Opensignal is the independent global standard for analyzing consumers' connectivity experiences. Our industry reports are the definitive guide to understanding what happens when people use their mobile and broadband connections in their daily life.
Opensignal is the independent global standard for analyzing consumers' connectivity experiences. Our industry reports are the definitive guide to understanding what happens when people use their mobile and broadband connections in their daily life.
Optus wins the 5G Download Speed award outright for the sixth consecutive time. Optus wins with a score of 208.7Mbps, comfortably ahead of Telstra and Vodafone, which place in second and third, respectively. However, Vodafone is gaining on the competition due to its score increasing by 36Mbps, while Telstra’s and Optus’ scores have fallen by around 20Mbps.
Telstra keeps a firm grip on both Coverage Experience awards, winning the pair for the second time in a row. Telstra is comfortably ahead of the competition for both the overall Coverage Experience and 5G Coverage Experience metrics, scoring 9.5 points and 6.2 points on a 10-point scale, respectively. Opensignal’s coverage experience metrics measure the extent of overall and 5G coverage in the places our users live, work, and travel.
Optus breaks out of the previous report’s statistical tie with Vodafone, due to a two percentage point rise in its score — allowing it to win the Consistent Quality award outright. Optus’ Consistent Quality score dropped considerably during its outage in November 2023, but has since recovered, exceeding pre-outage scores. Consistent Quality measures if the network is sufficient to support common mobile application requirements at a level that is ‘good enough’ for users to maintain (or complete) various typical demanding tasks on their devices.
Vodafone overtakes Telstra, to win the 5G Upload Speed award outright. Telstra previously held this award uncontested for five consecutive reports, but has now dropped to last place due to Vodafone’s score increasing by 2Mbps and Telstra’s score decreasing. However, only 1.3Mbps separates Vodafone’s leading score of 15.8Mbps from last-placed Telstra
Optus picks up an outright win for 5G Games Experience — an award it previously shared with Vodafone. Optus also retains the award for overall Games Experience, meaning that our users have the best multiplayer mobile gaming experience on Optus’ network. Optus wins 5G Games Experience with a score of 82.1 points on a 100-point scale, placing it in the Good (75-85) category, and overall Games Experience with a score of 74.1 points — a category lower, in Fair (65-75).
Optus is once again the most awarded operator, winning eight outright and sharing Availability with Vodafone. Our users have the best mobile gaming and video streaming experience on Optus’ network as it picks up all six awards — overall and 5G. Vodafone snatches Download Speed Experience, giving it outright wins in three speed metrics; it holds on to the 5G Availability award, but loses its grasp on Consistent Quality — Optus claiming it outright. Telstra remains top for both Coverage Experience awards, but misses out on any other accolades.
Operators in Australia are shutting off their 3G networks, with Vodafone being the first operator to commence the shutdown, starting December 2023. Telstra has announced the shutdown of its own 3G network will begin in June, with Optus’ following in September. Australia’s Senate has opened an inquiry into the potential issues facing users as a result of the shutdowns. Opensignal has produced an insight looking at the impact the 3G shutdown is having on our Vodafone users’ mobile experience in Australia.
In this report we examine the mobile network experience of the three main mobile network operators in Australia — Telstra, Optus and Vodafone — over a period of 90 days starting on January 01, 2024, and ending on March 30, 2024, to see how they fared.
Optus retains the Video Experience award, winning outright for the third report in a row. Optus’ 67.4 points on a 100-point scale puts it just ahead of Vodafone in second, and Telstra in third. However, Optus’ lead has shrunk since the last report due to its score decreasing, while Vodafone’s has remained statistically unchanged.
All operators place in the Good (58-68) category for Video Experience. A Good (58-68) rating means that our users are, on average, able to stream video at 720p or better with satisfactory loading times and little stalling.
Video Experience scores account for adaptive bitrate streaming (ABR), a technology that allows Opensignal to accurately represent users' real video experience including video streams up to 4K quality.
