Mexico

Mobile Network Experience Report
October 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
David Nedescu Technical Analyst

Key Findings

Telcel bags first win in new Voice App Experience metric

Our brand new metric, which looks at users’ experience of voice communication via apps such as WhatsApp, shows competitive scores between the three operators, with just 6.2 points on our 100-point-scale separating the winner Telcel from third place Movistar. By contrast, the gap for Video Experience is double at 13.5. The Voice App Experience for AT&T and Movistar falls under Poor, while Telcel made it to Acceptable. For more on our Voice App Experience, including global benchmarks and a guide to interpreting the metric, read our global State of Mobile Voice App Experience report.

AT&T extends its lead in 4G Availability, most cities above 90%

Growing faster than both Telcel and Movistar, AT&T increased its lead in 4G Availability to 10 percentage points higher than Movistar and 3.6 higher than Telcel. Telcel was able to pass the 80% availability milestone in the only metric where it is not the leader. Notably, AT&T’s 4G Availability in Mexico City now matches that of its competitors after an increase of 4 percentage points. Eight of the twelve cities analysed see a 4G Availability higher than 90% for AT&T.

Telcel poised for Very Good Video Experience, AT&T headed towards downgrade

In an unexpected turn of events, AT&T has lost ground in Video Experience and now is just 0.5 points away from being downgraded to Fair. In the same time Telcel has increased their score by 3.5 points and went from being just 6% faster than AT&T to 15% faster. Should the trend continue, we can expect Telcel to achieve a Very Good rating by our next report, while its competitors might both end up in the Fair category.

Latency is improving faster than other metrics, across all operators

Mexico saw a considerable reduction in latency since our last report. The metric tracking the average delay that a user experiences shows that AT&T users now are 12ms faster, Movistar users 6ms faster, and Telcel users 3ms faster than they were in April. Despite the relatively small improvement for Telcel, it remains Mexico’s leader in latency as it appears to focus on specific areas – its latency in Mexico City decreased by 11ms and is now the capital’s fastest.

AT&T starts to regain in Download Speed, but Movistar holds on to second place

AT&T seeing their Download Speed Experience increase by 0.9 Mbps, while 3G and 4G speeds increased by half of that, showing that more AT&T users are now on 4G compared to our last report. In this time, Movistar boosted their own download speeds by almost 50% and hold on to its second place for now.

Introduction

Telcel wins all our awards except for 4G Availability. Despite being within 2 percentage points of challenging the leader in our April report, Telcel was not able to keep up with AT&T’s improvement in the one metric where AT&T shines. Meanwhile, AT&T is fighting to reach competitive scores, or even just to maintain ground in Video Experience. For Movistar, its advantages in Latency Experience and Download Speed Experience are keeping it competitive at a national level, although regionally Movistar is often seen to tie on almost all awards.

Opensignal Awards Table

Mobile Experience Awards Mexico
October 2019, Mexico Report
4G Availability
Video Experience
Voice App Experience
Download Speed Experience
Upload Speed Experience
Latency Experience
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Mobile Experience Awards Winners
October 2019, Mexico
4G Availability
Video Experience
Voice App 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
Telcel
80.5
Movistar
74.1
AT&T
84.1
021.2542.563.7585
The brackets represent confidence intervals.
Download Image

National Analysis

4G Availability

AT&T maintains its 4G Availability award after increasing its availability by 2.2 percentage points in the last six months. Given that our users on Telcel and Movistar saw their 4G Availability improve by just 1.4 and 1.7 respectively during this time, it means AT&T actually extended their lead, and is now 3.6 percentage points ahead of Telcel and 10 percentage points ahead of Movistar.

4G Availability
% of time
Telcel
80.5
Movistar
74.1
AT&T
84.1
021.2542.563.7585
The brackets represent confidence intervals.
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Despite not being able to match the growth of AT&T or even that of Movistar in 4G Availability, Telcel can take comfort in having passed the 80% mark during the last six months.

Video Experience

Telcel wins our Video Experience award for the second time in a row, making strides towards becoming the first Mexican operator to offer users a Very Good video quality experience. Although all operators increased their 3G Video Experience scores by approximately 1 point, the 4G metric proved to be the determining factor for these scoreboard changes: Telcel increased their 4G score by 0.4 while Movistar decreased theirs by 0.8. However, AT&T saw the largest change with a 4G Video Experience score 3.5 points lower than in our last report.

