The Canadian city where mobile video is at its best is none other than the eponymous capital of Quebec. In our analysis of Video Experience in Canada's 10 largest cities, Opensignal found Quebec City ranked highest with a score of 73.1 out of 100. But it wasn't the only high achiever in the Francophone province. Montreal came in third with a Video Experience score of 72.2, just behind Calgary. Unfortunately, the city which hosts the Canadian Film Festival, Toronto, came last in Opensignal’s analysis of the real-world mobile video experience in urban areas.
French Canada — or at least its metro areas — definitely seems to have an edge when it comes to Video Experience. But all 10 of Canada's biggest cities actually did very well in this metric, which measures the quality of video streamed to mobile phones over 3G and 4G networks. Each one had Very Good scores (65-75 in a 100-point scale) in our measurements, indicating that video loads quickly and only stutters or stops occasionally during playback even at higher resolutions. In our State of Mobile Video report, Canada as a whole earned a Good score (55-65), so the cities are definitely outpacing the country overall when it comes to delivering mobile video quality. Despite all 10 cities' Very Good showing, there were some definite variations within that range.
Toronto was at the low end of the Very Good range and thus came last in our analysis — Canada's largest city definitely isn't leading the way to the Video Experience promised land. Meanwhile, our top three, Quebec City, Calgary and Montreal, set themselves apart from their urban peers. They all had Video Experience scores well over 70, putting them close to the 75-point threshold over which a Very Good score becomes an Excellent score.
Excellent is the highest rating in our book, indicating video with practically non-existent stalling and very fast load times as well as a consistent experience across all video providers and video resolutions. So far no country has earned an Excellent score in our analysis, but it might not be long before the first Canadian city passes that high mark.
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