Belgium

Mobile Network Experience Report
March 2019

Opensignal is the independent global standard for analyzing consumer mobile experience. Our industry reports are the definitive guide to understanding the true experience consumers receive on wireless networks.

Author
Peter Boyland Senior Analyst

Key Findings

Proximus dominates our awards table

Proximus won four of our national categories outright — Download Speed, Upload Speed, Video and Latency Experience — while it drew with Orange in 4G Availability. Proximus also scooped 10 out of our 15 regional awards.

Belgium on the verge of 90% 4G Availability

Proximus passed 90% 4G Availability at the national level — the first Belgian operator to do so — while both its rivals were within 2 percentage points of this mark. All three operators passed the 90% milestone in the Brussels region.

Belgium's operators score Very Good for Video Experience

All three of Belgium's operators scored in the 56-75 (out-of-100) range for Video Experience, earning them a Very Good rating, meaning fast loading times and only occasional stalling. Belgium is now in an elite group of countries whose operators have all scored Very Good or higher in Video Experience.

Telenet in the ascendancy

Telenet didn't feature in our national awards table, and only managed to score four draws in the regions. But the operator is closing the gap on its rivals, showing some impressive growth in the past six months, particularly in 4G Availability.

Introduction

One operator has emerged as dominant in our analysis of the mobile network experience in Belgium, after a relatively close-run race in our recent reports. In this report, Proximus won four of our national awards and drew for the fifth, while the operator claimed two-thirds of our regional medals. Proximus passed 90% 4G Availability in our measurements — the first time we have seen a Belgian operator pass this milestone on a national level — while all three operators were over the 90% 4G Availability mark in the Brussels region.

Orange managed to draw with Proximus for our national 4G Availability award, while Telenet had to settle for just a few draws in our regional metrics. However Telenet has seen some of the best improvement in its scores over the past six months, particularly in our 4G Availability measurements.

For our third visit to the Belgian market, we've analyzed the performance of the three main operators Proximus, Orange and Telenet at a national level as well as in the three regions Brussels, Flanders and Wallonia. Telenet has now completed the merger of its brand with BASE, and we will be referring to the combined operator as Telenet going forward.

Opensignal Awards Table

Mobile Experience Awards Belgium
March 2019, Belgium Report
4G Availability
Video Experience
Download Speed Experience
Upload Speed Experience
Latency Experience
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Mobile Experience Awards Winners
March 2019, Belgium
Video Experience
Download Speed Experience
Upload Speed Experience
Latency Experience
Mobile Experience Awards Draws
March 2019, Belgium
4G Availability
Download Image

Overview

Click on metric labels below for a quick preview
4G Availability
% of time
Proximus
90.2
Orange
89.0
Telenet
88.3
023.7547.571.2595
The brackets represent confidence intervals.
Download Image

National Analysis

4G Availability

All three of Belgium's operators are neck-and-neck in the 4G Availability race. We saw another draw in this category — the third tie in a row — following our last two reports on the market six months and a year ago. In this report, Proximus and Orange scored a statistical draw with scores close to 90%, followed fairly closely by Telenet on 88.3%.

4G Availability
% of time
Proximus
90.2
Orange
89.0
Telenet
88.3
023.7547.571.2595
The brackets represent confidence intervals.
Download Image

Proximus managed to pass the 90% 4G Availability mark — the first time we have seen a Belgian operator pass this milestone at a national level. And 4G Availability scores in the country continue to improve. Both Proximus and Telenet increased their scores by close to 4 percentage points in the past six months, while Orange has improved by over 2 points in our measurements. At this rate, we fully expect to see all three operators pass the 90% marker in our next report, meaning Belgium will join an elite group of countries for 4G Availability.

Video Experience

Proximus won our Video Experience award with a score of 71.9 (out-of-100), beating Telenet and Orange who scored 68.3 and 67.3 respectively. All three of Belgium's operators scores fell in our Very Good category, which generally means fast loading times and only occasional stalling. These scores elevate Belgium into a fairly exclusive group of countries where all operators have scored Very Good or higher in Video Experience analysis.

Video Experience
in 0-100 points
Proximus
71.9
Orange
67.3
Telenet
68.3
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
The brackets represent confidence intervals.
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Video Experience
Additional Metrics
in 0-100 points
4G Video Experience
73.6 (± 0.71) 69.8 (± 0.97) 72.0 (± 1.00)
3G Video Experience
57.3 (± 4.14) 53.7 (± 4.12) 50.4 (± 4.38)
+/- numeric values represent confidence intervals.
Mobile Network Experience Report | March 2019 | © Opensignal Limited
4G Video Experience in 0-100 points
74 (± 0.71)
70 (± 0.97)
72 (± 1.00)
3G Video Experience in 0-100 points
57 (± 4.14)
54 (± 4.12)
50 (± 4.38)
Mobile Network Experience Report | March 2019 | © Opensignal Inc.