Video Experience
in 0-100 points
Telcel
63.8
Movistar
49.3
AT&T
55.4
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
74.8 (± 0.16) 68.5 (± 0.42) 59.8 (± 0.45)
3G Video Experience
36.6 (± 0.53) 22.5 (± 0.80) 37.0 (± 1.23)
+/- numeric values represent confidence intervals.
Mobile Network Experience Report | October 2019 | © Opensignal Limited
4G Video Experience in 0-100 points
75 (± 0.16)
68 (± 0.42)
60 (± 0.45)
3G Video Experience in 0-100 points
37 (± 0.53)
23 (± 0.80)
37 (± 1.23)
Mobile Network Experience Report | October 2019 | © Opensignal Inc.

If these trends continue, we will likely see AT&T drop to Fair and Telcel achieve Very Good, while Movistar looks unlikely to break past the 55 threshold for passing into Good Video Experience.

Voice App Experience

Voice App Experience is Opensignal’s new metric which measures the quality perceived by users of voice communication using mobile apps such as WhatsApp, Skype, and WeChat. In our first look at Voice App Experience in Mexico, Telcel wins and was the only operator to reach the Acceptable quality category, where listeners are generally able to comprehend without repetition, despite short and infrequent sound distortions.

Voice App Experience
in 0-100 points
Telcel
76.4
Movistar
70.2
AT&T
72.2
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
The brackets represent confidence intervals.
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Voice App Experience
Additional Metrics
in 0-100 points
4G Voice App Experience
80.2 (± 0.16) 76.0 (± 0.49) 75.1 (± 0.30)
3G Voice App Experience
66.8 (± 0.57) 62.1 (± 0.85) 60.2 (± 1.07)
+/- numeric values represent confidence intervals.
Mobile Network Experience Report | October 2019 | © Opensignal Limited
4G Voice App Experience in 0-100 points
80 (± 0.16)
76 (± 0.49)
75 (± 0.30)
3G Voice App Experience in 0-100 points
67 (± 0.57)
62 (± 0.85)
60 (± 1.07)
Mobile Network Experience Report | October 2019 | © Opensignal Inc.

While not far behind, AT&T and Movistar’s scores fall in the Poor quality category, where many users are dissatisfied. For more on Voice App Experience, including global benchmarks and a guide to interpreting the metric, read our global State of Mobile Voice App Experience Report.

Download Speed Experience

In our last report six months ago we observed that the Download Speed Experience for our AT&T users had been decreasing since April 2018, possibly due to the new prepaid plans it had launched under its Unefon brand, which might have increased congestion on its networks. The past six months show evidence for the first time that this trend is reversing, with AT&T users’ overall Download Speed Experience increasing by 0.9 Mbps, while 3G and 4G speeds increased by half of that, showing that AT&T users are spending more time connected to 4G compared with our last report, pushing up the overall score.

Download Speed Experience
in Mbps
Telcel
20.4
Movistar
13.4
AT&T
11.7
06.2512.518.7525
The brackets represent confidence intervals.
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Download Speed Experience
Additional Metrics
in Mbps
4G Download Speed
26.9 (± 0.13) 21.6 (± 0.25) 13.6 (± 0.16)
3G Download Speed
4.4 (± 0.05) 2.1 (± 0.04) 3.9 (± 0.10)
+/- numeric values represent confidence intervals.
Mobile Network Experience Report | October 2019 | © Opensignal Limited
4G Download Speed in Mbps
27 (± 0.13)
22 (± 0.25)
14 (± 0.16)
3G Download Speed in Mbps
4 (± 0.05)
2 (± 0.04)
4 (± 0.10)
Mobile Network Experience Report | October 2019 | © Opensignal Inc.

However, this increase comes as too little too late from AT&T for this report, where it is firmly settled in third place, following Movistar’s surge of just under 50% in overall speed to an average of 13.4 Mbps during the same time. If AT&T can keep the momentum then its prospects next time will improve and its users could overtake our users experience on Movistar.

Movistar’s leap comes as a result of a 6 Mbps increase in download speeds experienced by users on 4G connections in the last 6 months, rising from 15.5 Mbps to 21.6 Mbps. By contrast, users on Telcel improved their 3G Download Speed by 1.1 Mbps and 4G by 2.7 Mbps, bringing their average at 16.8 Mbps and once more claiming the award for Download Speed Experience.

Upload Speed Experience

Telcel continues to dominate upload speeds in Mexico, with an overall score of 8.7 Mbps, up 16% from 7.5 Mbps just 6 months ago. Its Upload Speed Experience is still 78% faster than Movistar’s, despite the latter’s efforts to increase their score by 0.7 Mbps. However, the gap between AT&T and Telcel almost doubled from 15% slower for AT&T in April to 28% in this report.

