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Maxis and Celcom were deadlocked in our new Video Experience metric with scores just above 61, earning them both Good ratings in our video quality scale. Good generally means shorter load times and less frequent stalling at lower resolutions, though video quality at higher resolutions can be more inconsistent. All of Malaysia's other national operators had ratings of Fair or Poor.
While we did see growth from some operators in our 4G Availability metric, the scores from Malaysia's leaders in this category were relatively flat now that they've exceeded the 80% mark. Celcom was the operator to beat with a 4G Availability score of 86.8%, but we're also seeing last-placed U Mobile closing the gap with its competitors.
Maxis once again led the pack in our Download Speed Experience metric with an average score of 17.9 Mbps. Celcom, however, managed to beat Maxis to our Upload Speed Experience award with an average connection of 6.3 Mbps.
Ipoh stood out in our regional analysis. In that city nearly every single operator exceeded their national averages in both our Download Speed and Upload Speed Experience metrics, and it was one of only three cities where we recorded an individual Download Speed Experience score greater than 20 Mbps. In 4G Availability, Kuala Lumpur was the city of note as almost every operator was able to provide a 4G connection to our users more than 80% of the time.
In Opensignal's latest look at Malaysia, we see quite the race developing between Celcom and Maxis in our metrics. While Maxis maintained its long-held lead in Download Speed Experience, Celcom snagged our Upload Speed Experience award. Celcom won our 4G Availability prize, but Maxis landed a Latency Experience win. And when it came to our newest metric, Video Experience, we found both operators in a dead heat.
In our fifth report on Malaysia we examined Celcom and Maxis along with fellow national operators DiGi, U Mobile and Unifi to see how they stacked up in consumer mobile experience. We also delved deeper into 11 cities in Malaysia, comparing the results of the aforementioned five operators as well as regional 4G provider Yes.
| Mobile Experience Awards Malaysia | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
April 2019,
Malaysia Report
|
M
Maxis
|
C
Celcom
|
D
DiGi
|
U
U Mobile
|
U
Unifi
|
4G Availability
| |||||
Video Experience
| |||||
Download Speed Experience
| |||||
Upload Speed Experience
| |||||
Latency Experience
| |||||
|
Mobile Experience Awards Winners
|
April 2019,
Malaysia
|
|---|---|
|
4G Availability
|
C
Celcom
|
|
Download Speed Experience
|
M
Maxis
|
|
Upload Speed Experience
|
C
Celcom
|
|
Latency Experience
|
M
Maxis
|
|
Mobile Experience Awards Draws
|
April 2019, Malaysia
|
|---|---|
|
Video Experience
|
M
Maxis
C
Celcom
|
Celcom won our 4G Availability award as it was able to supply an LTE connection to our users 86.8% of the time. Maxis, however, was a close second with a score of 83.2%. 4G access is already fairly widespread in Malaysia. Four of the five nationwide operators have 4G Availability scores over 75%, and two have surpassed the 80% mark. U Mobile remains the only laggard with a score of 64.5%, but the operator has made significant progress in the last six months, increasing its 4G Availability by more than 3 percentage points since our last report.
We recorded a comparable gain in Unifi's score, but we didn't see much movement in the other three operators' 4G Availability. As Malaysian operators approach or exceed the 80% availability mark, their 4G network expansions appears to be petering off. This a sign that Malaysia's 4G deployments are reaching maturity.
In our Video Experience category, Celcom and Maxis had the only draw at a national level in our report, both garnering scores just above 61. That places both operators firmly in Good territory (55-65) in our 100-point Video Experience scale. Good means that while users do experience waiting time before a video begins playing and interruptions in playback, low-resolution video streaming is generally consistent.