Opensignal’s Video Experience quantifies the quality of video streamed to mobile devices by measuring real-world video streams over an operator's networks. The metric is based on an International Telecommunication Union (ITU) approach, built upon detailed studies which have derived a relationship between technical parameters, including picture quality, video loading time and stall rate, with the perceived video experience as reported by real people. To calculate video experience, we are directly measuring video streams from end-user devices and using this ITU approach to quantify the overall video experience for each operator on a scale from 0 to 100. The videos tested include a mixture of resolutions — including Full HD (FHD) and 4K / Ultra HD (UHD) — and are streamed directly from the world’s largest video content providers.
In addition to Video Experience, we report on the following metrics related to video experience:
Optus scoops up a second outright win for Live Video Experience, leading second-placed Vodafone by two points.
The experience when streaming live video is Very Good (53-58) on all of the operators, meaning that our users are, on average, able to stream video at least at 720p or 1080p with low loading times, little stalling and a satisfactory live offset.
Operators’ Live Video Experience scores are determined using a range of measures that impact users’ perceived live streaming viewing experience, including picture quality, video loading time, and stall rate, but also live playback offset — the time difference between real-time and the current playback position a viewer sees.
Unlike Video Experience, which represents on-demand video streams, Live Video Experience quantifies live video streaming used for current events. For example when users watch live sports, game streams, music concerts, or news where the event is happening at that moment in time.
Opensignal’s Live Video Experience quantifies the quality of real-time video streamed to mobile devices by measuring video streams over an operator's network. The metric extends the existing International Telecommunication Union (ITU) approach used for Opensignal's on-demand Video Experience metric, built upon detailed studies which have derived a relationship between technical parameters, including live playback offset, picture quality, video loading time and stall rate, with the perceived live video experience as reported by real people. To calculate live video experience, we are directly measuring live video streams from end-user devices and using this extension of ITU's approach to quantify the overall live video experience for each operator on a scale from 0 to 100. The videos tested include a mixture of resolutions and are streamed directly from the world’s largest video content providers.
Optus keeps a tight grip on the Games Experience award, making this the fifth consecutive report in which Optus has won this award outright. Optus wins this time with a score of 74.1 points on a 100-point scale, a lead of three points over Vodafone — Telstra scores slightly lower, placing in third.
Only Telstra's score has changed by a significant amount since the previous report, decreasing by three points.
All operators place in the same category for Games Experience — Fair (65-75). This means that users find the experience to be ‘average’. In most cases the game is responsive to the actions of the player with most users feeling like they have control over the game. The majority of players notice a delay between their actions and the outcomes in the game.
Opensignal’s Games Experience measures 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.
Games Experience quantifies the experience when playing real-time multiplayer mobile games on mobile devices connected to servers located around the world. The approach is built on several years of research quantifying the relationship between technical network parameters and the gaming experience as reported by real mobile users. These parameters include latency (round trip time), jitter (variability of latency) and packet loss (the proportion of data packets that never reach their destination). Additionally, it considers multiple genres of multiplayer mobile games to measure the average sensitivity to network conditions. The games tested include some of the most popular real-time multiplayer mobile games (such as Fortnite, Pro Evolution Soccer and Arena of Valor) played around the world.
Calculating Games Experience starts with measuring the end-to-end experience from users’ devices to internet end-points that host real games. The score is then measured on a scale from 0 to 100.
In addition to Games Experience, we report on the following metrics related to games experience:
Vodafone moves into first place for Download Speed Experience due to its score increasing by over a third since the previous report, rising to 68.5Mbps. Telstra and Optus, place in second as their scores are statistically tied.
Measured in Mbps, Download Speed Experience represents the typical everyday speeds a user experiences across an operator’s mobile data networks.
In addition to Download Speed Experience, we report on the following metrics related to download speeds:
Vodafone wins the Upload Speed Experience award outright once again. Vodafone wins this time with a score of 10.8Mbps and a sizable lead of 3Mbps over Optus — Telstra is just behind Optus, in third.
Vodafone is the only operator to see an increase in average overall upload speed between reports, both Telstra’s and Optus’ scores decreased instead.