Upload Speed Experience
in Mbps
Telcel
8.7
Movistar
4.9
AT&T
6.8
02.557.510
The brackets represent confidence intervals.
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Upload Speed Experience
Additional Metrics
in Mbps
4G Upload Speed
11.7 (± 0.08) 8.0 (± 0.13) 8.2 (± 0.12)
3G Upload Speed
1.2 (± 0.02) 0.7 (± 0.02) 0.9 (± 0.03)
+/- numeric values represent confidence intervals.
Mobile Network Experience Report | October 2019 | © Opensignal Limited
4G Upload Speed in Mbps
12 (± 0.08)
8 (± 0.13)
8 (± 0.12)
3G Upload Speed in Mbps
1 (± 0.02)
1 (± 0.02)
1 (± 0.03)
Mobile Network Experience Report | October 2019 | © Opensignal Inc.

Our AT&T users saw their 4G Upload Speed drop by 0.1 Mbps in the past six months, while their 3G Upload Speed remained unchanged. However, their overall Upload Speed Experience increased by 0.3 Mbps, providing further evidence that Mexican AT&T users are spending a higher proportion of time on 4G now versus in April.

Latency Experience

Although sometimes overlooked as a metric of critical importance, Latency Experience in Mexico appears to improve faster than 4G Availability or Video Experience. With a reduction in delay of 12 milliseconds on average, AT&T users saw the largest improvement in this metric, cutting the delay time by 15% down from 82.4ms in April. However, even at 70.4ms, it is still slightly slower than Movistar was in our previous report.

Latency Experience
in ms The lower the figure the better the latency
Telcel
59.0
Movistar
64.7
AT&T
70.4
018.7537.556.2575
The brackets represent confidence intervals.
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Latency Experience
Additional Metrics
in ms
4G Latency
52.1 (± 0.18) 52.2 (± 0.31) 62.9 (± 0.38)
3G Latency
76.1 (± 0.41) 82.0 (± 0.77) 101.2 (± 1.42)
+/- numeric values represent confidence intervals.
Mobile Network Experience Report | October 2019 | © Opensignal Limited
4G Latency in ms
52 (± 0.18)
52 (± 0.31)
63 (± 0.38)
3G Latency in ms
76 (± 0.41)
82 (± 0.77)
101 (± 1.42)
Mobile Network Experience Report | October 2019 | © Opensignal Inc.

Similarly, Movistar achieved an 8% reduction in overall latency experience, which brought it to just under 65ms. Despite recording the smallest improvement of just 5%, Telcel still claims the award in Latency Experience, keeping the lead with a 5.7ms advantage over Movistar.

Regional Analysis

While our national awards portray Telcel as a clear winner in all but 4G Availability, at a regional level we see more tied and close results. In fact, across 12 cities we see 32% of our awards tied between two or three operators. Despite this, there are similarities to the nationwide awards such as AT&T winning or tying for 4G Availability in 10 cities, or Telcel winning Video Experience and Download Speed Experience in 11 cities.

In a surprising improvement in their 4G Availability in Mexico City, AT&T is now tied with Telcel and Movistar at around 84%. The only other three-way tie for 4G Availability was seen in Guadalajara, as a result of decreased scores across all three operators. Guadalajara was also one of the only two cities, along with Toluca, where Voice App Experience was seen to be tied for all operators.

In the Mexican capital, our Latency Experience award switches hands from Movistar to Telcel, who improved their latency by over 10ms. Latency is also improving in Léon, with all three operators now tied. The lowest latency was seen in Monterrey on the Telcel network, where users experienced a latency of just 39ms on average.

Although our Voice App Experience metric was also claimed by Telcel at a national level, all but five cities were tied, with AT&T tying in seven cities and Movistar tying in two, showing that competition is very much alive. It is also notable that Voice App Experience scores in Mexico’s cities fall between 70 and 80, ranging from Poor to Acceptable. The only cities where Voice App Experience was above 80 were Mérida and Monterrey via Telcel, Juárez via AT&T, and Tijuana via both Telcel and AT&T.

Moreover, our Latency Experience award was won by Telcel in seven cities and by Movistar in six, putting latency in the spotlight for Movistar, which so far has not distinguished itself as a winner in any metric in our current report. If Movistar would double down on its Latency Experience, it might be possible for it to tie with Telcel or even win its first award in our next report.

