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.
In Opensignal’s unique real-world measure of mobile video experience, SoftBank’s users enjoyed a Video Experience score of 80.4 on our 0-100 point scale, slightly ahead of KDDI au’s score of 77.5 and NTT DoCoMo's 77.0. These scores place Japan’s operators in the top tier globally with few operators in other countries achieving such heights.
Speed is no guarantee of a great video experience because operators manage video streams differently from other kinds of data and video requires a sustained performance. While SoftBank was top for Video Experience, it ranked third in Download Speed Experience with its users seeing average speeds of 42.7 Mbps, compared with 48.1 Mbps for au and DoCoMo's 52.7 Mbps.
While NTT DoCoMo edges out Softbank to win Opensignal’s Upload Experience award with a speed of 10.3 Mbps, Softbank users saw an experience just 0.3 Mbps slower. However, au lagged behind in third place with 8.2 Mbps, meaning its users will find sharing media or sending emails a more frustrating experience.
In Japan, 4G is now almost ubiquitous: Users across all operators experience time connected to 4G the majority of the time, with scores ranging from SoftBank’s 97.8% to au’s near perfect 99.0%. However, DoCoMo won the award for 4G Coverage Experience. With 5G about to launch, it will be important to see how widely available Japan’s operators extend 5G Availability during 2020.
The Latency Experience award has been won by SoftBank with a score of 36.2ms — over 5ms faster than DoCoMo’s 42.4ms and au’s 44.3ms. Latency is important for a range of mobile applications, including multiplayer online gaming and web browsing.
Japan has long ranked high in mobile innovation globally and for the quality of the mobile network experience users enjoy. In a recent report, Japan ranked third out of one hundred countries for the mobile Games Experience enjoyed by users. That is not an isolated success. In all of Opensignal's measures in this latest analysis of the Japanese market, Japan’s users enjoy a first rate mobile network experience.
The launch of 5G is imminent in Japan, with operators aiming to launch in March and April 2020. While not among the first countries to offer 5G, Japan’s operators will aim to be among the fastest because they hold large quantities of new 5G-suitable spectrum, which adds enormous capacity. In Japan, each operator holds at least 100Mhz of prime mid-band spectrum — which is extremely rare in other countries — as well as additional millimeter wave (mmWave) spectrum holding that offers even faster speeds. To date, mmWave-based 5G services have only launched in the U.S. where speeds have been extremely fast.
Also, Japan's mobile situation is undergoing fast-paced change at the moment with the entry of a new operator, Rakuten, which is making the transition from a mobile virtual network operator to a full player in the market with its own network, spectrum, and infrastructure. Rakuten launches too late for inclusion in this report. But Rakuten's launch will put Japan into the global spotlight because of Rakuten’s technology and business approach. The company is using different types of vendors and a modern, virtualized and more open network technology architecture. And Rakuten has announced disruptive pricing plans with unlimited data for users when connected to its new network, although limits apply when outside of Rakuten's network coverage. This means it will be important for Rakuten, and their users' experience, to extend coverage of the Rakuten network widely across Japan.
| Mobile Experience Awards Japan | |||
|---|---|---|---|
April 2020,
Japan Report
|
N
NTT DoCoMo
|
S
SoftBank
|
a
au
|
Video Experience
| |||
Voice App Experience
| |||
Download Speed Experience
| |||
Upload Speed Experience
| |||
Latency Experience
| |||
4G Availability
| |||
4G Coverage Experience
| |||
|
Mobile Experience Awards Winners
|
April 2020,
Japan
|
|---|---|
|
Video Experience
|
S
SoftBank
|
|
Download Speed Experience
|
N
NTT DoCoMo
|
|
Upload Speed Experience
|
N
NTT DoCoMo
|
|
Latency Experience
|
S
SoftBank
|
|
4G Availability
|
a
au
|
|
4G Coverage Experience
|
N
NTT DoCoMo
|
|
Mobile Experience Awards Draws
|
April 2020, Japan
|
|---|---|
|
Voice App Experience
|
N
NTT DoCoMo
S
SoftBank
|
SoftBank wins the award for mobile Video Experience, ahead of au and DoCoMo. But users on all three operators rate as Excellent, the highest category in Opensignal’s Video Experience measure.
Video Experience involves measuring real-world video streams and uses an ITU-based approach for determining video quality which takes into account picture quality, video loading time and stall rate into account. The scale is 0-100, with scores above 75 rating as Excellent.
|
Video Experience
Additional Metrics |
N
NTT DoCoMo
|
S
SoftBank
|
a
au
|
|---|---|---|---|
| in 0-100 points | |||
|
4G Video Experience
| 77.3 (± 0.17) | 80.6 (± 0.21) | 77.5 (± 0.16) |
| 4G Video Experience | in 0-100 points |
|
N
NTT DoCoMo
|
77 (± 0.17) |
|
S
SoftBank
|
81 (± 0.21) |
|
a
au
|
78 (± 0.16) |
It’s a close race for the Voice App Experience award with the three operators just 0.3 apart on our one hundred point scale. Users on all the operators enjoy a Good experience, indicating there is still room for improvement to hit Very Good or Excellent. Opensignal's award is shared in a statistical tie between DoCoMo and SoftBank.