In our 4G Video Experience analysis, we observe that Proximus was followed closely by Telenet, with the two scoring 73.6 and 72.0 (out-of-100) respectively. We've also seen some notable improvements in Telenet's Video Stalling Occurrence and Video Load Time measurements — two of our supporting metrics that feed into our overall Video Experience scores — meaning we expect the operator to mount a serious challenge to Proximus' crown in our next report.

Download Speed Experience

Our Download Speed Experience award was won by Proximus with an average score of 37.7 Mbps, beating Telenet's score of 35.3 Mbps, while Orange was a fairly distant third with a Download Speed Experience score of 28.8 Mbps. Proximus saw the greatest increase in its score of over 3 Mbps since our last report six months ago, Telenet's average speed grew by around 1 Mbps, while Orange's stayed fairly stagnant.

Download Speed Experience
in Mbps
Proximus
37.7
Orange
28.8
Telenet
35.3
010203040
The brackets represent confidence intervals.
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Download Speed Experience
Additional Metrics
in Mbps
4G Download Speed
41.1 (± 1.11) 32.5 (± 0.82) 41.1 (± 1.10)
3G Download Speed
10.2 (± 0.87) 8.2 (± 0.60) 7.2 (± 0.62)
+/- numeric values represent confidence intervals.
Mobile Network Experience Report | March 2019 | © Opensignal Limited
4G Download Speed in Mbps
41 (± 1.11)
32 (± 0.82)
41 (± 1.10)
3G Download Speed in Mbps
10 (± 0.87)
8 (± 0.60)
7 (± 0.62)
Mobile Network Experience Report | March 2019 | © Opensignal Inc.

The race between Proximus and Telenet was closer in our 4G Download Speed supporting metric — in fact the two rivals scored a dead heat at 41.1 Mbps each. However Proximus was a clear 3 Mbps ahead of Telenet in our 3G Download Speed measurements, and this combined with Proximus' higher 4G Availability helped it win our overall Download Speed Experience award.

Upload Speed Experience

Proximus won our Upload Speed Experience award fairly comfortably, with a score over 14% faster than its rivals. The winning score of 13.4 Mbps was nearly 2 Mbps ahead of Orange and Telenet, who both scored averages of 11.5 Mbps in our Upload Speed Experience category.

Upload Speed Experience
in Mbps
Proximus
13.4
Orange
11.5
Telenet
11.5
03.757.511.2515
The brackets represent confidence intervals.
Download Image
Upload Speed Experience
Additional Metrics
in Mbps
4G Upload Speed
14.7 (± 0.38) 13.2 (± 0.38) 13.6 (± 0.42)
3G Upload Speed
2.1 (± 0.28) 2.1 (± 0.18) 1.7 (± 0.14)
+/- numeric values represent confidence intervals.
Mobile Network Experience Report | March 2019 | © Opensignal Limited
4G Upload Speed in Mbps
15 (± 0.38)
13 (± 0.38)
14 (± 0.42)
3G Upload Speed in Mbps
2 (± 0.28)
2 (± 0.18)
2 (± 0.14)
Mobile Network Experience Report | March 2019 | © Opensignal Inc.

Proximus was also ahead in our 4G Upload Speed supporting metric with a score of 14.7 Mbps, a clear 1 Mbps ahead of Telenet's 13.6 Mbps, while Orange scored 13.2 Mbps. However, not much has changed in the past six months, as all three of Belgium's operators have only seen incremental growth in our 4G Upload Speed measurements.

Latency Experience

Our Latency Experience award went to Proximus, whose score of 31.5ms was over 12% better than Orange's score of 35.4ms. Latency measures the delay users experience as data makes a round trip through the network, meaning the lower the latency score, the better. Telenet was some way behind in Latency Experience with an average score of 41.0ms.

