Introduction
In this report, Opensignal once again analyzes our mobile users’ 5G experience around the globe, highlighting the best-performing operators and reflecting on the current state of 5G.
Although five years have passed since its initial commercial launches, the success of 5G continues to spark debate. Some critics have labeled it a failure, while others question whether it has lived up to the high expectations and marketing hype that accompanied its launches. However, our data demonstrates that when users are able to connect to 5G, they have a much better experience on 5G than on older mobile technologies. Thus far, much of the industry’s focus has been on improving download speeds. As 5G evolves, particularly with the development of 5G Advanced, attention will shift towards enhancing upload speed. In addition, 5G is already helping to reduce congestion, aided by the new spectrum bands it supports and its increased spectral efficiency compared to 4G.
Most commercially available 5G networks are non-standalone access (NSA), which means they rely on a 4G network core. 5G standalone access (SA) networks – anchored on a 5G core – are the foundation for fulfilling 5G's early promises, catering to enterprise needs for network slicing, low latency, and massive IoT capabilities. 5G SA also lays the groundwork for 5G Advanced features. The difficulty of transitioning to 5G standalone access (SA) and the time required to roll-out 5G networks means that the industry is only just starting to explore the commercial potential of the use cases it enables.
While doubts around 5G monetization remain, one clear success story has been 5G fixed wireless access (FWA), which has enabled U.S. operators to rapidly expand their broadband footprints and acquire millions of 5G FWA subscribers since 2021. Operators in other markets are taking note, such as India’s Jio and Saudi Arabia’s Zain.
Even though 5G hasn’t yet had a substantial impact on operators' profitability, the focus must remain on delivering core services. To aid users and operators alike, we recently developed our Reliability Experience metric, which is particularly relevant given the human tendency to focus on the times when your mobile experience didn’t meet your expectations. We also are building out our subscriber analytics capabilities to enable operators to better understand where and why they may be losing customers to their rivals.
As was the case in last year’s 5G Global Awards, we have split operators into two groups - small and large land mass. This is in recognition of the fact that it is a hugely different — and more difficult — undertaking to roll out 5G across a vast light populated territory than across a small nation or city-state. Splitting operators in this way therefore enables more meaningful comparisons to be made.
We have examined the 5G experience of our users across the first 180 days of 2024 using five key measures of the 5G experience, awarding the top scoring operators the title of 5G Global Winners, while the runners-up are 5G Global Leaders. Recognizing the rapid pace of change in 5G experience we have also compared how the 5G Experience has changed year-on-year in relative terms, recognizing the top five for this in each combination of land mass group and metric as 5G Global Rising Stars.
Key Findings:
Malaysia’s U Mobile, Singapore’s Singtel and csl Hong Kong come top for 5G Games Experience
In the large land mass group, U Mobile is the sole 5G Global Winner for 5G Games Experience, with 90.4 points on a 100-point scale. Over in the small land mass group, Singtel and csl are both 5G Global Winners in this experience category, with impressive — and statistically tied — scores of 92.4-92.8 points.
Japan’s SoftBank and au along with all three Czechian operators and Hungary’s Yettel excel at 5G Voice App Experience
Two out of four of Japan’s operators — SoftBank and au — are 5G Global Winners for 5G Voice App Experience in the large land mass group, due to their identical scores of 84.6 points on a 100-point scale. Over in the small land mass group, a four-way statistical tie means that Czechia’s Vodafone, T-Mobile, O2, and Hungary’s Yettel are all 5G Global Winners with scores of 84.7-85.1 points.
T-Mobile USA and Puerto Rico continue to excel on 5G Availability
Our T-Mobile 5G users in the U.S. and Puerto Rico continue to spend the greatest proportion of time with an active 5G connection in their respective groups (large land mass and small land mass), with scores of 67.4% and 71.7%, respectively – making the operators 5G Global Winners. 5G Availability is an important measure of the mobile experience as users can only benefit from the superior experience that 5G provides when they have an active 5G connection. Recognized as a 5G Global Leader, two years after its commercial launch, India’s Jio is now close behind T-Mobile USA — with a score of 66.4%. Both T-Mobile and Jio use 5G standalone access (SA) technology. T-Mobile USA has been recognized as a 5G Global Winner for 5G Availability four consecutive years, ever since Opensignal introduced the 5G Global Awards.
