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.
Smart continues to win the 5G Coverage Experience award, doing so this time with a score of 1.4 points on a 10-point scale — more than double that of second-placed Globe and over five times higher than the 5G Coverage Experience of our DITO users. 5G Coverage Experience measures the extent of 5G mobile networks in the places people live, work and travel.
DITO is the new outright winner of the overall Download Speed Experience award — ending Smart’s impressive winning streak. DITO wins this time around with a score of 32Mbps, well ahead of Smart’s 28.1Mbps. DITO retains the Upload Speed Experience award from the previous report and is the new winner of the 5G Download Speed and 5G Upload Speed awards.
Globe wins the Coverage Experience award outright for the second report in a row. It does so this time with a score of 7.2 points and a minimal margin of victory over Smart.
DITO is the new outright winner of the on-demand Video Experience — knocking Globe off the winner’s podiums. In addition, DITO and Globe are joint winners of the 5G Video Experience award, due to a statistical tie. Similarly, DITO retains the Games Experience award from the previous report and now shares the 5G Games Experience award with Globe.
DITO is the most awarded operator in this report, winning 10 out of 14 awards outright and being a joint winner alongside Globe across a further two awards (5G Video Experience and 5G Games Experience). The only two awards that elude its grasp are Coverage Experience (won by Globe) and 5G Coverage Experience (won by Smart).
DITO’s strong showing is impressive, especially given that it only launched commercial services back in March 2021. This means that DITO has had less time to roll out its network than its more established rivals, which helps explain why it trails for both coverage experience metrics. Globe was the most awarded operator in 2023, but in 2022 that distinction belonged to Smart.
Much of DITO’s gains in the overall experience section of the awards table have stemmed from improvements in our DITO users’ experience when connected to 4G, with rising 5G adoption also a contributing factor. Average 4G download speeds seen by DITO users rose by 10% compared to those observed in the previous report’s data collection period. Similarly, its 4G Games Experience scores have increased by 4% – the same improvement seen with the operator’s overall Games Experience score.
This is the first report in which we have included DITO when determining the national 5G Experience results — as the reach of its 5G network is now increasing across the country.
Back in February 2024, two tower companies — Phil-Tower Consortium Inc (PhilTower) and Miescor Infrastructure Development Corporation (MIDC) — announced their intention to form a joint venture to help speed up the deployment of 4G and 5G infrastructure in the Philippines. PhilTower operates 1,250 towers across Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, while MIDC operates more than 1,250 towers — most of which are in Luzon. The joint venture, which requires regulatory approval, would — according to PhilTower and MIDC — result in improved coverage for its mobile operator clients and their users. In June 2023, EDOTCO, which at the time claimed to be the Philippines’ largest tower company with approximately 3,000 towers, said that around 15% of towers in the country are overlapping. This highlights the efficiencies that could be driven by increasing the use of shared sites. Reducing the costs associated with rolling out mobile networks will make it easier for operators to provide coverage in less populated rural areas.
In this report we examine the mobile network experience of the three main mobile network operators in the Philippines — Globe, Smart and DITO — over a period of 90 days starting on January 1, 2024 and ending on March 30, 2024, to see how they fared.
DITO is the new outright winner of the Video Experience award, replacing Globe. DITO comes first with a score of 55.8 points on a 100-point scale and a slender lead over Globe, while Smart is in third place.
Both Globe’s and Smart’s scores have dropped slightly since the previous report, while DITO’s is statistically unchanged.
All three operators place in the Fair (48-58) category. This means that our users in the Philippines are, on average, able to stream video at 720p or better with satisfactory loading times and substantial 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:
DITO continues to win the overall Games Experience award outright. It does so this time around with a score of 65.8 points on a 100-point scale and a modest lead over Globe and Smart, which share second place with their identical scores of 62.6 points.
All three operators’ scores have risen since the last report, with our DITO users seeing the largest increase — a rise of around three points. DITO places in the Fair (65-75) category, while Globe and Smart place one category lower, in Poor (40-65).
A Fair (65-75) rating 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. A Poor (40-65) rating means that most users find this level of experience unacceptable. The majority of users see a delay in the gameplay experience and they do not receive immediate feedback on their actions. Many users feel a lack of controllability.
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:
DITO has broken Smart’s impressive winning streak for Download Speed Experience, becoming the new outright winner. It does so with a score of 32Mbps and a lead of nearly 4Mbps over Smart, while Globe is in last place.
DITO's victory was driven by a rise of more than 6Mbps in its score compared to that seen in the previous report, while Smart’s rose by just 1Mbps.
