4G

In this Opensignal analysis, we have found that our urban users in Norway see average download speeds that are over 20% faster than those observed by their rural counterparts. However, the rural-urban divide for Download Speed Experience is smaller in Norway than in neighboring countries. Moreover, there is no statistically significant difference between the Availability measured by our Norwegian users in either urban or rural locations.

In Opensignal’s newest analysis, we looked at the network experience of our smartphone users in Switzerland, when they connected to 4G, 5G and Wifi. Our research demonstrates that our Swiss users saw much faster download and upload speeds connected to 5G than when using Wifi or 4G. Smartphone users also enjoyed a superior video streaming experience on their mobile phones on 5G, compared to Wifi.

In this analysis, Opensignal has looked at how three national operators in Colombia use their spectrum holdings in one of the legacy 3G bands — 1900 MHz (band 2), also known as the PCS band. We observed that mobile operators have been shifting their use of this band from 3G to 4G technology and also have moved to larger channel widths for 4G connections which helps to boost the mobile experience of users.

For a long time, users have assumed that Wifi always offers a superior experience to cellular connectivity, when using the Internet on mobile devices, either at home or in public places. Improvements to mobile technology with the evolution to 5G mean that this is no longer the case.

In our new analysis, Opensignal has observed that our smartphone users in Sri Lanka connected to 4G networks using a limited amount of mobile spectrum — ranging from 3 MHz to 20 MHz. This, linked to the scarcity of spectrum assigned to mobile operators in Sri Lanka, impacted the average 4G download speeds our users experienced. Also, we found out that some operators like Dialog or Airtel have been refarming the 2100 MHz band used for 3G to dedicate more spectrum assets to 4G connectivity.