Brazil’s Vivo along with South Korea’s LG U+ and SK telecom top the charts for 5G Download Speed
Vivo is the sole 5G Global Winner for 5G Download Speed in the large land mass category, with our users on its network clocking up average 5G download speeds of 365.6Mbps. Behind Vivo, is another Brazilian operator, Claro – recognized as a 5G Global Leader. Over in the small land mass group, LG U+ and SK Ttelecom are joint 5G Global Winners for this metric with statistically tied scores of 434-439.5Mbps.
Canada’s Rogers, Singapore’s M1 and Malaysia’s Unifi, are 5G Global Winners for 5G Video Experience alongside 15 European operators
As was the case in the last 5G Global Awards, multiple operators are 5G Global Winners for 5G Video Experience, providing equivalently high level of user experience within their groups. In the large land mass area group, the list consists of Finland’s DNA, Elisa and Telia, Sweden’s Telenor and Tele2, Japan’s SoftBank, Romania’s Digi Mobil, Canada’s Rogers, Norway’s Telenor and Telia and Malaysia’s Unifi. In the small land area group, the 5G Global Winners for 5G Video Experience are: Denmark’s Telia and Telenor, Croatia’s HT, Slovenia’s Telekom Slovenije and A1, Austria’s Magenta, together with Singapore’s M1 and A1 in North Macedonia.
The UAE’s du, Slovenia’s A1 and Romania’s Digi Mobil have made impressive progress over the past year
Three operators have managed the impressive feat of being in the top five for the relative improvement in their scores between H1 2023 and H1 2024 across three measures of the 5G Experience: the UAE’s du, Slovenia’s A1 and Romania’s Dig Mobil. Over in the U.S., AT&T is a 5G Global Rising Star for 5G Video Experience and 5G Download Speed, while Verizon is one for 5G Download Speed.
Table of Contents:
Index of contents
1. Definitions
Definitions of the terms and award categories used
2. Award tables
The Global Winners and Leaders - Large land mass group
3. Category results
3.1. The Global Winners and Leaders - Large land mass group
3.2. The Global Winners and Leaders - Small land mass group
3.3. The Global Rising Stars - Large land mass group
3.4. The Global Rising Stars - Small land mass group
4. Summary: 5G Global Awards broken down by land mass group, market and operator
The summary of markets and operators featured in this analysis
5G Global Mobile Network Experience Awards
1. Definitions
- Large land mass group: this contains operators from markets with a land area of more than 200,000km2. Referred to in the previous 5G Global Awards as Group I.
- Small land mass group: this consists of operators from markets with a land area below 200,000km2. Referred to in the previous 5G Global Awards as Group II.
- Division: a combination of land mass group and metric, e.g. “Large land mass group - 5G Availability”.
- 5G Global Winners: the operator(s) that place first for a division. Where there are multiple 5G Global Winners in a division this is because one or more operators have overlapping confidence intervals with the highest scoring operator before ranks are calculated and therefore share the same rank.
- 5G Global Leaders: those operators in a division that have the same or better rank (determined using confidence intervals) as the operator with the 10th highest score (before calculating ranks), provided the latter is not a 5G Global Winner. This means that in some cases it is possible for there to be no 5G Global Leaders in a division.
- 5G Global Rising Stars: the five operators for each division that have shown the best relative increase (shown in percentage terms) in their scores between H1 2023 and H1 2024.
2. Award tables
Large land mass group
A few operators have done extremely well, when looking across the awards table as a whole. SoftBank Japan is a 5G Global Winner in two categories (5G Video Experience and 5G Voice App Experience) while also being a 5G Global Leader for 5G Games Experience.