Upload Speed Experience measures the average upload speeds for each operator observed by our users across their mobile data networks. Typically upload speeds are slower than download speeds, as current mobile broadband technologies focus resources on providing the best possible download speed for users consuming content on their devices. As mobile internet trends move away from downloading content to creating content and supporting real-time communications services, upload speeds are becoming more vital and new technologies are emerging that boost upstream capacity.
In addition to Upload Speed Experience, we report on five supporting metrics related to upload speeds:
Optus retains the 5G Video Experience award, winning outright with a score of 75 points on a 100-point scale. Telstra and Vodafone are not far behind, finishing second and third, respectively.
All operators place in the Very Good (68-78) category. A Very Good rating means that our users are, on average, able to stream video at 1080p or better with satisfactory loading times and little stalling.
5G Video Experience scores account for adaptive bitrate streaming (ABR), a technology that allows Opensignal to accurately represent users' real video experience including video streams up to 4K quality.
5G Video Experience quantifies the quality of mobile video experienced by Opensignal users on real-world video streams when they were connected to 5G. The metric is based on an International Telecommunication Union (ITU) approach, built upon detailed studies which have derived a relationship between technical parameters, including picture quality, video loading time and stall rate, with the perceived video experience as reported by real people. To calculate 5G Video Experience, we are directly measuring video streams from end-user devices and using this ITU approach to quantify the video experience observed by our users on each operator’s 5G network on a scale from 0 to 100. The videos tested include a mixture of resolutions — including Full HD (FHD) and 4K / Ultra HD (UHD) — and are streamed directly from the world’s largest video content providers.
Optus wins the 5G Live Video Experience award for the second time in a row. Optus’ score of 69.3 points on a 100-point scale puts it slightly ahead of Telstra, which places in second, and Vodafone which comes third.
All operators place in the Excellent (58 or above) category, meaning that our users are, on average, able to stream video at least at 1080p with low loading times, little stalling and a satisfactory live offset.
Operators’ 5G Live Video Experience scores are determined using a range of measures that impact users’ perceived live streaming viewing experience, including picture quality, video loading time, and stall rate, but also live playback offset — the time difference between real-time and the current playback position a viewer sees.
Unlike 5G Video Experience, which represents on-demand video streams, 5G Live Video Experience quantifies live video streaming used for current events. For example when users watch live sports, game streams, music concerts, or news where the event is happening at that moment in time.
Opensignal’s Live Video Experience quantifies the quality of real-time video streamed to mobile devices by measuring video streams over an operator's network. The metric extends the existing International Telecommunication Union (ITU) approach used for Opensignal's on-demand Video Experience metric, built upon detailed studies which have derived a relationship between technical parameters, including live playback offset, picture quality, video loading time and stall rate, with the perceived live video experience as reported by real people. To calculate live video experience, we are directly measuring live video streams from end-user devices and using this extension of ITU's approach to quantify the overall live video experience for each operator on a scale from 0 to 100. The videos tested include a mixture of resolutions and are streamed directly from the world’s largest video content providers.
5G Live Video Experience quantifies the quality of mobile video experienced by Opensignal users on real-world live video streams when they were connected to 5G.
Optus wins the 5G Games Experience award outright, a change from the previous report when it was statistically tied for first place with Vodafone. Optus wins with a score of 82.1 points on a 100-point scale, only slightly above Vodafone. Third-placed Telstra is three points below Optus.
The multiplayer mobile gaming experience over 5G connections rates as Good (75-85) for all three operators. A Good rating means that most users deem the experience acceptable. The gameplay experience is generally controllable and the user receives immediate feedback between their actions and the outcomes in the game. Most users do not experience a delay between their actions and the game.
5G Games Experience measures how mobile users experience real-time multiplayer mobile gaming on an operator's 5G network. It analyzes how our users’ multiplayer mobile gaming experience was affected by mobile network conditions including latency, packet loss and jitter. 5G Games Experience for each operator is calculated on a scale from 0 to 100.
