Opensignal has analyzed the experience of our users across Singtel group’s mobile operator subsidiaries and regional associates — where Singtel owns a proportion of the company — to see how they differ in Download Speed, Voice App and Video Experience. We found that while there is a big gap between Singtel's wholly-owned entities in Singapore and Australia (Optus) and the rest in Download Speed Experience, the gap was narrower for both Voice App Experience and Video Experience.
On speed, our users saw a much faster Download Speed Experience on Singapore’s Singtel and Australia’s Optus than other group operators across the region. This means that Singtel customers roaming abroad will likely have a slower experience than they do at home because roamers typically have the same or even worse experience than domestic customers of a mobile network operator.
However, when we look at Opensignal’s new Voice App Experience we see a different trend. While Singtel users still enjoy the best experience with a score of 82.6 (out of 100), ranking in our “Good” category, users on Optus and Telkomsel are not far behind with scores of 80.6 and 77 respectively. Strikingly, AIS users’ Voice App Experience is on a par with Telkomsel even though AIS users had a Download Speed Experience of just 6.5 Mbps compared with Telkomsel’s 11.7 Mbps.
Opensignal’s Voice App Experience measures the quality of experience for over-the-top (OTT) voice services — mobile voice apps such as WhatsApp, Skype, Facebook Messenger, etc. — using a model derived from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU)-based approach for quantifying overall voice call quality with a series of calibrated technical parameters.
On Video Experience we again see a different trend compared to Download Speed and Voice App Experience. While Singtel and Optus are ahead with users’ Video Experience, it’s not by as big a margin as for download speed. And, significantly, while Globe ranks fifth of the seven operators for the average download speed users experience, users on AIS have a stronger Video and Voice App Experience than do users on Globe, even though our Globe users experience faster download speeds.
The difference in operator ranking between Download Speed, Video Experience and Voice App Experience demonstrates the importance of testing each service separately to reflect the differences in how operators handle different types of data traffic. Also, consumers’ perceived experience of voice and video is sensitive to different technical characteristics of the mobile connection rather than only how quickly a file downloads.
Simply extrapolating from speed measurements to attempt to measure increasingly popular and complex customer habits like mobile video viewing and voice app use cannot possibly reflect the true mobile network experience.
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