Similarly, DNA Finland, together with Malaysia’s U Mobile and Unifi are 5G Global Winners for one measure of the 5G Experience while also being 5G Global Leaders in another two.
Romania’s Digi Mobil deserves a special mention as it is the only operator in this group to be a 5G Global Rising Star in three categories and it is also a 5G Global Winner for 5G Video Experience and a 5G Global Leader for Voice App Experience.
Small land mass group
In the small land mass group, Singapore’s Singtel has perhaps the most impressive tally of accolades to its name for 5G experience in H1 2024. The operator is a 5G Global Winner for 5G Games Experience and a 5G Global Leader in the other four categories. M1 also does well, as it is a 5G Global Winner for 5G Video Experience, while being a 5G Global Leader in three categories and a 5G Global Rising Star for 5G Availability.
We recognize two operators in this group as 5G Global Rising Stars across three categories: du in the UAE and A1 Slovenia. A1 is also a 5G Global Winner for 5G Video Experience and a 5G Global Leader for 5G Voice App Experience.
3. Category results
3.1. The Global Winners and Leaders - Large land mass group
5G Availability
T-Mobile - USA is the sole 5G Global Winner in this division with an impressive score of 67.4%. Turning to the 5G Global Leaders, India’s Jio is narrowly behind with 66.4%, followed by Vodafone Australia with 51.5%.
Other 5G Global Leaders in this category include four operators from Malaysia: U Mobile, Maxis, Digi and Yes. Seeing so many is not surprising given their use of the country’s single wholesale 5G network, the Digital Nasional Berhad (DNB).
Opensignal's 5G Availability assesses the proportion of time 5G users spend on 5G — the higher the percentage, the more time users on a network have an active 5G connection. It is an important measure of the 5G experience as users can only benefit from the superior performance that 5G can provide when they are connected to 5G.
5G Download Speed
Brazil’s Vivo is the sole 5G Global Winner for 5G Download Speed in this division, with our users on its network clocking up average 5G download speeds of 365.6Mbps. Another Brazilian operator, Claro, is close behind Vivo with a score of 359.6Mbps. Other 5G Global Leaders include TIM Brazil, three Malaysian operators (Unifi, Digi and Maxis). Our Brazilian users saw massive increases in their average 5G download speeds with the roll-out of 3.5GHz spectrum and 5G SA technology.
Orange France, the sole communications partner for the recent 2024 summer Olympic Games in Paris, is the only European operator to be recognized as a 5G Global Leader in the large land mass group, while 2degrees New Zealand is the only one to hail from Oceania.
5G Games Experience
U Mobile is the sole 5G Global Winner for 5G Games Experience in the large land mass group, with a score of 90.4 points on a 100-point scale. Four other Malaysian operators are 5G Global Leaders (Celcom, Maxis, Unifi and Digi), with Yes narrowly missing out on the same recognition. Two out of four of Japan’s operators are 5G Global Leaders, namely SoftBank and au. The only European operators to be recognized as 5G Global Leaders in this division both hail from Germany: Telekom and Vodafone.
All the 5G Global Winners and Leaders in this division place in the Excellent (85 or above) category. This means that the vast majority of users deem this 5G network experience acceptable. Nearly all users feel like they have control over the game and they receive immediate feedback on their actions. There is not a noticeable delay in almost all cases.
Opensignal’s 5G Games Experience measures how mobile users experience real-time multiplayer mobile gaming on an operator’s 5G 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.
5G Voice App Experience
This year’s 5G Global Winners for 5G Voice App Experience in the large land mass group are Japan’s SoftBank and au due to their identical scores of 84.6 points on a 100-point scale. Below them is a crowded field with 14 5G Global Leaders due to a number of statistical ties. These include three Finnish operators (DNA, Telia and Elisa), two from New Zealand (Spark and 2degrees) and two from Poland (Orange and T-Mobile).
All of these 5G Global Winners and 5G Global Leaders place in the Good (80-87) category. This means that many users are satisfied, but some experience minor quality impairments. For example, clicking sounds or distortion are very rarely present.