5G Games Experience quantifies the experience when playing real-time multiplayer mobile games on mobile devices connected to servers located around the world. The approach is built on several years of research quantifying the relationship between technical network parameters and the gaming experience as reported by real mobile users. These parameters include latency (round trip time), jitter (variability of latency) and packet loss (the proportion of data packets that never reach their destination). Additionally, it considers multiple genres of multiplayer mobile games to measure the average sensitivity to network conditions. The games tested include some of the most popular real-time multiplayer mobile games (such as Fortnite, Pro Evolution Soccer and Arena of Valor) played around the world. Calculating 5G Games Experience starts with measuring the end-to-end experience from users’ devices to internet end-points that host real games.
Optus wins the 5G Download Speed award outright for the sixth consecutive time. Optus wins with a score of 208.7Mbps, comfortably ahead of Telstra and Vodafone, which place in second and third, respectively. However, Vodafone is gaining on the competition due to its score increasing by 36Mbps, while Telstra’s and Optus’ scores have fallen by around 20Mbps.
5G Download Speed shows the average download speed experienced by Opensignal users across an operator’s 5G network. 5G Download Speed for each operator is calculated in Mbps (Megabits per second).
Vodafone overtakes Telstra, winning the 5G Upload Speed award outright. It manages this as its score increased by 2Mbps between reports, while Telstra’s and Optus’ scores decreased. Only 1.3Mbps separates Vodafone’s leading score of 15.8Mbps from last-placed Telstra.
5G Upload Speed measures the average upload speeds experienced by Opensignal users across an operator’s 5G network. 5G Upload Speed for each operator is calculated in Mbps (Megabits per second).
Telstra hangs on to the Coverage Experience award. The operator wins outright with a score of 9.5 points on a 10-point scale — Optus is slightly behind in second, but Vodafone has some catching up to do, only scoring 6.3 points.
The Opensignal Coverage Experience metric measures the extent of mobile networks in the places people live, work and travel. The metric represents the experience users receive as they travel around areas where they would reasonably expect to find coverage.
Traditional coverage metrics typically estimate either a percentage of land area covered, or a percentage of population covered; often neither will be an accurate measurement of the true user expectation and experience. In many markets there are areas where neither population density nor geographic area reflect the importance of coverage to users. For example, in a large mountain range most users will not expect coverage in the wilderness, but poor coverage in the relatively small area of a ski resort is critical for the enjoyment of a holiday. Estimates based purely on population give undue significance to coverage in the most densely populated areas.
Coverage Experience measures geographic coverage of populated areas and therefore more accurately reflects the coverage expectations and experience of typical users. It can give a result that is somewhat different to traditional estimates based on either geographic or population measures. The metric uses a scale from 0 to 10.
As with overall Coverage Experience, Telstra remains the champion of 5G Coverage Experience. Telstra wins with a score of 6.2 points on a 10-point scale and a two-point lead over Optus. Vodafone’s score is half that of Telstra’s.
5G Coverage Experience scores have increased across all three Australian national operators, with Telstra's score increasing the most.
The Opensignal Coverage Experience metric measures the extent of mobile networks in the places people live, work and travel. The metric represents the experience users receive as they travel around areas where they would reasonably expect to find coverage.
Traditional coverage metrics typically estimate either a percentage of land area covered, or a percentage of population covered; often neither will be an accurate measurement of the true user expectation and experience. In many markets there are areas where neither population density nor geographic area reflect the importance of coverage to users. For example, in a large mountain range most users will not expect coverage in the wilderness, but poor coverage in the relatively small area of a ski resort is critical for the enjoyment of a holiday. Estimates based purely on population give undue significance to coverage in the most densely populated areas.
Coverage Experience measures geographic coverage of populated areas and therefore more accurately reflects the coverage expectations and experience of typical users. It can give a result that is somewhat different to traditional estimates based on either geographic or population measures. The metric uses a scale from 0 to 10.
5G Coverage Experience shows the proportion of places Opensignal users with a 5G device and a 5G subscription had an active 5G connection.
