Chile

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
Kevin Fitchard Principal Analyst

Key Findings

Mobile broadband speeds are once again on the rise

In our last three Chile reports we tracked a concerning trend: 4G Download Speeds were steadily falling, which led to little to no growth in our Download Speed Experience metric across Chile's four national operators. In our latest test period, though, 4G Download Speeds are once again on the increase, driving big gains in our Download Speed Experience scores.

Claro establishes a big lead in Video Experience

América Móvil's Claro topped our Video Experience rankings with a score of 53.1 in our 100 point scale — nearly four points higher than its nearest rival Movistar's score. Though Claro has a sizable lead, all four operators earned a Fair rating (40-55) in our Video Experience ratings, but there was a lot of variation within that range. Claro was at the top end of that range, nearly in Good rating territory, while Entel was more than 8 points off the leader.

Entel takes both download and upload speed awards

Entel emerged as the winner in both our Download and Upload Speed Experience categories, based not just on the strength of its 4G connections but also its high level of 4G Availability. Claro's fast 4G Download Speed score helped it land second place in Download Speed Experience, while WOM took the No. 2 spot in Upload Speed Experience.

4G Availability remains high in Chile's big cities

While we didn't see much movement in 4G Availability on the national level, the operators put out some impressive results in the country's three biggest cities. Entel and Movistar had 4G Availability scores well over 80% in Concepción, Santiago and Valparaíso. Claro and WOM improved on their national 4G Availability results in most cities as well.

Introduction

There has been a big shift in direction in the Chilean mobile market. In our last several analyses of the Andean country, operators had appeared to be favoring extending 4G's reach over building more powerful 4G networks. Consequently, we were seeing 4G Availability growing while mobile broadband speeds languished. But in our latest test period, 4G Availability growth started to peter off, while 4G speeds began resurging. This could mark the beginning of a new chapter in Chile's mobile development. As 4G services are readily accessible to most consumers, it looks like Claro, Entel, Movistar and WOM are now turning their attention to LTE network capacity.

Opensignal Awards Table

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

Overview

Click on metric labels below for a quick preview
4G Availability
% of time
Entel
78.2
Movistar
77.3
Claro
69.7
WOM
75.5
020406080
The brackets represent confidence intervals.
Download Image

National Analysis

4G Availability

Entel and Movistar tied for our 4G Availability award, as both were able to provide a 4G signal to our users more than 77% of the time. In our August Chile report, Movistar was the clear winner in this category, but Entel's 4G Availability climbed by more than 3 percentage points over the last six months putting the two operators in a statistical deadlock. We also saw a similar improvement in Claro's 4G Availability score, but it remains the only major operator in Chile with a 4G Availability below 70% in our metrics. The other operators' 4G Availability scores essentially stayed level over the last six months.

4G Availability
% of time
Entel
78.2
Movistar
77.3
Claro
69.7
WOM
75.5
020406080
The brackets represent confidence intervals.
Download Image

The big period of 4G expansion we have been tracking for the last two years appears to be over. We're still seeing smaller improvements from individual operators month to month, but overall, the rapid increases in 4G Availability from all operators we were recording from report to report has fallen off.

Video Experience

In our State of Mobile Video report, published in September, Chile landed near the bottom of our rankings of 69 countries with a Video Experience rating of Fair, which indicates long loading times and frequent interruptions during video playback especially at higher resolutions. In this report, all four operators also garnered individual Fair ratings (40-55 in our 100 point scale) but within that range there was a lot of variation.

Video Experience
in 0-100 points
Entel
45.1
Movistar
49.6
Claro
53.4
WOM
48.7
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
51.0 (± 0.63) 57.1 (± 0.88) 64.8 (± 0.86) 58.4 (± 0.78)
3G Video Experience
28.8 (± 1.28) 31.5 (± 1.56) 34.6 (± 1.76) 25.2 (± 1.25)
+/- numeric values represent confidence intervals.
Mobile Network Experience Report | March 2019 | © Opensignal Limited
4G Video Experience in 0-100 points
51 (± 0.63)
57 (± 0.88)
65 (± 0.86)
58 (± 0.78)
3G Video Experience in 0-100 points
29 (± 1.28)
32 (± 1.56)
35 (± 1.76)
25 (± 1.25)
Mobile Network Experience Report | March 2019 | © Opensignal Inc.