Voice App Experience measures the experience of over-the-top (OTT) voice services in mobile apps such as LINE, WhatsApp, Skype or Facebook Messenger. The ITU-based model characterizes the relationship between technical measurements and users' perceived voice quality. Voice App Experience uses a 0 to 100 point scale, with higher values indicating a superior experience.
|
Voice App Experience
Additional Metrics |
N
NTT DoCoMo
|
S
SoftBank
|
a
au
|
|---|---|---|---|
| in 0-100 points | |||
|
4G Voice App Experience
| 83.8 (± 0.06) | 84.0 (± 0.13) | 83.5 (± 0.09) |
| 4G Voice App Experience | in 0-100 points |
|
N
NTT DoCoMo
|
84 (± 0.06) |
|
S
SoftBank
|
84 (± 0.13) |
|
a
au
|
83 (± 0.09) |
There's a clear margin separating first and second place in our Download Speed Experience category. DoCoMo users enjoyed average speeds 4.6 Mbps faster than second placed au, and an impressive 10 Mbps faster than users connecting with Softbank.
This mobile network experience will continue to be important as 5G launches, because initial 5G roll outs continue to rely on the 4G network. With the initial non-standalone access (NSA) 5G technology, a 5G smartphone will connect to both one or more 4G signals and a 5G signal at the same time and combine the throughput from all of them to achieve an overall download speed capability. As a result, a faster 4G network provides a stronger foundation, and a head start for offering even higher 5G speeds.
Also, operators typically upgrade the capacity of the connections they place into each 5G cell tower location — often called the backhaul — to support higher 5G speeds, but this added capacity also benefits 4G users.
|
Download Speed Experience
Additional Metrics |
N
NTT DoCoMo
|
S
SoftBank
|
a
au
|
|---|---|---|---|
| in Mbps | |||
|
4G Download Speed
| 53.3 (± 0.34) | 43.7 (± 0.41) | 48.1 (± 0.30) |
| 4G Download Speed | in Mbps |
|
N
NTT DoCoMo
|
53 (± 0.34) |
|
S
SoftBank
|
44 (± 0.41) |
|
a
au
|
48 (± 0.30) |
The upload speeds users experience are significantly slower than for download, ranging from approximately one quarter to one fifth of the download speed. However, where there was a clear margin for the winner in Download Speed Experience, in Upload Speed Experience SoftBank users experience almost as fast speeds as do DoCoMo’s users.
Strikingly, au users' Upload Experience slips from the second placed position for Download Speed Experience into third placed here, lagging behind SoftBank and DoCoMo users’ speeds. The two leaders see the Upload Speed Experience of their users are over 20% faster than au.
|
Upload Speed Experience
Additional Metrics |
N
NTT DoCoMo
|
S
SoftBank
|
a
au
|
|---|---|---|---|
| in Mbps | |||
|
4G Upload Speed
| 10.4 (± 0.07) | 10.2 (± 0.10) | 8.2 (± 0.06) |
| 4G Upload Speed | in Mbps |
|
N
NTT DoCoMo
|
10 (± 0.07) |
|
S
SoftBank
|
10 (± 0.10) |
|
a
au
|
8 (± 0.06) |
Softbank has a clear win in Latency Experience with its users having a score of 36.2ms, or 6.2ms faster than DoCoMo and 8.1ms faster than au’s users. This more responsive mobile network experience is important for web browsing because each web page is composed of many files; each one will be separately requested by a smartphone’s web browser app, meaning that each request will see a delay based on the real-world latency.
Latency is also an important characteristic for online multiplayer gaming where it is often called ping. With the rise of battle royale games like Knives Out or PUBG Mobile, as well as the ongoing success of massive online battle arena (MOBA) games like Arena of Valor on smartphones, latency is important.
|
Latency Experience
Additional Metrics |
N
NTT DoCoMo
|
S
SoftBank
|
a
au
|
|---|---|---|---|
| in ms | |||
|
4G Latency
| 41.7 (± 0.09) | 35.7 (± 0.14) | 44.3 (± 0.09) |
| 4G Latency | in ms |
|
N
NTT DoCoMo
|
42 (± 0.09) |
|
S
SoftBank
|
36 (± 0.14) |
|
a
au
|
44 (± 0.09) |
While 5G launches in Japan in 2020, it will take time for Japan's operators to extend 5G networks across the country. Additionally, initial 5G services using non-standalone access require there to be a 4G connection available at the same time for 5G to work. For these reasons, 4G will remain the foundation for the Japanese mobile experience for the next year at least.
4G Availability represents the proportion of time users spend connected to 4G network. All three operators see very high levels of 4G Availability. But au edges in front and narrowly wins Opensignal’s 4G Availability award in this report.
Across Japan’s cities we see results that differ from the national picture, which is unsurprising given the size of the country and the large urban areas.
In Tokyo au wins the Download Speed Experience ahead of national winner DoCoMo because au Tokyo users saw a faster speed, while DoCoMo users saw speeds 2.6 Mbps slower than the national result. Also, SoftBank wins Voice App Experience in the capital, where nationally it shares the award with DoCoMo.
In Osaka, we also see differences from the national result with DoCoMo jointly winning the award for 4G Availability with au, where nationally au wins it outright. But au picks up Osaka’s Download Speed Experience from national winner DoCoMo, while in Nagoya DoCoMo holds onto both the awards for Download and Upload Speed Experience.
Ancient capital Kyoto, sees ties on most metrics, which is again a very different picture to Opensignal’s national results. Here, the only outright win is for Latency Experience, where SoftBank wins the award.
Select any region or city below to display individual breakdown
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].