5G Voice App Experience measures the quality of experience for over-the-top (OTT) voice services — mobile voice apps such as WhatsApp, Skype and Facebook Messenger — over 5G connections using a model derived from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) approach for quantifying overall voice call quality and a series of calibrated technical parameters. This model characterizes the exact relationship between the technical measurements and perceived call quality.
5G Video Experience
The battle over the top spot for 5G Video Experience in the large land mass group has been so fierce that this time 11 operators have earned a place on the winners’ podium with statistically tied scores of 77.2-77.9 points on a 100-point scale.
They are Finland’s DNA, Elisa and Telia, Sweden’s Telenor and Tele2, Japan’s SoftBank, Romania’s Digi Mobil, Canada’s Rogers, Norway’s Telenor and Telia, and Malaysia’s Unifi.
All the 5G Global Winners narrowly place within the Very Good (68-78) category. This means our users with these operators are, on average, able to stream video at 1080p or better with satisfactory loading times and little stalling when connected to 5G.
Due to the number of 5G Global Winners, we have not recognized any operators as 5G Global Leaders in this division.
Opensignal’s 5G Video Experience quantifies the quality of video streamed to mobile devices by measuring real-world video streams over an operator's 5G network. The 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.
3.2. The Global Winners and Leaders - Small land mass group
5G Availability
As was the case in the previous report, our T-Mobile 5G users in the U.S territory of Puerto Rico spend the greatest proportion of time with an active 5G connection in the small land mass group, with an impressive score of 71.7%. This makes T-Mobile Puerto Rico the sole 5G Global Winner in this division.
The 5G Global Leaders include three of Singapore’s operators — M1, StarHub and Singtel. In addition to having the benefit of providing service in a small city-state, these operators have, like T-Mobile, embraced 5G SA technology. M1 out of all the 5G Global Leaders comes closest to rivaling T-Mobile’s score but is still far away, given its score of 51.5%.
Out of the 12 5G Global Leaders, five hail from the Middle East: Kuwait’s stc, Ooredoo and Zain; together with Bahrain’s Batelco and stc. Other 5G Global Leaders for 5G Availability include South Korea’s KT and SK telecom, along with Taiwan’s FarEasTone.
5G Availability is an important measure of the mobile experience as users can only benefit from the superior experience that 5G provides when they have a 5G connection.
Opensignal's 5G Availability assesses the proportion of time 5G users spend on 5G — the higher the percentage, the more time users on a network have an active 5G connection. It is an important measure of the 5G experience as users can only benefit from the superior performance that 5G can provide when they are connected to 5G.
5G Download Speed
In the small land mass group, South Korea’s LG U+ and SK telecom are joint 5G Global Winners for 5G Download Speed with statistically tied scores of 434-439.5Mbps. The third South Korean operator, KT, narrowly misses out on joining them on the winners’ podium, instead being a 5G Global Leader. The only other operators with which our users saw average 5G download speeds in excess of 400Mbps are Ooredoo Qatar and Denmark’s Telia.
Other 5G Global Leaders for 5G Download Speed include three of Singapore’s operators (Singtel, M1 and StarHub), and another two operators from Denmark (Telenor and 3).
Taiwan’s Chunghwa narrowly misses out on placing as a 5G Global Leader as its confidence intervals do not overlap with A1 Bulgaria’s.
5G Games Experience
Singapore’s Singtel and Hong Kong’s csl are 5G Global Winners for 5G Games Experience in the small land mass group. They share the glory with impressive — and statistically tied — scores of 92.4-92.8 points. Looking lower down the rankings, all three of South Korea’s operators are present as 5G Global Leaders: SK telecom, KT and LG U+. The same is true of Czechia’s three operators: O2, Vodafone and T-Mobile. Singapore is well presented with both M1 and StarHub also being 5G Global Leaders. These two operators provide 5G services to their users using a shared 5G radio access network (RAN) operated by their joint venture, Antina.