Claro won our Video Experience award with a score of 53.4, putting it well ahead of its competitors and a little more than a point of shy of earning a Good score (55-75) in our ratings. Meanwhile Entel was near the lower end of the Fair range with a score of 45.1. Entel won or drew in all four of our other national awards, so its relative weakness in Video Experience was its only blemish in our results.

Download Speed Experience

While growth in 4G Availability may have stalled somewhat, Chile's operators have begun revving up the engines of their networks in recent months. We tracked increases in Download Speed Experience from nearly every operator since our last report. Claro saw the biggest growth in this metric as its overall download speed jumped 2.3 Mbps in six months. Entel's Download Speed Experience score grew 1.3 Mbps, allowing it to hold onto its lead in the category. Meanwhile, WOM racked up an incremental increase in our measurements, but Movistar saw its Download Speed Experience score fall slightly.

Download Speed Experience
in Mbps
Entel
15.2
Movistar
9.0
Claro
13.8
WOM
9.8
05101520
The brackets represent confidence intervals.
Download Image
Download Speed Experience
Additional Metrics
in Mbps
4G Download Speed
19.2 (± 0.30) 11.4 (± 0.25) 19.5 (± 0.42) 12.2 (± 0.24)
3G Download Speed
4.2 (± 0.11) 3.1 (± 0.10) 4.3 (± 0.14) 3.7 (± 0.08)
+/- numeric values represent confidence intervals.
Mobile Network Experience Report | March 2019 | © Opensignal Limited
4G Download Speed in Mbps
19 (± 0.30)
11 (± 0.25)
20 (± 0.42)
12 (± 0.24)
3G Download Speed in Mbps
4 (± 0.11)
3 (± 0.10)
4 (± 0.14)
4 (± 0.08)
Mobile Network Experience Report | March 2019 | © Opensignal Inc.

The fact that we are seeing speed increases at all is a good sign for consumers in Chile. For the last few reports we've been seeing little to no growth in Download Speed Experience scores, accompanied by actual declines in 4G Download Speed results. In this latest test period, however, Claro, Entel and WOM reversed that downward trend in 4G Download Speed, all posting gains of at least a megabit in our measurements. While Movistar still experienced a drop in its average 4G Download Speed, that dip didn't have an outsized impact on its Download Speed Experience score.

Upload Speed Experience

Entel didn't just capture our Download Speed Experience award; it doubled up with a win in Upload Speed Experience. Its average upload speed of 7.3 Mbps was nearly twice that of last-placed Movistar in our measurements. WOM also made a good showing in this metric, coming in second with an Upload Speed Experience score of 6.5 Mbps. Upload is becoming a more significant measure of an operator's mobile data prowess as social media and increasingly powerful smartphones are allowing consumers to become content creators as well as content consumers.

Upload Speed Experience
in Mbps
Entel
7.3
Movistar
3.9
Claro
5.1
WOM
6.5
01.8753.755.6257.5
The brackets represent confidence intervals.
Download Image
Upload Speed Experience
Additional Metrics
in Mbps
4G Upload Speed
9.6 (± 0.17) 5.2 (± 0.09) 7.6 (± 0.18) 8.8 (± 0.15)
3G Upload Speed
1.0 (± 0.04) 0.9 (± 0.03) 0.9 (± 0.04) 0.9 (± 0.03)
+/- numeric values represent confidence intervals.
Mobile Network Experience Report | March 2019 | © Opensignal Limited
4G Upload Speed in Mbps
10 (± 0.17)
5 (± 0.09)
8 (± 0.18)
9 (± 0.15)
3G Upload Speed in Mbps
1 (± 0.04)
1 (± 0.03)
1 (± 0.04)
1 (± 0.03)
Mobile Network Experience Report | March 2019 | © Opensignal Inc.

Just as we're seeing download speeds increase in Chile, upload speeds are taking a similar upward trajectory. Three of the four operators all saw growth in their 4G Upload Speed metrics since our last report, and two of them, Entel and WOM, saw increases of more than 20% in our analysis.

