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Telekom won five of our seven national awards, including our new 4G Coverage Experience, but has lost the Voice App Experience award to Vodafone, while they both drew for our latest addition — Games Experience
All three operators showed considerable gains in Video Experience with Telekom landing in the Excellent (75 and above) category at 78.0 points, while O2 joined Vodafone in the Very Good (65-75) category having improved 7.5 points compared to six months ago.
Mobile users in Germany benefit from a Good Games Experience as all three mobile operators achieved the Good (75-85) category. Telekom and Vodafone drew for our first Games Experience award, scoring just over 83 points, while O2 followed four points behind at 79.2. Opensignal’s Games Experience metric uses measurements of real-world mobile network conditions to assess the mobile multiplayer games experience felt by users on different networks and scores it on a 0-to-100-point scale.
While six months ago we reported that Telekom appeared to have taken its foot off the gas, having shown no statistical improvements in Download Speed Experience compared to May 2019, Telekom is now speeding up again, marking a 5.6 Mbps improvement — which is also the greatest increase out of the three operators — and reaching 38.6 Mbps in Download Speed Experience. Vodafone and O2 also improved — by 4.3 Mbps and 5.2 Mbps, respectively.
Telekom has now passed the 90% mark in 4G Availability, but Vodafone has halved its gap and is now only 2 percentage points behind at 88.3%. O2 showed the largest improvement of 8.3 percentage points moving up from 72.3% to 80.6%.
In our latest look at the Mobile Network Experience report in Germany we can see that Telekom is still dominating our awards table winning five out of seven national awards and tying in one more. But things are not as rosy as they might seem for Telekom. While Telekom gained additional ground on its rivals in both Upload and Download Speed Experience, Telekom conceded some ground in Video Experience and 4G Availability, lost the Voice App Experience award to Vodafone, and didn’t secure an edge in our newly-launched Games Experience award as Telekom drew with Vodafone. In a world where smartphone users are spending more and more time on their devices, watching videos, using OTT services to make calls and playing mobile video games, we are seeing Germany’s mobile market dynamics changing and Telekom appears to be in a weaker position than what we have seen of late.
Vodafone and O2 are not resting idly. In this report we have seen the two operators recording improvements across all metrics, with many of them being in the double-digits. Vodafone is now challenging Telekom in our three experiential metrics, winning Voice App Experience, drawing Games Experience and gaining ground in Video Experience.
In this report we have looked at the 90-day data period from the start of January, and measured the user experience across all our key metrics for Germany's three leading operators — O2, Telekom and Vodafone — both at a national level and in 24 of the country's largest cities.
| Mobile Experience Awards Germany | |||
|---|---|---|---|
May 2020,
Germany Report
|
T
Telekom
|
V
Vodafone
|
O
O2
|
Video Experience
| |||
Games Experience
| |||
Voice App Experience
| |||
Download Speed Experience
| |||
Upload Speed Experience
| |||
4G Availability
| |||
4G Coverage Experience
| |||
|
Mobile Experience Awards Winners
|
May 2020,
Germany
|
|---|---|
|
Video Experience
|
T
Telekom
|
|
Voice App Experience
|
V
Vodafone
|
|
Download Speed Experience
|
T
Telekom
|
|
Upload Speed Experience
|
T
Telekom
|
|
4G Availability
|
T
Telekom
|
|
4G Coverage Experience
|
T
Telekom
|
|
Mobile Experience Awards Draws
|
May 2020, Germany
|
|---|---|
|
Games Experience
|
T
Telekom
V
Vodafone
|
|
Video Experience
Additional Metrics |
T
Telekom
|
V
Vodafone
|
O
O2
|
|---|---|---|---|
| in 0-100 points | |||
|
4G Video Experience
| 78.5 (± 0.14) | 75.5 (± 0.17) | 71.6 (± 0.22) |
|
3G Video Experience
| 71.5 (± 0.76) | 60.7 (± 1.00) | 64.0 (± 0.60) |
| 4G Video Experience | in 0-100 points |
|
T
Telekom
|
78 (± 0.14) |
|
V
Vodafone
|
76 (± 0.17) |
|
O
O2
|
72 (± 0.22) |
| 3G Video Experience | in 0-100 points |
|
T
Telekom
|
72 (± 0.76) |
|
V
Vodafone
|
61 (± 1.00) |
|
O
O2
|
64 (± 0.60) |
While Vodafone nearly missed the Excellent category in Video Experience, the operator reached it in 4G Video Experience by scoring 75.5 points. Telekom on the other hand was the only operator to score a Very Good 3G Video Experience with 71.5 points, while Vodafone and O2 landed in the Good category, meaning their users are likely to experience slower loading and more stalling, especially at higher resolutions when they connect to 3G networks.
