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.
Since our first report on the Saudi Mobile Network Experience, Zain improved its Latency Experience by 13 milliseconds, which brings it just 3ms away from Mobily, who also improved its score by 9ms. STC, on the other hand, made little progress in latency but instead doubled down in the areas where it was already doing well. For example, STC improved its Video Experience to 60 (on a scale of 0-100). It also increased its Download Speed Experience to more than 18 Mbps and raised its Upload Speed Experience to 8.5 Mbps. Not to be outdone, Mobily also increased its Video Experience to more than 60 and matched STC’s 18.6 Mbps average download speed. Lastly, the operators all reached the 80% 4G Availability milestone, with less than 2 percentage points separating the best from the worst, highlighting the intense competition in the market.
STC improved their average speeds by 26% since our last report, but Mobily grew even faster and forced a draw for Download Speed Experience for the first time. Operators have every reason to fight for faster download speed, as both Mobily as well as STC have recently reported increasing revenues from data. Zain users have seen little change since our last report and are 8.2 Mbps behind the winners.
STC can rejoice in settling the ongoing tie for Video Experience it had shared with Mobily. The score difference between the two is now over 1 point and enough for STC to pull ahead. The tiebreaker can be attributed to STC’s 4G Video Experience score growing by 3 points since our last report, double the improvement that our users on Mobily saw in this period. Although significantly behind, Zain has improved its Video Experience score by about 8 points and just crossed into the Good ranking. If it can continue this growth, Zain might even be competing for first place in our next report.
Opensignal recently developed a measurement for Voice App Experience, using a model derived from an International Telecommunication Union (ITU)-based approach for quantifying overall voice call quality. We found that in Saudi Arabia the scores for Voice App Experience are more varied than for Video, with more than 10 points (on a scale of 0-100) separating STC from Zain, compared to a 6-point difference for Video Experience. This difference was large enough to place the operators into different rankings. Zain had a Very Poor ranking where most users are dissatisfied. Mobily had a Poor ranking and STC achieved an Acceptable score. To understand how large the difference is, our users on Mobily or STC enjoyed a better 3G Voice App Experience than Zain’s users on both 3G and 4G connections, and enjoyed a comparable experience to Zain’s users on 4G.
In our second look at the mobile network experience in Saudi Arabia, it would seem like not much has changed in the market. STC still wins the lion's share of our awards — but this doesn't mean there's been no change in our metrics. STC has managed to grab our Video Experience award, following a draw with Mobily six months ago — but was instead held to a tie in Download Speed Experience, after winning this award in our last report. For this report, we've collected data from the 90 days from the start of July 2019 to compare the mobile network experience of Saudi Arabia's three national operators, Mobily, STC and Zain, to see how they stack up.
| Mobile Experience Awards Saudi Arabia | |||
|---|---|---|---|
October 2019,
Saudi Arabia Report
|
S
STC
|
M
Mobily
|
Z
Zain
|
4G Availability
| |||
Video Experience
| |||
Voice App Experience
| |||
Download Speed Experience
| |||
Upload Speed Experience
| |||
Latency Experience
| |||
|
