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Looking at our Awards Table, Proximus has snapped up five out of seven awards and it is the first Belgian operator to claim awards in our two new categories: Voice App Experience and 4G Coverage Experience. However, not everything has gone Proximus’s way. In our last report, the operator was statistically tied for both 4G Availability and Download Speed Experience with Telenet, but our Telenet users observed a superior experience on both metrics in our latest reporting period.
Our Telenet users observed an impressive average download speed of 45.2 Mbps, beating that seen on Proximus and Orange’s networks by 5.0 Mbps and 14.9 Mbps, respectively. Telenet’s score was up 9 Mbps from that seen in our last report, while Proximus and Orange users observed gains of 5.5 Mbps and 1.2 Mbps, respectively.
In our last report, all three operators provided a Very Good Video Experience and Belgium’s performance in this area was also underscored in our State of Mobile Video Experience report, in which Belgium placed 13th and in the Very Good category. However, since both reports, users on all three networks are now observing an Excellent Video Experience, which indicates a very consistent experience across all users, video streaming providers and resolutions tested, with fast loading times and almost non-existent stalling.
Proximus wins our first award for Voice App Experience, which as its name suggests measures the experience of Opensignal users on apps like WhatsApp, Skype and Facebook. Proximus, Orange and Telenet all fall into the Good category. This means that many users are satisfied, but some may experience minor quality impairments.
For the first time, regardless of their choice of operator, our 4G users in Belgium were on average connected to 4G services on their network more than 90% of the time, as Orange users saw their experience improve from 89% to 91.9% (an increase of 3 percentage points) since our last report.
The user experience in Belgium across all three operators is remarkably consistent in terms of 4G Availability, 4G Coverage Experience, Voice App Experience and Video Experience. Download Speed Experience shows the most differentiation between operators, with users on Telenet now commanding an impressive 5.0 Mbps lead over the speeds seen on second placed Proximus. Both Latency Experience and Upload Speed Experience also show distinct, but less marked, differences in the user experience observed across the three operators.
Despite this apparent homogeneity, the Awards Table tells a different story, with Proximus snapping up five out of seven awards and ceding the remaining two to Telenet. We’d be remiss if we didn’t highlight the impressive download speeds Telenet’s users observed, which averaged 45.2 Mbps — 5.0 Mbps and 14.9 Mbps higher than those seen on Proximus and Orange’s networks.
High download speeds highlight the maturity of Belgium’s mobile network experience. In many countries users would be happy to see a download speed of nearly 15 Mbps, as they would be to match the 4G Availability levels in excess of 90% experienced on all three of Belgium’s operators. Another feather in the country’s cap is Video Experience, with all three operators now in the Excellent Category — up from Very Good — which means that Belgium will likely leap up the rankings when we next look at Video Experience from a global perspective.
While the main rationale behind the RAN sharing agreement between Proximus and Orange appears to be to accelerate 5G rollout, while also improving energy efficiency, it will be interesting to see if it leads to a reduction in the roughly 10 Mbps gap in Download Speed Experience between the two operators.
One area which has seen little change since our last report is that of Latency Experience, with the needle barely moving for Proximus and Orange, while Telenet’s users observed a modest 1.8ms increase which represents a slight worsening of the responsiveness of the network. Given that real-world Latency Experience is influenced by the core network and operators as well base stations and the type of mobile technology used, operators will hope to improve latencies with the switch to 5G technology in future.
