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Mobile Networks Update: Italy (October 2018)
On first glance at Opensignal's awards table, it doesn't look like much has changed in Italy over the 6 months since our last State of Mobile Networks report, as two operators continue to sit significantly ahead of the pack when it comes to mobile user experience. But a huge amount has changed in the wider market, which has been disrupted by the entry of new operator Iliad. France's Iliad launched its low cost, no-frills offering at the end of May, hitting 2 million subscribers in less than 4 months, and the market is already reporting a drop in ARPU as a price war begins. For this report we've analyzed over 1.2 billion measurements from 150,000 devices in the 90-days from the start of July, including measurements for Iliad for the first time, as well as the other four national operators 3 Italia, TIM, Vodafone and Wind.
- Vodafone dominated our speed analysis, taking our awards for 4G download, overall download and 4G upload. However our measurements show the operator's average 4G download speed fell significantly by more than 4 Mbps to reach 29.7 Mbps, allowing second-placed TIM to close the gap. However none of the four antecedent operators showed any notable growth in this category, while new entrant Iliad put in a fairly respectable score of 17.4 Mbps, pushing Wind into fifth place.
- Vodafone's lacklustre growth was repeated in our analysis of overall speed, where its average score fell by nearly 3 Mbps in our measurements to 24.7 Mbps, meaning there is now just 1 megabit separating the leader from TIM. But Vodafone and TIM were head and shoulders above their rivals, as none of the anterior four operators saw any significant growth over the past six months, while Iliad again beat Wind to secure fourth place in our overall speed analysis.
- In 4G availability, our analysis saw winner Vodafone's score drop by close to 1.5 percentage points to reach 82.2%, while TIM increased its score by over 1 point to 78.7%. Wind and Iliad followed in our analysis with scores of 68% and 66.7% respectively, while 3 brought up the rear with 58.4%.
- Iliad's debut has been impressive, as the new entrant managed to beat Wind's score in our analysis of 4G and overall speed, while it scored higher than 3 in 4G availability. However the Italian market is likely to look different again in forthcoming reports as the merger of Wind and 3 moves forward. The newly-merged company Wind Tre failed to flex its financial muscle in the recent 5G spectrum auction in Italy, where it was fairly comprehensively outbid by its rivals, failing to gain any new licences in the 700 MHz band. So will Wind Tre grow into a powerhouse to take on the might of Vodafone and TIM, or settle as an also-ran in Italian mobile? Watch this space.
Opensignal Awards Table
 | Download Speed: 4G | Download Speed: 3G | Download Speed: Overall | Upload Speed: 4G | Latency: 4G | Latency: 3G | Availability: 4G |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
3 ITA | |||||||
Iliad | |||||||
TIM |
|
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Vodafone |
|
|
|
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Wind |
Performance by Metric
Download Speed: 4G
Download Speed: 3G
Download Speed: Overall
Upload Speed: 4G
Latency: 4G
Latency: 3G
Availability: 4G
Download Speed: 4G
This metric shows the average download speed for each operator on LTE connections as measured by Opensignal users.
Download Speed: 3G
This metric shows the average download speed for each operator on 3G connections as measured by Opensignal users.
Download Speed: Overall
This metric shows the average download speed experienced by Opensignal users across all of an operator's 3G and 4G networks. Overall speed doesn't just factor in 3G and LTE speeds, but also the availability of each network technology. Operators with lower LTE availability tend to have lower overall speeds because their customers spend more time connected to slower 3G networks.
Upload Speed: 4G
This metric shows the average upload speed for each operator on LTE connections as measured by Opensignal users.
Latency: 4G
This metric shows the average latency for each operator on LTE connections as measured by Opensignal users. Latency, measured in milliseconds, is the delay data experiences as it makes a round trip through the network. A lower score in this metric is a sign of a more responsive network.
Latency: 3G
This metric shows the average latency for each operator on 3G connections as measured by Opensignal users. Latency, measured in milliseconds, is the delay data experiences as it makes a round trip through the network. A lower score in this metric is a sign of a more responsive network.
Availability: 4G
This metric shows the proportion of time Opensignal users have an LTE connection available to them on each operator’s network. It's a measure of how often users can access a 4G network rather than a measure of geographic or population coverage.
Regional Performance
This chart shows the regional winners in each category Opensignal measures. Click on the icons to see a more detailed graph showing each operator’s metrics in a particular region.
Legend:
V
Vodafone
W
Wind
3
3 ITA
T
TIM
I
Iliad | Region | Download Speed: 4G | Latency: 4G | Availability: 4G |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bari | |||
| Bologna | |||
| Catania | |||
| Florence | |||
| Genoa | |||
| Milan | |||
| Naples | |||
| Palermo | |||
| Rome | |||
| Turin |
Our Methodology
Opensignal measures the real-world experience of consumers on mobile networks as they go about their daily lives. We collect 3 billion individual measurements every day from tens of millions of smartphones worldwide.
Our measurements are collected at all hours of the day, every day of the year, under conditions of normal usage, including inside buildings and outdoors, in cities and the countryside, and everywhere in between. By analyzing on-device measurements recorded in the places where subscribers actually live, work and travel, we report on mobile network service the way users truly experience it.
For this particular report, 1,207,061,193 datapoints were collected from 150,506 users during the period: 2018-07-01 - 2018-09-28.
We continually adapt our methodology to best represent the changing experience of consumers on mobile networks and, therefore, comparisons of the results to past reports should be considered indicative only. For more information on how we collect and analyze our data, see our methodology page.
For every metric we've calculated statistical confidence intervals and plotted them on all of the graphs. When confidence intervals overlap for a certain metric, our measured results are too close to declare a winner in a particular category. In those cases, we show a statistical draw. For this reason, some metrics have multiple operator winners.
Opensignal Limited retains ownership of this report including all intellectual property rights, data, content, graphs & analysis. Reports produced by Opensignal Limited may not be quoted, reproduced, distributed, published for any commercial purpose (including use in advertisements or other promotional content) without prior written consent.