We recently published our Bridging the digital divide: unlocking reliable broadband for all report, which uses Opensignal’s new Broadband Reliability Experience metric to assess users' real-world fixed broadband experience across 18 countries. Reliability is one of the most important factors that drive consumers’ decisions when choosing a broadband provider. Broadband Reliability Experience takes into account households’ ability to connect to the internet, complete typical tasks and whether these tasks are performed sufficiently well.
This time we are investigating how the largest internet service providers (ISPs) in selected markets across Europe, Asia Pacific and the Americas fare nationally in terms of Broadband Reliability Experience.
Starting with the Asia Pacific, in Singapore, MyRepublic and ViewQwest share first place for Broadband Reliability Experience, with statistically tied scores of 699-714 points on a 100-1000 point scale. Both ISPs also share the Consistent Quality award in our latest report on the Singaporean fixed broadband experience.
Over in Taiwan, Homeplus and kbro are in joint first place with scores of 647-670 points, as their scores are statistically tied. This adds to Homeplus’ already impressive string of accolades, as the ISP won two out of four awards outright in Opensignal’s Taiwan Fixed Broadband Experience report and also shared the top spot for Peak Download Speed with kbro. According to TeleGeography, Homeplus and kbro account for 15% and 9.3% of all retail fixed broadband subscriptions in Taiwan. Both ISPs are cable operators, relying on HFC (DOCSIS 3.1) technology.
Switching to the Americas, in Mexico our Totalplay users have the most reliable experience so the Totalplay is in first place for Broadband Reliability Experience with a score of 533 points. As Homeplus does in Taiwan, Totalplay dominates the Mexican fixed broadband landscape, winning four awards outright in our latest report and also sharing the Video Experience award with izzi. Totalplay is Mexico’s third largest fixed broadband providing company by retail subscriptions (17.7%), according to TeleGeography, behind Telmex and Televisa Cable (which operates the izzi, Wizz and Wizzplus brands). Totalplay only sells fiber packages, while both Megacable and izzi sell a mix of cable and fiber packages. Telmex uses a combination of DSL and fiber.
Over in Europe, our A1 users enjoy the most reliable experience in Croatia as A1 is in first place with 455 points, giving it a 50 point lead over second-placed HT. A1 triumphed back in February, winning all four awards in our first analysis of the fixed broadband experience in Croatia. It is the second largest ISP company in Croatia, accounting for 27.7% of retail subscriptions compared to Hrvatski Telekom’s 59.1%. Hrvatski Telekom encompasses the HT and Iskon brands. A1 supports its customers using a mix of DSL, cable and fixed wireless access (4G and 5G) technologies, while Hrvatski Telecom has a similar mix, but uses fiber instead of cable. Telemach just uses DSL and fiber.
In Italy, among the four largest national ISPs, Vodafone places first for Broadband Reliability Experience with a score of 610 points on a 100-1000 point scale, giving it a lead of around 25 points over WindTre and FastWeb, which are statistically tied for second place. Vodafone won first place for Broadband Consistent Quality nationally in our latest Italian Fixed Broadband Experience report. The ISP is the second-largest in Italy, making up over 15% of retail subscriptions according to TeleGeography, but TIM leads by a massive margin, accounting for over 37%. All four of the ISPs analyzed above use a wide range of access technologies.
Our Virgin Media users have the most reliable fixed broadband experience in the U.K. The ISP beats its closest rivals — Community Fibre and Gigaclear, which are statistically tied for second place — by around 25 points. At first glance, this may seem counterintuitive, as Ofcom, the U.K. telecoms industry regulator, back in January 2024 announced that Virgin Media was the most complained about fixed broadband provider. However, only 22% of complaints about Virgin Media’s fixed broadband service were about faults, services and provisioning, well below the industry average of 37%. According to TeleGeography, Virgin Media and Sky each account for around 20% of UK residential subscriptions, while BT Group (including EE and Plusnet) is the largest combined entity in the market with 29.4%. Virgin Media operates a mix of cable and fiber, while BT ISPs and those on Openreach use a mix of DSL and fiber. There are also “altnets” such as Hyperoptic, rural-focused Gigaclear and London-based Community Fibre that are fiber-only, while 3 offers 5G FWA packages.
Opensignal will be adding Broadband Reliability Experience to our regular Fixed Broadband Experience country reports from now onward.
Methodology note
Opensignal’s Broadband Reliability Experience metric measures the entire user experience, from establishing a connection to successfully completing tasks like streaming video, browsing the web, and scrolling through social media. It captures the true end-to-end reliability experience by analyzing the two most popular internet protocols - TCP (transmission control protocol) and UDP (user datagram protocol) - for a comprehensive measure of every aspect of households' experience with their ISP’s network. We can assess when things are working flawlessly, when something is erratic, and when there is no connection at all. Calculated on a scale of 100-1000, with higher scores indicating better Reliability Experience, the metric consists of three main components:
- Connectivity: Measuring the household's ability to connect to the internet. While ISPs strive to provide ubiquitous connectivity there are often events that lead to outages, and the connectivity component of the score captures the proportion of times when households don’t have internet access.
- Completion: Completion measures the ability to complete typical tasks. It ensures that the established connection is maintained and there is a consistent flow of information as consumers would expect.
- Sufficiency: Ensures that the task is performed sufficiently well. This component includes speed thresholds, latency thresholds, jitter, and other technical components that are prerequisites for good service and application experiences.
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