State of Mobile Networks: Singapore (May 2018)

Singapore was among the first countries in the world to embrace LTE, starting with M1's commercial 4G launch in June of 2011, and in the intervening seven years the island nation's three operators have taken every opportunity to build powerful mobile broadband networks. Singapore is the fastest 4G country in the world, according to our global measurements, and one operator, StarHub, averaged 4G download connections over 50 Mbps. But Singapore excelled in many more categories: 4G upload speed, 3G download speed, overall speed and both 3G and 4G latency. Though Singapore didn't top the charts in 4G availability as it did in speed, the tiny country's level of 4G access is nothing to scoff at. All three operators were able to provide a 4G connection to our users more than 80% of the time.

In OpenSignal's first look at Singapore, we examined more than 185 million data points to compare the 3G and 4G experience offered by M1, Singtel and StarHub. We found definite winners in each metric we measured, but the differences between leaders and followers in our metrics were really just a matter of bragging rights. We recorded excellent — in many cases exceptional — results for all three operators in every category.

Speed versus availability

No analysis about mobile broadband in Singapore can start without a discussion of speed. The city-state has come in No. 1 in 4G download speed for our last four State of LTE reports, a testament to the powerful LTE-Advanced networks its three operators have built. StarHub won OpenSignal's award for top 4G speed, averaging downloads of 51 Mbps, but M1 and Singtel's scores were nearly as astonishing. Our Singtel users were able to tap into 45.4 Mbps LTE connections, while our M1 testers saw average 4G speeds of 41.9 Mbps. To put those numbers in perspective, we measured the global LTE download average at 16.9 Mbps in our most recent global report. Starhub's 4G speed score is three times the global average, while Singtel and M1's scores are well beyond double.

4G download wasn't the only speed category in which Singapore excelled. All three operators easily surpassed the global 3G download average of 4.1 Mbps, and our 3G download speed award winner StarHub achieved average speeds of 8.6 Mbps in our measurements. We recorded a similarly impressive performance in 4G upload speed, though the three operators were more evenly matched. All three averaged upstream speeds of 15 Mbps or greater in our tests. StarHub ultimately won the award in this category with a 4G upload score of 17 Mbps.

Given StarHub's impressive wins in our 3G and 4G download metrics, it should come as no surprise that StarHub turned in the fastest speeds in our overall download speed metric, which measures the typical everyday speeds consumers experience across mobile data networks. StarHub's overall speed average of 38.1 Mbps beat out Singtel's average of 35.5 Mbps and M1's average of 33.9 Mbps in our measurements, but as with our other speed categories, all three scores were exceptional, exceeding the overall speeds we've measured on the vast majority of operators around the world.

One of the reasons for Singapore's high overall speed ratings is the prevalence of LTE signals across all three operators' networks. The more often consumers can connect to faster LTE networks, the better their overall speeds will be. All three operators had 4G availability scores over 80%, meaning our users were able to find an LTE connection in eight out of every 10 attempts. Singtel, however, was the standout leader in this metric. It's 4G availability was just shy of 90% in our tests.

Our final set of metrics, latency, measures the response time of data networks. A low latency connection means many applications perform better: web pages begin loading more quickly, streaming video begins playing more quickly and real-time communications apps like video chat experience less lag time. Latency, or ping, is also a key factor in voice-over-LTE (VoLTE) services, which all three Singapore operators have launched. Rarely do we find one 4G network in a country with sub-30-millisecond latency, but Singapore happens to have two. We recorded average LTE response times of 27.1ms on Singtel's LTE network and 24.8ms on M1's network, which landed it our 4G latency award. Singtel, however, walked off with our 3G latency award with an HSPA response time of 39.2ms, a score we typically see reserved for 4G networks.

Chasing perfection

Singapore has clearly pushed the upper limits of 4G technology to create powerful LTE-Advanced networks, but if there is any weakness in its 4G rollout, it is in the reach of its 4G services. Though Singapore ranks among the global top 20 in 4G availability, it hasn't kept pace with the world's elite in this metric. South Korea, Japan, Norway, Hong Kong and the U.S. have exceeded the 90% 4G availability threshold, effectively making LTE connections almost as ubiquitous as 3G connections. Singapore isn't far off, but it's still 5 percentage points shy of hitting that mark.

That said, Singaporeans have little to complain about when it comes to their mobile data experience. Even when they can't find an LTE signal, they have extremely fast 3G networks to fall back on, and the country excels in every other performance measure we track. Singapore's operators have already set the 4G bar high. It will be fascinating to watch how much higher they can raise it in OpenSignal's future reports.