Argentina

Mobile Network Experience Report
June 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
Hardik Khatri Analyst

Key Findings

Personal sweeps away both our Download and Upload Speed Experience awards

The Download Speed Experience scores of all three operators in Argentina have been on a steady rise in our last two reports. Download Speed Experience was dominated by Personal as it revved up its score to 17.5 Mbps, which was 50% faster than its nearest rival. Claro came close in the Upload Speed Experience category, but the award went to Personal.

A Good rating for Personal in Video Experience

Personal won our Video Experience award with a score of 64.0 (out of 100) — just one point off a Very Good rating. The operator managed to earn a Very Good rating in its 4G Video Experience score.

4G Availability remains high in Argentina’s biggest cities

While we didn't see much movement in our 4G Availability scores on a national level, Argentina's operators showed some impressive results in the country's three biggest cities. Personal had 4G Availability scores over 85% in Buenos Aires, Córdoba and Rosário. Claro and Movistar also improved on their national 4G Availability results in most cities as well, each with scores over 80% in at least two of the three major metro areas.

Movistar maintains a lead in network responsiveness

Both Claro and Personal challenged Movistar in our Latency Experience metric but failed to take the award. It was a close call among the three operators who all improved their scores, especially Personal, who had boosted its score by more than 20% in 4G Latency, and 15% in 3G Latency.

Introduction

In our latest look at Argentina, we saw overall improvements in our scores from all three operators across different metrics. While there remains a high level of competitiveness among operators, Personal won four categories. We saw Movistar shine in our Latency Experience category. In this year’s first Mobile Network Experience report, we've analyzed the mobile experience over 90 days starting Feb. 1, 2019, to see how Argentina's three main operators Claro, Movistar and Personal measure up.

Opensignal Awards Table

Mobile Experience Awards Argentina
June 2019, Argentina Report
4G Availability
Video Experience
Download Speed Experience
Upload Speed Experience
Latency Experience
Download Image
Mobile Experience Awards Winners
June 2019, Argentina
4G Availability
Video Experience
Download Speed Experience
Upload Speed Experience
Latency Experience
Download Image

Overview

Click on metric labels below for a quick preview
4G Availability
% of time
Movistar
77.3
Personal
84.3
Claro
77.2
021.2542.563.7585
The brackets represent confidence intervals.
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National Analysis

4G Availability

Personal won our 4G Availability award, while its rivals Movistar and Claro came neck and neck to end up in a draw for second position. All three operators scored above 75% in our 4G Availability metric, reflecting Argentina's overall national score of 79% in our recent global State of Mobile Experience report. However our scores in this category show none of the operators experienced any significant improvement in their 4G Availability scores since our last report on the market six months ago.

4G Availability
% of time
Movistar
77.3
Personal
84.3
Claro
77.2
021.2542.563.7585
The brackets represent confidence intervals.
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Video Experience

All three operators garnered Good ratings in our Video Experience metric (55-65 in Opensignal's 100 point scale), which means video generally exhibited noticeable load times and some interruptions during playback. But Personal won our Video Experience award, coming very close to earning a Very Good rating (65-75). Movistar and Claro were toe-to-toe in this category, with scores of 57.7 and 57.1 respectively. All three of Argentina's operators managed to earn Very Good ratings in our LTE-only 4G Video Experience measurements.

Video Experience
in 0-100 points
Movistar
57.7
Personal
64.0
Claro
57.1
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
65.2 (± 0.43) 69.5 (± 0.38) 66.0 (± 0.39)
3G Video Experience
35.5 (± 1.21) 41.4 (± 1.27) 35.2 (± 0.87)
+/- numeric values represent confidence intervals.
Mobile Network Experience Report | June 2019 | © Opensignal Limited
4G Video Experience in 0-100 points
65 (± 0.43)
70 (± 0.38)
66 (± 0.39)
3G Video Experience in 0-100 points
36 (± 1.21)
41 (± 1.27)
35 (± 0.87)
Mobile Network Experience Report | June 2019 | © Opensignal Inc.