Select any region or city below to display individual breakdown

Aguascalientes

4G Availability
in Aguascalientes
% of time
Telcel
84.5
Movistar
83.9
AT&T
91.0
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Video Experience
in Aguascalientes
in 0-100 points
Telcel
65.1
Movistar
58.9
AT&T
62.1
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Voice App Experience
in Aguascalientes
in 0-100 points
Telcel
79.4
Movistar
73.0
AT&T
73.4
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Download Speed Experience
in Aguascalientes
in Mbps
Telcel
17.9
Movistar
21.4
AT&T
16.6
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Upload Speed Experience
in Aguascalientes
in Mbps
Telcel
9.6
Movistar
7.2
AT&T
9.6
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Latency Experience
in Aguascalientes
in ms
Telcel
65.2
Movistar
55.3
AT&T
80.2
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Guadalajara

4G Availability
in Guadalajara
% of time
Telcel
83.6
Movistar
82.4
AT&T
81.6
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Video Experience
in Guadalajara
in 0-100 points
Telcel
68.4
Movistar
59.8
AT&T
59.0
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Voice App Experience
in Guadalajara
in 0-100 points
Telcel
76.3
Movistar
74.3
AT&T
75.7
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Download Speed Experience
in Guadalajara
in Mbps
Telcel
27.0
Movistar
21.2
AT&T
11.4
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Upload Speed Experience
in Guadalajara
in Mbps
Telcel
11.6
Movistar
8.8
AT&T
7.0
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Latency Experience
in Guadalajara
in ms
Telcel
55.8
Movistar
49.6
AT&T
58.9
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Juárez

4G Availability
in Juárez
% of time
Telcel
89.9
Movistar
86.5
AT&T
84.0
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Video Experience
in Juárez
in 0-100 points
Telcel
62.9
Movistar
53.5
AT&T
66.6
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Voice App Experience
in Juárez
in 0-100 points
Telcel
78.2
Movistar
71.4
AT&T
80.5
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Download Speed Experience
in Juárez
in Mbps
Telcel
18.8
Movistar
13.8
AT&T
17.3
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Upload Speed Experience
in Juárez
in Mbps
Telcel
9.8
Movistar
5.6
AT&T
5.2
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Latency Experience
in Juárez
in ms
Telcel
98.2
Movistar
78.1
AT&T
71.1
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León

4G Availability
in León
% of time
Telcel
84.4
Movistar
83.1
AT&T
93.0
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Video Experience
in León
in 0-100 points
Telcel
68.0
Movistar
51.2
AT&T
59.3
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Voice App Experience
in León
in 0-100 points
Telcel
78.4
Movistar
71.7
AT&T
77.8
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Download Speed Experience
in León
in Mbps
Telcel
22.9
Movistar
20.4
AT&T
13.6
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Upload Speed Experience
in León
in Mbps
Telcel
9.6
Movistar
7.0
AT&T
8.2
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Latency Experience
in León
in ms
Telcel
63.2
Movistar
63.0
AT&T
62.3
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Mexico City

4G Availability
in Mexico City
% of time
Telcel
84.6
Movistar
84.7
AT&T
83.4
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Video Experience
in Mexico City
in 0-100 points
Telcel
67.4
Movistar
58.5
AT&T
56.3
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Voice App Experience
in Mexico City
in 0-100 points
Telcel
79.1
Movistar
72.8
AT&T
71.0
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Download Speed Experience
in Mexico City
in Mbps
Telcel
22.4
Movistar
16.7
AT&T
12.1
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Upload Speed Experience
in Mexico City
in Mbps
Telcel
7.2
Movistar
5.4
AT&T
7.4
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Latency Experience
in Mexico City
in ms
Telcel
46.4
Movistar
50.1
AT&T
54.3
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Monterrey

4G Availability
in Monterrey
% of time
Telcel
91.2
Movistar
86.4
AT&T
85.3
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Video Experience
in Monterrey
in 0-100 points
Telcel
70.9
Movistar
59.5
AT&T
61.7
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Voice App Experience
in Monterrey
in 0-100 points
Telcel
80.9
Movistar
72.7
AT&T
77.7
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Download Speed Experience
in Monterrey
in Mbps
Telcel
25.4
Movistar
16.0
AT&T
13.9
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Upload Speed Experience
in Monterrey
in Mbps
Telcel
11.7
Movistar
9.0
AT&T
8.8
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Latency Experience
in Monterrey
in ms
Telcel
39.0
Movistar
54.2
AT&T
59.2
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Mérida