Latency Experience
in ms The lower the figure the better the latency
Proximus
31.5
Orange
35.4
Telenet
41.0
011.2522.533.7545
The brackets represent confidence intervals.
Download Image
Latency Experience
Additional Metrics
in ms
4G Latency
29.1 (± 0.24) 32.5 (± 0.31) 36.8 (± 0.27)
3G Latency
51.5 (± 2.80) 51.6 (± 2.26) 61.5 (± 2.04)
+/- numeric values represent confidence intervals.
Mobile Network Experience Report | March 2019 | © Opensignal Limited
4G Latency in ms
29 (± 0.24)
32 (± 0.31)
37 (± 0.27)
3G Latency in ms
51 (± 2.80)
52 (± 2.26)
61 (± 2.04)
Mobile Network Experience Report | March 2019 | © Opensignal Inc.

Proximus was also some way ahead of its rivals in our 4G Latency supporting metric, with a score of 29.1ms. However both Orange and Telenet's 4G Latency scores have worsened by at least 1ms over the past six months in our measurements, while Proximus' average score has stayed virtually static.

Regional Analysis

The dominance of Proximus in our national metrics was reflected in our regional analysis, where the operator won 10 of our 15 awards, including all five in Flanders. Proximus won our Download Speed Experience award by a pretty comfortable margin in both Brussels and Flanders, passing the 40 Mbps milestone in both regions. The operator also managed a highly impressive Upload Speed Experience score of 18 Mbps in the Capital Region.

We saw a three-way draw for 4G Availability in Brussels, as all three operators scored over 90% — a pretty impressive feat, even in the relatively small urban region. And despite winning no awards outright, Telenet saw some of the biggest increases in this metric over the past six months, including a jump of 5 percentage points in Flanders.

Finally, in our Video Experience analysis, we saw all three operators score in the Very Good category across all three regions, mirroring the national scores and illustrating Belgium's elite status among its peers in this category.

Select any region or city below to display individual breakdown

Brussels

4G Availability
in Brussels
% of time
Proximus
92.2
Orange
90.8
Telenet
90.9
Download Image
Video Experience
in Brussels
in 0-100 points
Proximus
71.0
Orange
68.4
Telenet
71.9
Download Image
Download Speed Experience
in Brussels
in Mbps
Proximus
43.5
Orange
32.8
Telenet
34.9
Download Image
Upload Speed Experience
in Brussels
in Mbps
Proximus
18.0
Orange
15.1
Telenet
14.9
Download Image
Latency Experience
in Brussels
in ms
Proximus
28.7
Orange
32.1
Telenet
37.4
Download Image

Flanders

4G Availability
in Flanders
% of time
Proximus
91.6
Orange
88.8
Telenet
88.5
Download Image
Video Experience
in Flanders
in 0-100 points
Proximus
72.7
Orange
68.9
Telenet
67.9
Download Image
Download Speed Experience
in Flanders
in Mbps
Proximus
41.3
Orange
31.6
Telenet
36.6
Download Image
Upload Speed Experience
in Flanders
in Mbps
Proximus
14.0
Orange
12.1
Telenet
11.4
Download Image
Latency Experience
in Flanders
in ms
Proximus
31.0
Orange
34.4
Telenet
41.2
Download Image

Wallonia

4G Availability
in Wallonia
% of time
Proximus
88.1
Orange
89.5
Telenet
81.4
Download Image
Video Experience
in Wallonia
in 0-100 points
Proximus
71.3
Orange
66.5
Telenet
67.5
Download Image
Download Speed Experience
in Wallonia
in Mbps
Proximus
31.0
Orange
25.7
Telenet
31.9
Download Image
Upload Speed Experience
in Wallonia
in Mbps
Proximus
11.1
Orange
10.2
Telenet
9.9
Download Image
Latency Experience
in Wallonia
in ms
Proximus
32.6
Orange
37.4
Telenet
42.4
Download Image
Learn more

Opensignal measures the real-world experience of consumers on mobile networks in the places they live, work and travel.

We continually adapt our methodology to best represent the true experience of smartphone users. Therefore, comparisons of the results to past reports should be considered indicative only.

For every metric we calculate statistical confidence intervals indicated on our graphs. When confidence intervals overlap, our measured results are too close to declare a winner. In those cases, we show a statistical draw. For this reason, some metrics have multiple winners.

In our bar graphs we represent confidence intervals as boundaries on either sides of graph bars. In our supporting-metric charts we show confidence intervals as +/- numerical values.

More about Methodology

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For every metric we calculate statistical confidence intervals indicated on our graphs. When confidence intervals overlap, our measured results are too close to declare a winner. In those cases, we show a statistical draw. For this reason, some metrics have multiple operator winners.

In our bar graphs we represent confidence intervals as boundaries on either sides of graph bars.

In our supporting-metric charts we show confidence intervals as +/- numerical values.

Why confidence intervals are vital in analyzing mobile network experience