All the 5G Global Winners and Leaders in this division place in the Excellent (85 or above) category. This means that the vast majority of users deem this 5G network experience acceptable. Nearly all users feel like they have control over the game and they receive immediate feedback on their actions. There is not a noticeable delay in almost all cases.
Opensignal’s 5G Games Experience measures how mobile users experience real-time multiplayer mobile gaming on an operator’s 5G 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.
5G Voice App Experience
A four-way statistical tie means that Czechia’s Vodafone, T-Mobile, and O2, together with Hungary’s Yettel are all 5G Global Winners for 5G Voice App Experience in the small land mass group with scores of 84.7-85.1 points.
Impressively, out of the 10 5G Global Leaders in this division, four of them are from Slovakia (Orange, Slovak Telecom, O2 and 4ka). Two out of four of Singapore’s operators, Singtel and StarHub, receive the same recognition while M1 narrowly misses out.
All of these 5G Global Winners and 5G Global Leaders place in the Good (80-87) category. This means that many users are satisfied, but some experience minor quality impairments. For example, clicking sounds or distortion are very rarely present.
5G Voice App Experience measures the quality of experience for over-the-top (OTT) voice services — mobile voice apps such as WhatsApp, Skype and Facebook Messenger — over 5G connections using a model derived from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) approach for quantifying overall voice call quality and a series of calibrated technical parameters. This model characterizes the exact relationship between the technical measurements and perceived call quality.
5G Video Experience
As is the case in the large land mass group, the contest over 5G Video Experience is extremely close. Due to statistical ties there are eight 5G Global Winners in this division: Denmark’s Telia and Telenor, Croatia’s HT, Slovenia’s Telekom Slovenije and A1, Austria’s Magenta, together with Singapore’s M1 and A1 in North Macedonia.
In addition, there are nine 5G Global Leaders, including South Korea’s SK telecom and LG U+, Switzerland’s Swisscom and Salt. Also in this select club is A1 across Bulgaria and Austria — an impressive showing for the group, given that A1 Slovenia and A1 North Macedonia are 5G Global Winners.
All the 5G Global Winners narrowly place in the Excellent (78 or above) category: This indicates that our users are, on average, able to stream video at 1080p or better with fast loading times and no stalling when connected to 5G.
Opensignal’s 5G Video Experience quantifies the quality of video streamed to mobile devices by measuring real-world video streams over an operator's 5G network. The 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.
3.3. The Global Rising Stars - Large land mass group
5G Availability
The operator with the most impressive relative increase in the proportion of time our 5G users spend connected to 5G is Japan’s Rakuten — a massive 271.3%. TIM Italy follows with 223.9%, along with Romania’s Digi Mobil with a rise of 208.4%. The last two 5G Global Rising Stars in this division are Indonesia’s Telekomsel and Malaysia’s Digi. A further six operators in this division saw year-on-year relative increases of more than 50%: two Swedish operators (Telenor and Tele2), ice Norway, India’s Jio and Airtel, and Vodafone Australia.
5G Download Speed
Three out of four of Poland’s operators are 5G Global Rising Stars for 5G Download Speed in the large land mass group, driven to a large extent by them deploying the 3.5GHz spectrum awarded back in October 2023. The first deployments began in early 2024, according to TeleGeography. The remaining two 5G Global Rising Stars in this division both hail from the U.S., namely AT&T and Verizon — as both operators gained full access to their C-band spectrum holdings in August 2023.
A further four operators saw increases of more than 30% in their 5G Download Speed scores, including ice Norway and Vodafone Australia.
5G Games Experience
Zain Saudi Arabia is the operator with the largest YoY improvement in users’ experience in the large land mass group (13.7%), while Mobily is also a 5G Global Rising Star with a smaller — but still impressive rise of 8.2%. The other 5G Global Rising Stars in this division are Romania’s Digi Mobil, the Philippines’ Smart and Indonesia’s Indosat.