| Mobile Experience Awards Belgium | |||
|---|---|---|---|
March 2020,
Belgium Report
|
P
Proximus
|
O
Orange
|
T
Telenet
|
Video Experience
| |||
Voice App Experience
| |||
Download Speed Experience
| |||
Upload Speed Experience
| |||
Latency Experience
| |||
4G Availability
| |||
4G Coverage Experience
| |||
|
Mobile Experience Awards Winners
|
March 2020,
Belgium
|
|---|---|
|
Video Experience
|
P
Proximus
|
|
Voice App Experience
|
P
Proximus
|
|
Download Speed Experience
|
T
Telenet
|
|
Upload Speed Experience
|
P
Proximus
|
|
Latency Experience
|
P
Proximus
|
|
4G Availability
|
T
Telenet
|
|
4G Coverage Experience
|
P
Proximus
|
|
Video Experience
Additional Metrics |
P
Proximus
|
O
Orange
|
T
Telenet
|
|---|---|---|---|
| in 0-100 points | |||
|
4G Video Experience
| 81.4 (± 0.30) | 76.8 (± 0.53) | 79.2 (± 0.51) |
|
3G Video Experience
| 65.4 (± 3.64) | 63.5 (± 3.59) | 51.0 (± 3.87) |
| 4G Video Experience | in 0-100 points |
|
P
Proximus
|
81 (± 0.30) |
|
O
Orange
|
77 (± 0.53) |
|
T
Telenet
|
79 (± 0.51) |
| 3G Video Experience | in 0-100 points |
|
P
Proximus
|
65 (± 3.64) |
|
O
Orange
|
64 (± 3.59) |
|
T
Telenet
|
51 (± 3.87) |
|
Voice App Experience
Additional Metrics |
P
Proximus
|
O
Orange
|
T
Telenet
|
|---|---|---|---|
| in 0-100 points | |||
|
4G Voice App Experience
| 84.1 (± 0.22) | 83.7 (± 0.26) | 82.9 (± 0.32) |
|
3G Voice App Experience
| 75.9 (± 1.74) | 76.3 (± 1.51) | 77.6 (± 1.73) |
| 4G Voice App Experience | in 0-100 points |
|
P
Proximus
|
84 (± 0.22) |
|
O
Orange
|
84 (± 0.26) |
|
T
Telenet
|
83 (± 0.32) |
| 3G Voice App Experience | in 0-100 points |
|
P
Proximus
|
76 (± 1.74) |
|
O
Orange
|
76 (± 1.51) |
|
T
Telenet
|
78 (± 1.73) |
|
Download Speed Experience
Additional Metrics |
P
Proximus
|
O
Orange
|
T
Telenet
|
|---|---|---|---|
| in Mbps | |||
|
4G Download Speed
| 42.7 (± 0.67) | 33.0 (± 0.55) | 49.7 (± 1.00) |
|
3G Download Speed
| 7.5 (± 0.43) | 8.7 (± 0.51) | 5.1 (± 0.37) |
| 4G Download Speed | in Mbps |
|
P
Proximus
|
43 (± 0.67) |
|
O
Orange
|
33 (± 0.55) |
|
T
Telenet
|
50 (± 1.00) |
| 3G Download Speed | in Mbps |
|
P
Proximus
|
8 (± 0.43) |
|
O
Orange
|
9 (± 0.51) |
|
T
Telenet
|
5 (± 0.37) |
|
Upload Speed Experience
Additional Metrics |
P
Proximus
|
O
Orange
|
T
Telenet
|
|---|---|---|---|
| in Mbps | |||
|
4G Upload Speed
| 13.7 (± 0.22) | 12.9 (± 0.24) | 12.8 (± 0.27) |
|
3G Upload Speed
| 1.7 (± 0.22) | 2.1 (± 0.15) | 2.1 (± 0.22) |
| 4G Upload Speed | in Mbps |
|
P
Proximus
|
14 (± 0.22) |
|
O
Orange
|
13 (± 0.24) |
|
T
Telenet
|
13 (± 0.27) |
| 3G Upload Speed | in Mbps |
|
P
Proximus
|
2 (± 0.22) |
|
O
Orange
|
2 (± 0.15) |
|
T
Telenet
|
2 (± 0.22) |
|
Latency Experience
Additional Metrics |
P
Proximus
|
O
Orange
|
T
Telenet
|
|---|---|---|---|
| in ms | |||
|
4G Latency
| 29.1 (± 0.17) | 31.4 (± 0.18) | 35.8 (± 0.19) |
|
3G Latency
| 55.1 (± 1.89) | 51.3 (± 2.10) | 68.3 (± 4.33) |
| 4G Latency | in ms |
|
P
Proximus
|
29 (± 0.17) |
|
O
Orange
|
31 (± 0.18) |
|
T
Telenet
|
36 (± 0.19) |
| 3G Latency | in ms |
|
P
Proximus
|
55 (± 1.89) |
|
O
Orange
|
51 (± 2.10) |
|
T
Telenet
|
68 (± 4.33) |
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.
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