In our State of Mobile Video report published in September 2018, Argentina stood in bottom-third of 69 countries with a score of 51.5, representing a Video Experience rating of Fair — which indicates long loading times and frequent interruptions during video playback, especially at higher resolutions. In this report we have seen considerable improvement in our Video Experience category in Argentina, as all three operators managed to achieve Good ratings (55-65 in our 100 point scale).

Download Speed Experience

Argentina’s Download Speed Experience scores are still on the increase, as we saw a steady improvement from all three operators over our last two reports. Personal won our award in this category with a good lead over its rivals Claro and Movistar, who gave each other a tough fight for second place. Movistar saw the biggest growth in this metric as its Download Speed Experience score improved by nearly 2 Mbps in the last six months to reach 11.7 Mbps, while Claro improved its own score by 1.8 Mbps, reaching 11.4 Mbps. The leader in this category, Personal, saw an increase of less than 1 Mbps, attaining a Download Speed Experience score of 17.5 Mbps.

Download Speed Experience
in Mbps
Movistar
11.7
Personal
17.5
Claro
11.4
05101520
The brackets represent confidence intervals.
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Download Speed Experience
Additional Metrics
in Mbps
4G Download Speed
14.3 (± 0.16) 20.7 (± 0.21) 14.2 (± 0.15)
3G Download Speed
4.4 (± 0.10) 4.6 (± 0.09) 4.4 (± 0.08)
+/- numeric values represent confidence intervals.
Mobile Network Experience Report | June 2019 | © Opensignal Limited
4G Download Speed in Mbps
14 (± 0.16)
21 (± 0.21)
14 (± 0.15)
3G Download Speed in Mbps
4 (± 0.10)
5 (± 0.09)
4 (± 0.08)
Mobile Network Experience Report | June 2019 | © Opensignal Inc.

We also tracked all operators’ 4G Download Speeds, which revealed that our users’ experienced download speeds increased by 3.8 Mbps in the case of Personal, 2.4 Mbps for Movistar and 2.2 Mbps for Claro in the last six months — a good sign for consumers in Argentina.

Upload Speed Experience

Personal won our Upload Speed Experience award: its users experienced an average speed of 5.8 Mbps. Claro gave our award winner a good chase, though, coming in a close second as our users on its network experienced average speeds of 5.2 Mbps.

Upload Speed Experience
in Mbps
Movistar
3.8
Personal
5.8
Claro
5.2
01.8753.755.6257.5
The brackets represent confidence intervals.
Download Image
Upload Speed Experience
Additional Metrics
in Mbps
4G Upload Speed
4.8 (± 0.07) 7.0 (± 0.09) 7.0 (± 0.08)
3G Upload Speed
0.8 (± 0.02) 0.8 (± 0.03) 0.9 (± 0.02)
+/- numeric values represent confidence intervals.
Mobile Network Experience Report | June 2019 | © Opensignal Limited
4G Upload Speed in Mbps
5 (± 0.07)
7 (± 0.09)
7 (± 0.08)
3G Upload Speed in Mbps
1 (± 0.02)
1 (± 0.03)
1 (± 0.02)
Mobile Network Experience Report | June 2019 | © Opensignal Inc.

The race was much closer in our 4G Upload Speed scores; in fact, it was a dead heat between Personal and Claro in this category, with each averaging speeds of 7 Mbps. Movistar was more than 30% slower than both its rivals in our 4G-only upload measurements, with an average speed of 4.8 Mbps.

Latency Experience

Movistar was the winner in our Latency Experience category, holding onto this award with a score of 54.3 milliseconds. Our scores in this metric displayed a good level of competitiveness between all the operators, with all three coming within 5ms of each other. Movistar also led in our 4G Latency Experience measurements, but Personal is now statistically tied with Claro for our Latency Experience award.