Opensignal has measured the mobile gaming experience at the operator level in Germany for the first time. Telekom and Vodafone drew for our award scoring just over 83 points, landing in the Good category (75-85). O2 followed four points behind at 79.2 points, joining the other two operators in the Good category. This means that most of our German users across all three national mobile operators found the gameplay experience generally controllable and most of them received immediate feedback between their actions and the outcomes in the game.
|
Games Experience
Additional Metrics |
T
Telekom
|
V
Vodafone
|
O
O2
|
|---|---|---|---|
| in 0-100 points | |||
|
4G Games Experience
| 85.0 (± 0.01) | 85.0 (± 0.01) | 83.9 (± 0.32) |
|
3G Games Experience
| 57.0 (± 1.33) | 61.4 (± 1.14) | 58.7 (± 0.68) |
| 4G Games Experience | in 0-100 points |
|
T
Telekom
|
85 (± 0.01) |
|
V
Vodafone
|
85 (± 0.01) |
|
O
O2
|
84 (± 0.32) |
| 3G Games Experience | in 0-100 points |
|
T
Telekom
|
57 (± 1.33) |
|
V
Vodafone
|
61 (± 1.14) |
|
O
O2
|
59 (± 0.68) |
Opensignal’s newly released Games Experience measures real-world mobile network conditions to assess the mobile multiplayer games experience felt by users on different networks and scores it on a 0-to-100-point scale. It considers multiple genres of multiplayer mobile games to measure the average sensitivity to network conditions. The games tested include some of the most popular real-time multiplayer mobile games — such as Fortnite and Arena of Valor — played around the world.
Vodafone scored 81.4 points and snatched our second Voice App Experience award from Telekom, although Telekom was just slightly behind with a score of 81.0 points. Voice App Experience measures the quality of experience for over-the-top (OTT) voice services — mobile voice apps such as WhatsApp, Skype and Facebook Messenger — using a model derived from the International Telecommunication Union for quantifying overall voice call quality with a series of calibrated technical parameters.
|
Voice App Experience
Additional Metrics |
T
Telekom
|
V
Vodafone
|
O
O2
|
|---|---|---|---|
| in 0-100 points | |||
|
4G Voice App Experience
| 81.3 (± 0.12) | 81.7 (± 0.11) | 80.7 (± 0.11) |
|
3G Voice App Experience
| 76.3 (± 0.46) | 78.1 (± 0.37) | 77.3 (± 0.24) |
| 4G Voice App Experience | in 0-100 points |
|
T
Telekom
|
81 (± 0.12) |
|
V
Vodafone
|
82 (± 0.11) |
|
O
O2
|
81 (± 0.11) |
| 3G Voice App Experience | in 0-100 points |
|
T
Telekom
|
76 (± 0.46) |
|
V
Vodafone
|
78 (± 0.37) |
|
O
O2
|
77 (± 0.24) |
We saw fierce competition in this category, with less than 1.3 points (out of 100) separating the three German mobile operators. All three operators are now in the Good (80-87) category, which means many users were generally satisfied, although some might have experienced minor quality impairments, with the occasional clicking sound or distortion.
While six months ago we reported that Telekom appeared to have taken its foot off the gas, having shown no statistical improvements in Download Speed Experience compared to May 2019, Telekom is now speeding up again, recording a 5.6 Mbps improvement in users’ speed, and reaching 38.6 Mbps in Download Speed Experience. Vodafone and O2 improved by 4.3 Mbps and 5.2 Mbps respectively, but the experience of their users is still 12.5 Mbps and 15.1 Mbps behind Telekom.
|
Download Speed Experience
Additional Metrics |
T
Telekom
|
V
Vodafone
|
O
O2
|
|---|---|---|---|
| in Mbps | |||
|
4G Download Speed
| 40.5 (± 0.28) | 27.7 (± 0.20) | 26.2 (± 0.17) |
|
3G Download Speed
| 10.8 (± 0.17) | 7.8 (± 0.15) | 9.1 (± 0.09) |
| 4G Download Speed | in Mbps |
|
T
Telekom
|
40 (± 0.28) |
|
V
Vodafone
|
28 (± 0.20) |
|
O
O2
|
26 (± 0.17) |
| 3G Download Speed | in Mbps |
|
T
Telekom
|
11 (± 0.17) |
|
V
Vodafone
|
8 (± 0.15) |
|
O
O2
|
9 (± 0.09) |
Breaking down download speed by technology generation, we see Telekom passing the 40 Mbps mark in 4G Download Speed, while Vodafone and O2 lag behind at 27.7 Mbps and 26.2 Mbps respectively. Telekom’s users also experienced faster 3G Download Speeds of 10.8 Mbps, although Telekom’s lead in the 3G submetric is not as large as it is for 4G.