Mobile Experience Awards Winners
|
October 2019,
Saudi Arabia
|
|---|---|
|
4G Availability
|
Z
Zain
|
|
Video Experience
|
S
STC
|
|
Voice App Experience
|
S
STC
|
|
Upload Speed Experience
|
S
STC
|
|
Latency Experience
|
M
Mobily
|
|
Mobile Experience Awards Draws
|
October 2019, Saudi Arabia
|
|---|---|
|
Download Speed Experience
|
S
STC
M
Mobily
|
|
Video Experience
Additional Metrics |
S
STC
|
M
Mobily
|
Z
Zain
|
|---|---|---|---|
| in 0-100 points | |||
|
4G Video Experience
| 70.0 (± 0.37) | 68.7 (± 0.44) | 62.0 (± 0.66) |
|
3G Video Experience
| 40.9 (± 1.03) | 40.2 (± 1.31) | 34.5 (± 1.84) |
| 4G Video Experience | in 0-100 points |
|
S
STC
|
70 (± 0.37) |
|
M
Mobily
|
69 (± 0.44) |
|
Z
Zain
|
62 (± 0.66) |
| 3G Video Experience | in 0-100 points |
|
S
STC
|
41 (± 1.03) |
|
M
Mobily
|
40 (± 1.31) |
|
Z
Zain
|
34 (± 1.84) |
|
Voice App Experience
Additional Metrics |
S
STC
|
M
Mobily
|
Z
Zain
|
|---|---|---|---|
| in 0-100 points | |||
|
4G Voice App Experience
| 79.3 (± 0.33) | 76.7 (± 0.47) | 68.2 (± 0.58) |
|
3G Voice App Experience
| 68.3 (± 0.95) | 67.3 (± 1.30) | 56.3 (± 1.71) |
| 4G Voice App Experience | in 0-100 points |
|
S
STC
|
79 (± 0.33) |
|
M
Mobily
|
77 (± 0.47) |
|
Z
Zain
|
68 (± 0.58) |
| 3G Voice App Experience | in 0-100 points |
|
S
STC
|
68 (± 0.95) |
|
M
Mobily
|
67 (± 1.30) |
|
Z
Zain
|
56 (± 1.71) |
|
Download Speed Experience
Additional Metrics |
S
STC
|
M
Mobily
|
Z
Zain
|
|---|---|---|---|
| in Mbps | |||
|
4G Download Speed
| 24.4 (± 0.26) | 24.4 (± 0.29) | 12.4 (± 0.21) |
|
3G Download Speed
| 4.7 (± 0.09) | 4.8 (± 0.11) | 3.9 (± 0.12) |
| 4G Download Speed | in Mbps |
|
S
STC
|
24 (± 0.26) |
|
M
Mobily
|
24 (± 0.29) |
|
Z
Zain
|
12 (± 0.21) |
| 3G Download Speed | in Mbps |
|
S
STC
|
5 (± 0.09) |
|
M
Mobily
|
5 (± 0.11) |
|
Z
Zain
|
4 (± 0.12) |
|
Upload Speed Experience
Additional Metrics |
S
STC
|
M
Mobily
|
Z
Zain
|
|---|---|---|---|
| in Mbps | |||
|
4G Upload Speed
| 11.5 (± 0.11) | 7.8 (± 0.12) | 6.5 (± 0.11) |
|
3G Upload Speed
| 1.2 (± 0.03) | 1.0 (± 0.03) | 0.8 (± 0.04) |
| 4G Upload Speed | in Mbps |
|
S
STC
|
12 (± 0.11) |
|
M
Mobily
|
8 (± 0.12) |
|
Z
Zain
|
6 (± 0.11) |
| 3G Upload Speed | in Mbps |
|
S
STC
|
1 (± 0.03) |
|
M
Mobily
|
1 (± 0.03) |
|
Z
Zain
|
1 (± 0.04) |
|
Latency Experience
Additional Metrics |
S
STC
|
M
Mobily
|
Z
Zain
|
|---|---|---|---|
| in ms | |||
|
4G Latency
| 68.0 (± 0.38) | 51.0 (± 0.33) | 56.2 (± 0.52) |
|
3G Latency
| 97.1 (± 1.13) | 83.1 (± 1.23) | 85.8 (± 1.94) |
| 4G Latency | in ms |
|
S
STC
|
68 (± 0.38) |
|
M
Mobily
|
51 (± 0.33) |
|
Z
Zain
|
56 (± 0.52) |
| 3G Latency | in ms |
|
S
STC
|
97 (± 1.13) |
|
M
Mobily
|
83 (± 1.23) |
|
Z
Zain
|
86 (± 1.94) |
Collecting billions of individual measurements daily from over 100 million devices globally, Opensignal independently analyzes mobile user experience on every major network operator around the globe.
Opensignal is the mobile analytics company committed to improving mobile connectivity across the globe. We are the independent authority for understanding the true experience consumers receive on wireless networks.
Get in touch for more information on our analytics solutions and industry reports.
Opensignal Limited retains ownership of this report including all intellectual property rights, data, content, graphs & analysis. Reports produced by Opensignal Limited may not be quoted, reproduced, distributed, published for any commercial purpose (including use in advertisements or other promotional content) without prior written consent. Journalists are encouraged to quote information included in Opensignal reports provided they include clear source attribution. For more information, contact [email protected].