4G Availability
in Mérida
% of time
Telcel
84.4
Movistar
80.6
AT&T
93.5
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Video Experience
in Mérida
in 0-100 points
Telcel
68.5
Movistar
53.5
AT&T
58.0
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Voice App Experience
in Mérida
in 0-100 points
Telcel
80.1
Movistar
75.5
AT&T
77.8
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Download Speed Experience
in Mérida
in Mbps
Telcel
23.5
Movistar
14.4
AT&T
14.4
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Upload Speed Experience
in Mérida
in Mbps
Telcel
8.5
Movistar
5.0
AT&T
8.4
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Latency Experience
in Mérida
in ms
Telcel
42.6
Movistar
72.8
AT&T
96.5
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Puebla

4G Availability
in Puebla
% of time
Telcel
84.1
Movistar
82.8
AT&T
93.6
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Video Experience
in Puebla
in 0-100 points
Telcel
59.5
Movistar
55.2
AT&T
54.0
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Voice App Experience
in Puebla
in 0-100 points
Telcel
75.5
Movistar
71.5
AT&T
72.2
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Download Speed Experience
in Puebla
in Mbps
Telcel
17.1
Movistar
12.4
AT&T
9.2
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Upload Speed Experience
in Puebla
in Mbps
Telcel
11.0
Movistar
5.9
AT&T
7.0
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Latency Experience
in Puebla
in ms
Telcel
61.0
Movistar
54.2
AT&T
82.4
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Querétaro

4G Availability
in Querétaro
% of time
Telcel
87.8
Movistar
86.5
AT&T
92.3
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Video Experience
in Querétaro
in 0-100 points
Telcel
72.3
Movistar
60.3
AT&T
65.3
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Voice App Experience
in Querétaro
in 0-100 points
Telcel
78.4
Movistar
74.8
AT&T
78.3
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Download Speed Experience
in Querétaro
in Mbps
Telcel
23.7
Movistar
20.0
AT&T
15.3
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Upload Speed Experience
in Querétaro
in Mbps
Telcel
10.8
Movistar
7.4
AT&T
10.7
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Latency Experience
in Querétaro
in ms
Telcel
56.9
Movistar
53.8
AT&T
62.4
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San Luis Potosí

4G Availability
in San Luis Potosí
% of time
Telcel
85.0
Movistar
82.3
AT&T
93.3
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Video Experience
in San Luis Potosí
in 0-100 points
Telcel
69.6
Movistar
53.9
AT&T
62.3
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Voice App Experience
in San Luis Potosí
in 0-100 points
Telcel
77.0
Movistar
69.3
AT&T
75.6
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Download Speed Experience
in San Luis Potosí
in Mbps
Telcel
24.0
Movistar
16.7
AT&T
12.6
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Upload Speed Experience
in San Luis Potosí
in Mbps
Telcel
10.0
Movistar
7.0
AT&T
8.0
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Latency Experience
in San Luis Potosí
in ms
Telcel
81.3
Movistar
61.5
AT&T
61.2
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Tijuana

4G Availability
in Tijuana
% of time
Telcel
87.5
Movistar
82.3
AT&T
90.3
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Video Experience
in Tijuana
in 0-100 points
Telcel
68.7
Movistar
51.0
AT&T
66.2
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Voice App Experience
in Tijuana
in 0-100 points
Telcel
80.7
Movistar
71.4
AT&T
80.3
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Download Speed Experience
in Tijuana
in Mbps
Telcel
22.5
Movistar
11.6
AT&T
18.7
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Upload Speed Experience
in Tijuana
in Mbps
Telcel
11.2
Movistar
5.8
AT&T
6.0
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Latency Experience
in Tijuana
in ms
Telcel
40.0
Movistar
87.4
AT&T
55.7
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Toluca

4G Availability
in Toluca
% of time
Telcel
83.8
Movistar
74.0
AT&T
90.3
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Video Experience
in Toluca
in 0-100 points
Telcel
67.9
Movistar
58.7
AT&T
54.9
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Voice App Experience
in Toluca
in 0-100 points
Telcel
77.5
Movistar
67.8
AT&T
75.1
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Download Speed Experience
in Toluca
in Mbps
Telcel
22.5
Movistar
16.2
AT&T
11.1
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Upload Speed Experience
in Toluca
in Mbps
Telcel
8.3
Movistar
6.0
AT&T
7.7
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Latency Experience
in Toluca
in ms
Telcel
50.1
Movistar
55.8
AT&T
74.6
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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.

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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