|
Video Experience
Additional Metrics |
M
Maxis
|
C
Celcom
|
D
DiGi
|
U
U Mobile
|
U
Unifi
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| in 0-100 points | |||||
|
4G Video Experience
| 69.4 (± 0.23) | 66.0 (± 0.24) | 62.1 (± 0.30) | 36.2 (± 0.33) | 43.6 (± 0.57) |
|
3G Video Experience
| 36.6 (± 0.57) | 41.2 (± 0.72) | 32.6 (± 0.50) | 24.4 (± 0.37) | 17.1 (± 1.00) |
| 4G Video Experience | in 0-100 points |
|
M
Maxis
|
69 (± 0.23) |
|
C
Celcom
|
66 (± 0.24) |
|
D
DiGi
|
62 (± 0.30) |
|
U
U Mobile
|
36 (± 0.33) |
|
U
Unifi
|
44 (± 0.57) |
| 3G Video Experience | in 0-100 points |
|
M
Maxis
|
37 (± 0.57) |
|
C
Celcom
|
41 (± 0.72) |
|
D
DiGi
|
33 (± 0.50) |
|
U
U Mobile
|
24 (± 0.37) |
|
U
Unifi
|
17 (± 1.00) |
Celcom and Maxis were the only two operators in Malaysia to earn a Good rating (55-65). DiGi landed in the Fair spectrum of our scale (40-55), while U Mobile and Unifi had our worst rating, Poor (0-40). At Poor levels, video suffers from very long load times and frequent stalling even at low resolutions. Video quality was much better for all operators on 4G connections, and in the case of Celcom and Maxis, they scored Very Good (65-75) ratings when we examined 4G Video Experience alone. The more 4G's reach expands in Malaysia the better the consumer Video Experience becomes.
Maxis once again won our Download Speed Experience award, but rival Celcom has begun whittling away at Maxis's sizable lead. Celcom's overall download speed increased by more than 2 Mbps to 14.7 Mbps since our last Malaysia report, while Maxis's Download Speed Experience score grew by less than a megabit. Maxis still has a considerable advantage in Download Speed Experience with an average connection of 17.9 Mbps, but if Celcom continues its current pace of download speed growth, Maxis will soon face a challenger in this metric.
|
Download Speed Experience
Additional Metrics |
M
Maxis
|
C
Celcom
|
D
DiGi
|
U
U Mobile
|
U
Unifi
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| in Mbps | |||||
|
4G Download Speed
| 22.6 (± 0.13) | 17.2 (± 0.11) | 14.2 (± 0.10) | 5.4 (± 0.05) | 6.7 (± 0.08) |
|
3G Download Speed
| 3.8 (± 0.05) | 4.1 (± 0.05) | 3.6 (± 0.04) | 2.7 (± 0.02) | 1.1 (± 0.02) |
| 4G Download Speed | in Mbps |
|
M
Maxis
|
23 (± 0.13) |
|
C
Celcom
|
17 (± 0.11) |
|
D
DiGi
|
14 (± 0.10) |
|
U
U Mobile
|
5 (± 0.05) |
|
U
Unifi
|
7 (± 0.08) |
| 3G Download Speed | in Mbps |
|
M
Maxis
|
4 (± 0.05) |
|
C
Celcom
|
4 (± 0.05) |
|
D
DiGi
|
4 (± 0.04) |
|
U
U Mobile
|
3 (± 0.02) |
|
U
Unifi
|
1 (± 0.02) |
When we look at download speed by technology, we find clear differences among the five operators in the strength of their LTE networks. While Celcom, DiGi and Maxis all had 4G Download Speeds above 14 Mbps, U Mobile and Unifi's average 4G connections were below 7 Mbps. Both operators clearly have constraints on their LTE networks, whether they are self-imposed policies restricting bandwidth to customers or capacity limitations.
Maxis may have claimed the download speed crown, but Celcom was the king of upload speed in our measurements. It was a close race between the two, but Celcom emerged the victor with an Upload Speed Experience score of 6.4 Mbps, compared to Maxis's score of 6.3 Mbps. The two leaders were well ahead of their rivals in this metric. Malaysia's other three major operators had Upload Speed Experience scores of 4 Mbps or less.