Latency Experience

Latency is a measure of a network's response time, which can impact mobile services and apps in numerous subtle ways. Lower latency connections mean webpages and videos begin loading faster and real-time communications apps experience less lag time. Entel won its third outright award in this category with a Latency Experience score of 48.2 milliseconds, though WOM was right on its tail with a score of 49ms.

Latency Experience
in ms The lower the figure the better the latency
Entel
48.2
Movistar
53.3
Claro
62.6
WOM
49.0
016.2532.548.7565
The brackets represent confidence intervals.
Download Image
Latency Experience
Additional Metrics
in ms
4G Latency
37.7 (± 0.31) 45.2 (± 0.42) 53.0 (± 0.83) 40.6 (± 0.30)
3G Latency
77.5 (± 1.01) 72.5 (± 1.25) 78.5 (± 1.59) 69.5 (± 0.98)
+/- numeric values represent confidence intervals.
Mobile Network Experience Report | March 2019 | © Opensignal Limited
4G Latency in ms
38 (± 0.31)
45 (± 0.42)
53 (± 0.83)
41 (± 0.30)
3G Latency in ms
77 (± 1.01)
72 (± 1.25)
78 (± 1.59)
70 (± 0.98)
Mobile Network Experience Report | March 2019 | © Opensignal Inc.

Regional Analysis

For our regional analysis, we examined our primary metrics in Chile's three biggest cities: the capital Santiago as well as Concepción and Valparaíso. Apart from Concepión — where download speeds have been consistently faster than in the rest of the country — most of our city-level metrics were in line with national scores. The big exception was 4G Availability, where all operators improved on their national results in the big metro areas, often by very large margins.

We measured 4G Availability greater than 80% in all three cities on Entel and Movistar's networks, and in Santiago we recorded the best individual 4G Availability score (86.4%) in this report on Entel's network. But it wasn't just the two leaders that boosted their LTE reach in the cities. Both Claro and WOM had 4G Availability scores above 70% in all three metro areas, and in Santiago WOM exceeded the 80% mark. The operators are clearly investing more in the big cities in order to extend 4G services to a greater proportion of their customer bases.

Select any region or city below to display individual breakdown

Concepción

4G Availability
in Concepción
% of time
Entel
85.5
Movistar
82.2
Claro
74.7
WOM
73.1
Download Image
Video Experience
in Concepción
in 0-100 points
Entel
47.3
Movistar
54.4
Claro
57.6
WOM
50.8
Download Image
Download Speed Experience
in Concepción
in Mbps
Entel
17.4
Movistar
12.6
Claro
17.0
WOM
10.4
Download Image
Upload Speed Experience
in Concepción
in Mbps
Entel
8.4
Movistar
4.1
Claro
6.3
WOM
7.1
Download Image
Latency Experience
in Concepción
in ms
Entel
41.8
Movistar
45.4
Claro
61.7
WOM
48.5
Download Image

Santiago

4G Availability
in Santiago
% of time
Entel
86.4
Movistar
80.4
Claro
73.0
WOM
81.9
Download Image
Video Experience
in Santiago
in 0-100 points
Entel
48.7
Movistar
52.7
Claro
56.3
WOM
52.6
Download Image
Download Speed Experience
in Santiago
in Mbps
Entel
16.9
Movistar
9.6
Claro
14.7
WOM
10.5
Download Image
Upload Speed Experience
in Santiago
in Mbps
Entel
9.0
Movistar
4.3
Claro
5.7
WOM
7.4
Download Image
Latency Experience
in Santiago
in ms
Entel
36.5
Movistar
47.7
Claro
51.9
WOM
39.4
Download Image

Valparaíso

4G Availability
in Valparaíso
% of time
Entel
84.5
Movistar
80.0
Claro
75.4
WOM
75.2
Download Image
Video Experience
in Valparaíso
in 0-100 points
Entel
47.5
Movistar
53.7
Claro
55.1
WOM
45.6
Download Image
Download Speed Experience
in Valparaíso
in Mbps
Entel
14.8
Movistar
10.1
Claro
13.1
WOM
8.3
Download Image
Upload Speed Experience
in Valparaíso
in Mbps
Entel
7.5
Movistar
4.5
Claro
5.5
WOM
5.9
Download Image
Latency Experience
in Valparaíso
in ms
Entel
42.1
Movistar
45.1
Claro
56.2
WOM
42.9
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