Poland, Fixed Broadband Experience, November 2023

In this report — Opensignal's first analysis of the fixed broadband experience in Poland, we have examined real-world data from our users across the country. 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. 

Similar to other countries Opensignal has covered in our series of Fixed Broadband Experience reports — the Polish fixed broadband market is very diverse, with several players operating nationwide and many regional providers present in local areas. 36.2% of Polish fixed broadband users subscribe to smaller local internet service providers (ISPs) not included in the report — and this proportion is even higher for the fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) segment specifically — 45.6%. For this analysis, Opensignal has only included fixed broadband providers that offer their services nationwide. This is why we did not include INEA, which has limited national coverage compared to other included ISPs. According to the Polish regulator UKE, INEA has a 3% share in the national broadband market and a 6% share in the national FTTH market — but operates mainly in the Wielkopolska (Greater Poland) region. 

There have been several major recent acquisitions in the Polish fixed broadband market, with some brands remaining separate while others have been merged under the new parent company’s brand. The cable company Multimedia Polska has been part of the Vectra group since 2020 and decided in October 2023 to transfer its retail operations and existing subscribers to the parent company — so Multimedia’s performance readings are included in Vectra’s scores. While Polsat Plus Group owns both Netia and Plus — we separated results for these two brands, as Netia provides FTTH services, while Plus is one of the Polish mobile network operators, offering Fixed Wireless Access services. Meanwhile, UPC and Play formally merged into one company at the end of August 2023 and now operate as one brand — Play. 

Our results for Polish ISPs include a blend of different technologies offered by them e.g. cable, FTTH, FWA or xDSL. For example, Orange — as an incumbent national telecom and mobile network operator — provides FTTH, FWA, or xDSL services.

Looking at the national results of Fixed Broadband Experience, comparing six national broadband providers, we see that Vectra and Netia take leading places for fixed broadband experience among our users. Vectra has the outright highest score for Broadband Download Speed and jointly the highest scores in three other categories, out of the five experience metrics analyzed. Meanwhile, Netia comes first for Broadband Upload Speed and leads for Broadband Video Experience along with Vectra. 

When considering Poland’s four mobile networks only — Orange. Play, Plus and T-Mobile — Play comes first for Broadband Consistent Quality, Broadband Video Experience and Broadband Download Speed. Meanwhile Orange leads for Broadband Peak Download Speed and Broadband Upload Speed among Polish mobile operators. 

Broadband Consistent Quality measures how often users’ experience on a network is sufficient to support common demanding applications’ requirements. Our Polish users enjoy the most consistent quality of broadband experience on Vectra and Play, who have statistically tied scores of 79.3-80.7%. Netia and Orange tie for third place, with scores of 77.4-78.4%. 

Netia and Vectra share the top spot for Broadband Video Experience, with scores of 71.3-72.6 points on a 100-point scale. These two ISPs, along with Play, rate as Very Good (68-78) — meaning that our users are, on average, able to stream video at 1080p or better with satisfactory loading times and little stalling. Meanwhile, Orange, T-Mobile and Plus all place in a category below — Good (58-68). This rating means users are, on average, able to stream video at 720p or better with satisfactory loading times and little stalling.

Our Vectra users in Poland enjoy the fastest average overall fixed download speeds clocking in at 133.3Mbps. Vectra therefore takes the first spot for Broadband Download Speed, beating statistically tied runner-ups for second place — Play and Netia — by around 46.2Mbps, whose  tied scores are 83.3-90.9Mbps.

Vectra also has jointly the highest score for Broadband Peak Download Speed, along with Orange — with statistically tied scores of 557.9-558.8Mbps. Netia and Play share third place, with scores of 464.5-505.5Mbps.

Netia triumphs for Broadband Upload Speed with a score of 40.2Mbps — 12.4% faster than second-placed Vectra and 38.2% faster than third-placed Orange.

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. 

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.