Latency Experience
in ms The lower the figure the better the latency
Movistar
54.3
Personal
56.3
Claro
58.9
015304560
The brackets represent confidence intervals.
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Latency Experience
Additional Metrics
in ms
4G Latency
47.0 (± 0.28) 50.4 (± 0.28) 50.3 (± 0.26)
3G Latency
75.9 (± 0.99) 80.4 (± 1.10) 80.2 (± 0.75)
+/- numeric values represent confidence intervals.
Mobile Network Experience Report | June 2019 | © Opensignal Limited
4G Latency in ms
47 (± 0.28)
50 (± 0.28)
50 (± 0.26)
3G Latency in ms
76 (± 0.99)
80 (± 1.10)
80 (± 0.75)
Mobile Network Experience Report | June 2019 | © Opensignal Inc.

Latency is an often overlooked metric as the benefits of a low latency connection aren't as obvious as fast speeds or wide-ranging availability. But latency affects the consumer mobile experience in many subtle ways as it is a measure of a network's response time, which can impact mobile services and apps in numerous ways. Lower latency connections mean webpages and videos begin loading faster and real-time communications apps experience less lag time.

Regional Analysis

For our regional analysis, we examined our five key metrics in Argentina's three biggest cities: the capital Buenos Aires, Córdoba and Rosario. 4G Availability was mostly in the range of 80%-90% for all three operators in our measurements, with Personal being the only operator to cross the 90% mark in Córdoba and showing consistent improvement over its national results in all the cities in this metric. This increase in the proportion of time our users are able to connect to their 4G network may be a result of constant efforts by Argentina’s National Communications Agency ENACOM to encourage greater connectivity.

We saw some broad improvements in both Download and Upload Speed Experience throughout the country's three biggest cities, with the greatest improvement on this metric by Personal in Rosario. The operator saw its score in Rosario jump by over 5 Mbps to reach 21.4 Mbps — the fastest Download Speed Experience score we measured among Argentina's metros.

In all three cities, Personal earned a Very Good rating (65-75) in our Video Experience metric, while Claro and Movistar earned Good ratings (55-65). Latency Experience in these cities also improved marginally; our users in Buenos Aires experienced the lowest latencies.

Select any region or city below to display individual breakdown

Buenos Aires

4G Availability
in Buenos Aires
% of time
Movistar
79.5
Personal
87.9
Claro
83.8
Download Image
Video Experience
in Buenos Aires
in 0-100 points
Movistar
60.5
Personal
66.7
Claro
61.9
Download Image
Download Speed Experience
in Buenos Aires
in Mbps
Movistar
13.4
Personal
18.9
Claro
12.8
Download Image
Upload Speed Experience
in Buenos Aires
in Mbps
Movistar
4.3
Personal
6.5
Claro
6.1
Download Image
Latency Experience
in Buenos Aires
in ms
Movistar
44.1
Personal
40.6
Claro
39.7
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Cordoba

4G Availability
in Cordoba
% of time
Movistar
88.8
Personal
90.5
Claro
84.6
Download Image
Video Experience
in Cordoba
in 0-100 points
Movistar
64.8
Personal
68.8
Claro
60.3
Download Image
Download Speed Experience
in Cordoba
in Mbps
Movistar
13.2
Personal
16.0
Claro
11.1
Download Image
Upload Speed Experience
in Cordoba
in Mbps
Movistar
5.1
Personal
7.0
Claro
5.8
Download Image
Latency Experience
in Cordoba
in ms
Movistar
51.2
Personal
48.5
Claro
54.6
Download Image

Rosario

4G Availability
in Rosario
% of time
Movistar
81.0
Personal
85.4
Claro
74.5
Download Image
Video Experience
in Rosario
in 0-100 points
Movistar
56.2
Personal
66.5
Claro
53.9
Download Image
Download Speed Experience
in Rosario
in Mbps
Movistar
9.5
Personal
21.4
Claro
8.9
Download Image
Upload Speed Experience
in Rosario
in Mbps
Movistar
2.8
Personal
6.4
Claro
4.7
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Latency Experience
in Rosario
in ms
Movistar
52.7
Personal
43.1
Claro
59.6
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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