Optus and Vodafone win the Availability award jointly with identical scores of 99.2%. Telstra places in third with a score of 98.9%.
Our availability metrics are not a measure of a network’s geographical extent. They won’t tell you whether you are likely to get a signal if you plan to visit a remote rural or nearly uninhabited region. Instead, they measure what proportion of time people have a network connection, in the places they most commonly frequent — something often missed by traditional coverage metrics. Looking at when users have a connection rather than where, provides us with a more precise reflection of the true user experience.
We also keep track of the instances that leave mobile users most frustrated: when there is no signal to connect to at all. The most common dead zones users struggle with occur indoors. As most of our availability data is collected indoors (as that’s where users spend most of their time), we’re particularly astute at detecting areas of zero signal.
Our availability metrics take a user-centric, time-based approach that complements the user-centric and geographical-based methodology used by our reach metrics.
Availability shows the proportion of time all Opensignal users on an operator’s network had either a 3G, 4G or 5G connection.
Vodafone continues to win the 5G Availability award outright. Vodafone’s score of 47.3% means that our Vodafone 5G users spend almost half of their time with an active 5G connection. This is over double the score of Telstra, and almost four times Optus’ score of 12.5%.
Our availability metrics are not a measure of a network’s geographical extent. They won’t tell you whether you are likely to get a signal if you plan to visit a remote rural or nearly uninhabited region. Instead, they measure what proportion of time people have a network connection, in the places they most commonly frequent — something often missed by traditional coverage metrics. Looking at when users have a connection rather than where, provides us with a more precise reflection of the true user experience.
We also keep track of the instances that leave mobile users most frustrated: when there is no signal to connect to at all. The most common dead zones users struggle with occur indoors. As most of our availability data is collected indoors (as that’s where users spend most of their time), we’re particularly astute at detecting areas of zero signal.
Our availability metrics take a user-centric, time-based approach that complements the user-centric and geographical-based methodology used by our reach metrics.
5G Availability shows the proportion of time Opensignal users with a 5G device and a 5G subscription had an active 5G connection.
Optus breaks out of the previous report’s statistical tie with Vodafone, winning the Consistent Quality award outright. Optus’ score of 78.8% is due to a two percentage point increase since the last report. Users on Vodafone and Telstra experience smaller increases — the two operators finish second and third, respectively.
This metric measures if the network is sufficient to support common mobile application requirements at a level that is ‘good enough’ for users to maintain (or complete) various typical demanding tasks on their devices. It assesses a number of experience indicators such as download speed, upload speed, latency, jitter, packet loss, and time to first byte.
Consistent Quality measures if the network is sufficient to support common mobile application requirements at a level that is ‘good enough’ for users to maintain (or complete) various typical tasks on their devices.
We combine different experience indicators such as download speed, upload speed, latency, jitter, packet discard, and time to first byte to calculate Consistent Quality. These components are evaluated against thresholds recommended by various more demanding common applications used for a range of common tasks.
To calculate the metric value, the proportion of tests that pass the requirements of Consistent Quality is multiplied by the test success ratio, which is the proportion of completed tests to all tests conducted. Tests that pass indicate that activities such as video calling, uploading an image to social media, or using smart home applications will be possible without noticeable lag or slowdown.
Collecting billions of individual measurements daily from over 100 million devices globally, Opensignal independently analyzes mobile and broadband user experience on every major network operator around the globe.
Opensignal is the leading global provider of independent insights into consumers' connectivity experiences and choice of carrier. Our proprietary insights into mobile and broadband networks give operators the solutions they need to profitably compete and win, from executive level scorecards and public validation to pin-point level engineering analytics and consumer decision dynamics.
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For every metric we calculate statistical confidence intervals indicated on our graphs. When confidence intervals overlap, our measured results are too close to declare a winner. In those cases, we show a statistical draw. For this reason, some metrics have multiple operator winners.
In our bar graphs we represent confidence intervals as boundaries on either sides of graph bars.
In our supporting-metric charts we show confidence intervals as +/- numerical values.
Why confidence intervals are vital in analyzing mobile network experience