5G Voice App Experience
Our users on Romania’s Digi Mobil saw the largest relative improvement in their experience when using over-the-top voice apps over 5G connections between H1 2023 and H1 2024 — an increase of 3.8%. The next largest increase was seen on Smart’s network in the Philippines, followed by Vodafone U.K, which launched commercial 5G standalone access services in June 2023. The other 5G Global Rising Stars in this division are Mexico’s Telcel and Bell Canada. All four of the U.K.’s operators (Vodafone, EE, O2, and 3) place within the top 15 for relative percentage change in this division.
5G Video Experience
The stand-out operator for YoY absolute improvement in our users’ experience when streaming on-demand video over 5G connections in the large land mass group is AT&T with a rise of 7.1%. Its U.S. rival, Verizon narrowly misses out on being a 5G Global Rising Star with an improvement of 2.7% — the same rise also observed by our users with Canada’s Rogers.
While Orange is the only Polish operator to feature as a 5G Global Rising Star in this division, all three of the other Polish operators place within the top 15.
3.4. The Global Rising Stars - Small land mass group
5G Availability
This year’s 5G Global Risings for 5G Availability in the small land mass group are: Israel’s Partner, Belgium’s Orange and Proximus, Singapore’s M1 and Czechia’s Vodafone. Two other Czechian operators place in the top 15, namely T-Mobile and O2. Similarly, two Greek operators have made good progress: Vodafone and Nova with rises of 47% and 36.9%, respectively.
StarHub is the only other Singaporean operator to make it into the top 15 for YoY relative improvement in the proportion of time our 5G users connect to 5G. It does so with a rise of 32.5%, just over half the rise seen by our M1 users.
5G Download Speed
Claro Puerto Rico leads the pack in the small land mass group in terms of the YoY relative increase in the average 5G download speeds seen by our users, with a remarkable rise of 122.4%. The other 5G Global Rising Stars in this category's scores rose by 32.7-48.3%, with our users with Telekom Slovenije seeing the second-highest improvement after Claro Puerto Rico. Liberty, another Puerto Rican operator, is present in the top 15 with a more modest — but still respectable — rise of 13.3%.
5G Games Experience
Three out of five 5G Global Rising Stars for 5G Games Experience in the small land mass group hail from the Middle East. They are Ooredoo’s Qatar, the UAE’s du and Kuwait’s Zain. The remaining two are Tigo Guatemala and A1 Slovenia. Our users with the five 5G Global Rising Stars in this division saw YoY improvements of 6.9-8% in their experience while playing multiplayer mobile games over 5G connections.
Three Vodafone Group operators have made it into the top 15 in the form of its operations in Czechia, Ireland and Hungary, while South Korea’s KT and LG U+ have also made strong YoY progress in relative terms. Taiwan’s Chunghwa is the only Taiwanese operator to make it into the top 15, with the same improvement as LG U+ — 3.1%.
5G Voice App Experience
By far and away the largest relative YoY improvement in our users’ experience when using over-the-top voice apps over 5G connections in the small land mass group was seen by our du users in the UAE. The Emirati operator saw a 8.7% increase in its 5G Voice App Experience score between H1 2023 and H1 2024. This is all the more impressive, given that the next largest increase — seen on Tigo Guatemala — was 2.8% The other three 5G Global Rising Stars in this division are Croatia’s HT, Slovenia’s A1 and Ireland’s Vodafone.
Du’s only other rival in the UAE, e& UAE, misses out on the same recognition but is present in the top 15, as does eir Ireland, all three South Korean operators, and Taiwan’s Chunghwa.
5G Video Experience
Out of the operators in the small land mass group, our Liberty users in Puerto Rico saw the largest YoY relative improvement in their experience when streaming on-demand video over 5G connections — a rise of 17%. This is far above the 6% reported by second-placed Claro Puerto Rico. The other 5G Global Rising Stars in this division are the UAE’s du and two South Korean operators — LG U+ and KT. SK telecom narrowly misses out on the same recognition, with a YoY rise of 3.1%.
4. Summary: 5G Global Awards broken down by land mass group, market and operator
The summary lists all the operators featured in this analysis.
Large land mass group - included operators
Small land mass group - included operators
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