband Peak Download Speed, Movistar secures the winning position with speeds of 312.9Mbps as measured by our users. Claro is in second place with 276.9Mbps, indicating a lead of 36Mbps for Movistar.
Movistar also comes top for Broadband Upload Speed, achieving a score of 50.5Mbps, as measured by our users. This is 31.7Mbps (169.1%), faster than Claro, which comes in second place with a score of 18.8Mbps.
Broadband experience across cities
In Colombia’s capital Bogota, Movistar beats the competition for Broadband Consistent Quality as it is the outright winner with a score of 70%. This puts it 1.3 percentage points ahead of Claro, which follows closely with a score of 68.7%.
Movistar also takes the outright lead for Broadband Video Experience, as measured by our users, scoring 71.1 points on a 100-point scale. This gives it a lead of around 2.3 points over Tigo and Claro, which have statistically tied scores of 68.4-69.3 points.
Movistar also comes top for Broadband Download Speed, leading the pack with a score of 94.7Mbps. This places it substantially ahead of ETB and Claro, which are in a statistical tie with scores of 57.8-59.5Mbps. Movistar has a lead of around 36.1 points — and the average download speeds seen by our Movistar users are about 61.5% faster than those with ETB and Claro.
For Broadband Peak Download Speed, Movistar wins outright with a score of 344.8Mbps. This is about 57.2Mbps (19.9%) faster than ETB and Claro, which share second place with statistically tied scores of 287-288.3Mbps.
In addition, Movistar is the outright winner for Broadband Upload Speed, with a score of 67.9Mbps. The average upload speeds seen by our Movistar users are 32.1Mbps (89.8%) faster than those seen by ETB users — ETB places second with a score of 35.8Mbps.
In Medellin, Claro is the outright winner for Broadband Consistent Quality, with 69.8%. This places the provider substantially ahead, with a lead of around 5.6 percentage points, over the runner-ups Tigo and Movistar, which are in a statistical tie with scores of 64.2-64.3%.
For Broadband Video Experience, there is a three-way statistical tie between Tigo, Claro and Movistar with scores of 66.9-68.3 on a 100-point scale.
Movistar leads in Broadband Download Speed with 82.2Mbps. This means that the average download speeds seen by our Movistar users are 26.5Mbps (47.6%) faster than those with Claro, the second-placed provider, with its score of 55.7Mbps.
Movistar also comes top for Broadband Peak Download Speed, with a score of 361.8Mbps as measured by our users. This places the provider 60.4Mbps ahead of Claro, which comes second with a score of 301.4Mbps.
For Broadband Upload Speed, Movistar achieves an outright win with a score of 57.6Mbps. The average upload speeds seen by our Movistar users are an impressive 38.5Mbps (201.9%) faster than those seen on second-placed Claro, given its score of 19.1Mbps.
In Cali, Claro and Movistar come top for Broadband Consistent Quality, due to their statistically tied scores of 68.2-68.5%. This places them around 8.7 percentage points ahead of their closest competitor, Tigo, which is in third place with a score of 59.6%.
For Broadband Video Experience, Movistar takes the lead with an outright win, scoring an impressive 70.6 points on a 100-point scale — with our Movistar users’ experience when watching on-demand video placing in the Very Good (68-78) category.
For Broadband Download Speed, Movistar also wins outright, with average download speeds of 80.8Mbps among our users. Movistar’s score is 28.2Mbps or 53.7% faster than Claro’s, which comes in second with a score of 52.6Mbps.
Movistar also comes top for Broadband Peak Download Speed, with peak speeds seen by our users of 335Mbps. This impressive performance puts Movistar around 89.5Mbps (36.5%) faster than Tigo and Claro, which are in a statistical tie for second position with scores of 216.8-274.2Mbps.
For Broadband Upload Speed, Movistar is also ahead with average upload speeds of 61Mbps seen by our users. This is 42.6Mbps, or a staggering 231.6%, faster than the runner-up, Claro, which scores 18.4Mbps.
In Barranquilla, Claro and Movistar are in a statistical tie for first place for Broadband Consistent Quality with scores of 68.9-69.9%. This gives them a notable lead of around 8.6 percentage points over third-placed Tigo’s 60.8%.
For Broadband Video Experience, it's a three-way statistical tie between Tigo, Claro, and Movistar, with scores of 65.9-68.6 on a 100-point scale.