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:
Our DITO users continue to enjoy the fastest average overall upload speeds. DITO wins the Upload Speed Experience award this time with a score of 6.7Mbps and an impressive lead over Globe, which places in second with its score of 5.2Mbps. Smart comes third with a score of 4.8Mbps.
Both DITO’s and Globe's scores have increased from the previous report, while Smart’s score is statistically unchanged.
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:
Globe has gone from winning the 5G Video Experience outright in the previous report to sharing it with DITO as the two operators’ scores of 70.8-71.2 points on a 100-point scale are statistically tied. Smart follows in last place with 67.5 points.
Globe and DITO place in the Very Good (68-78) category, while Smart with its score of 67.5 points places one category lower, in Good (58-68).
A Very Good (68-78) rating means that our users are, on average, able to stream video at 1080p or better with satisfactory loading times and little stalling. 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.
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.
DITO has joined Globe on the winners’ podium for 5G Games Experience as the two operators’ scores are statistically tied. Together, the two operators have a lead of around 5.3 points over Smart.
Globe and DITO place in the Good (75-85) category, while Smart places one category lower, in Fair (65-75).
A Good (75-85) 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. A Fair (65-75) rating 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.
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.
Our DITO users see the fastest average 5G download speeds in the Philippines — making DITO the new outright winner of the 5G Download Speed award, replacing Smart. DITO’s impressive score of 302.9Mbps is more than double that of its rivals.
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).
DITO is the new outright winner of the 5G Upload Speed award — a change from the previous report when Smart was the sole operator in first place. The average 5G upload speeds observed by our DITO users are around 45% faster than those seen by Globe and Smart users. Globe and Smart share last place as their scores are statistically tied.
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).
Globe continues to win the Coverage Experience award outright, doing so this time with a score of 7.2 points on a 10-point scale and a very narrow lead of 0.1 points over Smart. DITO comes third with a score less than half than that of its more established rivals.
All three operators’ Coverage Experience scores have improved slightly since the last report.
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.
DITO has run away with the 5G Download Speed, 5G Upload Speed and 5G Availability awards — all of which Smart won in the last report. However, Smart has held onto the 5G Coverage Experience award, being the only Filipino operator with a score above one point on a 10-point scale. Globe places second, while DITO’s score is half that of Globe’s and more five times smaller than Smart’s. However, all three operators’ scores imply that 5G rollout in the Philippines is still at a relatively early stage — partly due to the country’s challenging geography as an archipelago of 7,641 islands.
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.
As was the case in the previous report, DITO wins the Availability award. Availability is the proportion of time that our users had a 3G or better connection. DITO wins with a lead of under two percentage points over Smart, while Globe is in last place.
Both Smart's and Globe’s scores have increased slightly from the previous report, while DITO's score is statistically unchanged.
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.
Our DITO 5G users spend the largest proportion of time with an active 5G connection, making DITO the new sole winner of the 5G Availability Award. DITO wins with a score of 28.7%, nearly three times higher than that of Smart and Globe — which statistically tie for last place.
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.
DITO keeps a firm grip on the Consistent Quality award, winning it outright for the second report in a row — this time with a lead of 8.9 percentage points over Smart, which places in second, while Globe is close behind in last place. Globe’s and Smart’s scores have dropped slightly compared to that seen in the last report, while DITO’s has risen modestly.
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. 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.
DITO is the first operator in the Philippines to win Opensignal’s new Reliability Experience award — it does so with a score of 835 points on a 100-1000 point scale, calculated across all generations of mobile technology. DITO wins by an impressive margin as it is the only Filipino operator with a score above 800 points. Smart is in second place, with Globe following closely in last place.
Opensignal’s Reliability Experience measures the ability of our users to connect to and successfully complete (basic) tasks on operators’ networks. It consists of the following components: Signal Availability — The proportion of time Opensignal users can successfully connect to a mobile network Data Connectivity — the proportion of time when the network is available and the device can connect to the internet Task completion — whether tasks initiated by the user’s device are completed Sufficiency — The probability that (basic) tasks will be executed sufficiently well for the user
Opensignal’s Reliability Experience measures the ability of Opensignal users to connect to and successfully complete (basic) tasks on communication service providers’ (CSP) networks. It analyzes how much Opensignal users’ experience is affected by the radio access and core network, along with issues that prevent them from connecting to the internet even if they have a connection to their CSP’s network. It also factors in users’ ability to successfully use lower performance applications including SD video, over-the-top voice calls and web browsing.
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