The three German operators recorded significant improvements in Upload Speed Experience between 1.6 Mbps and 2.0 Mbps, after showing small or no significant change in our previous report. Telekom is now leading with 13.1 Mbps, while O2 and Vodafone are well behind with 8.6 Mbps and 7.9 Mbps respectively.
|
Upload Speed Experience
Additional Metrics |
T
Telekom
|
V
Vodafone
|
O
O2
|
|---|---|---|---|
| in Mbps | |||
|
4G Upload Speed
| 13.9 (± 0.10) | 8.4 (± 0.06) | 9.8 (± 0.06) |
|
3G Upload Speed
| 1.9 (± 0.04) | 2.0 (± 0.05) | 1.9 (± 0.02) |
| 4G Upload Speed | in Mbps |
|
T
Telekom
|
14 (± 0.10) |
|
V
Vodafone
|
8 (± 0.06) |
|
O
O2
|
10 (± 0.06) |
| 3G Upload Speed | in Mbps |
|
T
Telekom
|
2 (± 0.04) |
|
V
Vodafone
|
2 (± 0.05) |
|
O
O2
|
2 (± 0.02) |
Upload speeds are typically slower than download speeds, as current mobile broadband technologies tend to be focused on providing the best possible downstream rates for users consuming content. But the increasing use of social media, content sharing and video chat applications shows that mobile users are not just consuming content but are also creating it. This means that upload speeds are an increasingly important aspect of the mobile network experience.
After seeing Telekom’s 4G Availability stagnate in our last report, our users on its network have now seen the metric rise again. Although Telekom recorded the smallest improvement in 4G Availability — of 4.4 percentage points across the three national operators, this was enough to pass the 90% mark. Vodafone has halved its gap with Telekom and is now only 2 percentage points behind at 88.3%. O2 is also closing in, but the operator is still 7.7 percentage points behind Vodafone.
In the last year, Vodafone and O2 have been consistently closing their 4G Availability gap with the incumbent operator. Vodafone’s 4G Availability increased by 8.9 percentage points, from 79.4% in May 2019 to the current 88.3%, while O2 increased by 13.3 percentage points from 67.3% to 80.6%. In the same period, Telekom moved up 4.8 percentage points to reach 90.3% 4G Availability.
In our first look at the 4G Coverage Experience in Germany, Telekom won the award with a score of 9.4 points (on a scale of 0-10), while Vodafone and O2 followed behind with a score of 9.0 and 8.1 points respectively.
Opensignal’s 4G Coverage Experience is a measure of how Opensignal’s mobile subscribers experience 4G coverage on an operator’s network. Measured on a scale of 0-10, it analyzes the locations where customers of a network operator received a 4G signal relative to the locations visited by Opensignal users of all network operators.
In our analysis of 24 of Germany’s largest cities where we had a total of 144 awards up for the taking, we saw Telekom winning 71 awards and tying for an additional 61. Vodafone won 9 awards and collected 56 draws, while O2 tied for 33 prizes. 20 awards resulted in a three-way draw.
Telekom's dominance in our speed and Video Experience metrics at a national level was reflected in Germany's cities. Telekom won all 24 Upload Speed Experience awards. Of the Download Speed Experience awards, Telekom won 22 outright, tied in Düsseldorf with Vodafone, while losing to the UK-based operator group in Frankfurt. We also saw some of our highest scores on Telekom's network, with the operator passing the 60 Mbps Download Speed Experience milestone in Cologne where it reached 60.6 Mbps. Telekom dominated our Video Experience awards winning in 20 cities and collecting draws with Vodafone in Augsburg, Freiburg, Karlsruhe and Saarbrücken.
Out of the total 48 Games Experience and Voice App Experience awards, 43 resulted in a tie between 2 or even all three operators. Telekom managed to win Games Experience awards outright in Dortmund and Essen, while Vodafone won in Augsburg. Dortmund and Münster were the only two cities not resulting in a Voice App Experience draw, with Telekom winning in the former city and Vodafone in the latter. Interestingly, our users in Berlin, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Leipzig and Nuremberg saw an Excellent Games Experience score (85 and above) across all three operators.
While we have seen Vodafone and O2 closing their 4G Availability gap compared to Telekom at the national level, this was even more evident at the city level. Of the 24 awards available across the cities, 16 cities resulted in a draw with 6 of them being a three-way tie. Vodafone won in Berlin, Bremen, Dresden, Hamburg, Munich and Saarbrücken, while Telekom won only in Frankfurt and Freiburg.
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.
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