|
Upload Speed Experience
Additional Metrics |
M
Maxis
|
C
Celcom
|
D
DiGi
|
U
U Mobile
|
U
Unifi
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| in Mbps | |||||
|
4G Upload Speed
| 8.0 (± 0.07) | 7.6 (± 0.06) | 5.6 (± 0.05) | 3.8 (± 0.04) | 3.8 (± 0.05) |
|
3G Upload Speed
| 0.7 (± 0.01) | 1.1 (± 0.02) | 0.8 (± 0.01) | 1.1 (± 0.01) | 0.9 (± 0.02) |
| 4G Upload Speed | in Mbps |
|
M
Maxis
|
8 (± 0.07) |
|
C
Celcom
|
8 (± 0.06) |
|
D
DiGi
|
6 (± 0.05) |
|
U
U Mobile
|
4 (± 0.04) |
|
U
Unifi
|
4 (± 0.05) |
| 3G Upload Speed | in Mbps |
|
M
Maxis
|
1 (± 0.01) |
|
C
Celcom
|
1 (± 0.02) |
|
D
DiGi
|
1 (± 0.01) |
|
U
U Mobile
|
1 (± 0.01) |
|
U
Unifi
|
1 (± 0.02) |
Though Celcom won our award, Maxis actually had the faster result in 4G Upload Speed. It was Celcom's superior score in 4G Availability that helped drive it to the top. As our users on Celcom's network were able to tap into an LTE signal more often, their overall Upload Speed Experience scores were higher.
Maxis won our Latency Experience award with an average response time of 47.2 milliseconds. Latency is an often misunderstood metric that can impact the consumer mobile experience in many subtle ways. Lower latency connections produce faster load times for web pages and streamed video and can reduce the lag experienced in real-time communications and gaming apps.
|
Latency Experience
Additional Metrics |
M
Maxis
|
C
Celcom
|
D
DiGi
|
U
U Mobile
|
U
Unifi
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| in ms | |||||
|
4G Latency
| 40.3 (± 0.11) | 44.4 (± 0.14) | 47.4 (± 0.14) | 43.6 (± 0.15) | 43.9 (± 0.29) |
|
3G Latency
| 68.2 (± 0.50) | 63.6 (± 0.50) | 84.1 (± 0.41) | 69.7 (± 0.33) | 62.4 (± 0.70) |
| 4G Latency | in ms |
|
M
Maxis
|
40 (± 0.11) |
|
C
Celcom
|
44 (± 0.14) |
|
D
DiGi
|
47 (± 0.14) |
|
U
U Mobile
|
44 (± 0.15) |
|
U
Unifi
|
44 (± 0.29) |
| 3G Latency | in ms |
|
M
Maxis
|
68 (± 0.50) |
|
C
Celcom
|
64 (± 0.50) |
|
D
DiGi
|
84 (± 0.41) |
|
U
U Mobile
|
70 (± 0.33) |
|
U
Unifi
|
62 (± 0.70) |
DiGi was the biggest surprise in our latency metrics. Though it came in a solid third in most of our metrics, DiGi was dead last in Latency Experience. That's a sure sign of sluggish response times on its networks even if its speeds, availability and video quality were at much more competitive levels.
Our analysis of 11 cities in Malaysia closely mirrored our national results, with Celcom and Maxis splitting most of our awards in each market. There were some notable exceptions, though, in our 4G Availability metrics in Kuala Lumpur and Seberang Perai/Penang. In those two markets, regional 4G operator Yes won our 4G Availability awards with scores above 95%, which represents an exceptional level of LTE access. Celcom also had 4G Availability scores above 90% in several cities: Alor Setar, Ipoh, Johor Baharu, Kuala Lumpur, Kuala Terengganu, Malacca and Seberang Perai/Penang. Economic powerhouse Kuala Lumpur, however, was the standout city in this metric. Every major operator improved significantly on its national 4G Availability score in the capital, in several cases by 5 percentage points or more.
In general, speeds in the cities were in line with national results, an indication that operators haven't yet begun any large-scale LTE-Advanced or capacity upgrades (which always appear first in urban areas). Even though we didn't see any big spikes in Download and Upload Speed Experience across the 11 metros, Ipoh is worthy of note. In Ipoh, all five operators improved on their national Upload Speed Experience results, and in Download Speed Experience we saw increases from four of the operators over their national averages. Ipoh was also one of three cities where we measured a Download Speed Experience score over 20 Mbps from an individual operator.
Select any region or city below to display individual breakdown
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