Movistar takes the crown for Broadband Download Speed in Barranquilla with an impressive score of 79.2Mbps, significantly outperforming Claro, which is in second place with a score of 51Mbps. This translates into a substantial lead of 28.2Mbps.
For Broadband Peak Download Speed, Claro and Movistar are in a statistical tie, with scores of 290-312.9Mbps among our users. They lead over Tigo, which comes third with a score of 257.5Mbps.
Movistar leads in the Broadband Upload Speed category with a score of 57Mbps among our users, surpassing Claro, which is in second place with a score of 20.9Mbps. This means that our Movistar users’ average upload speeds are an impressive 36.1Mbps, or 172.5%, faster than those seen by Claro users.
Claro leads in Cartagena for Broadband Consistent Quality with a score of 69.5%, which is around 7.3 percentage points higher than the statistically tied scores of Tigo and Movistar in second place.
In the Broadband Video Experience category, Claro comes top with 69.9 points on a 100-point scale, placing it in the Very Good (68-78) category. This puts Claro around four points ahead of Tigo and Movistar, which are statistically tied for second place with scores of 65.2-66.6 points, placing them in the Good (58-68) category.
For Broadband Download Speed, there is a statistical tie between Claro and Movistar, with Tigo following in third place. Claro and Movistar lead by a significant margin, with scores around 23.6Mbps (61.6%) faster than Tigo.
Claro and Movistar also come top for Broadband Peak Download Speed, with statistically tied scores of 312.8-330.6Mbps. This means that the average peak download speeds of our Claro and Movistar users in Cartagena are around 118.7Mbps, or 58.5%, faster than those seen by Tigo users.
Finally, Movistar users see the best Broadband Upload Speed, with an average speed of 47Mbps, which is 28.3 Mbps, or 150.9% faster than second-placed Claro.
Methodology and definitions
Opensignal captures user measurements across all broadband network architectures, encompassing fiber (FTTx), xDSL, cable, fixed wireless access (FWA) via 4G and 5G, as well as satellite, and reports on a holistic evaluation of our users’ experience with the listed providers' internet services. We have only included the largest fixed broadband providers by market share in each area, determined by our user base size.
Tariff characteristics — for example, speed tiers or data caps — vary greatly by provider and the dispersion of the plan mix will affect the average experience result. Opensignal’s measurements capture users’ experience, regardless of the plan that they have purchased from their provider. This report analyzes the real-world situation across all users’ plans.
Broadband Consistent Quality
Measures how often users’ experience on a network was sufficient to support common applications’ requirements. Broadband Consistent Quality uses six key performance indicators, including download and upload speed, latency, jitter, packet loss and time to first byte. Metrics are represented as a percentage of users’ tests that have met the minimum recommended performance thresholds to watch HD video, complete group video conference calls and play games. Broadband Consistent Quality quality is measured across all users in all hours of the day.
Broadband Video Experience
Opensignal’s adaptive video experience quantifies the quality of video streamed to mobile devices by measuring real-world video streams over an operator's network. The metric measures users’ adaptive video experience using a Mean Opinion Score (MOS) approach inspired by International Telecommunication Union (ITU) studies which have derived a relationship between technical parameters of adaptive bitrate video streaming and the perceived video experience as reported by real people.
The videos tested are streamed directly from the world’s largest video content providers and include a wide selection of resolutions that dynamically match the network conditions, available bandwidth and device performance. Resolutions range from 144p to 2160p, which is also called 4K or UHD (Ultra High Definition). The model calculates a MOS score on a 0 to 100 scale by evaluating a number of parameters, including: the time to start playing the video, the quality of the video, the time playing each resolution, and the time spent re-buffering.
Broadband Download Speed
Measured in Mbps, Broadband Download Speed represents the typical everyday speeds a user experiences across a provider’s network.
Broadband Peak Download Speed
Measured in Mbps, Broadband Peak Download Speed represents the 98th percentile of the user speed distribution. i.e. this is what the users with the highest speeds within the footprint experience.
Broadband Upload Speed
Measured in Mbps, Broadband Upload Speed measures the average upload speeds for each internet service provider observed by our users across their fixed networks. Typically, upload speeds are slower than download speeds, but this often depends on the technology used for broadband connections.
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