Introduction
In this report, we've analyzed our data gathered in the 90 days from the start of March 2020 to compare the mobile network experience of our users across Romania’s four national operators: Digi Mobil, Orange, Telekom and Vodafone. As this period includes the introduction of a state of emergency in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, it also indicates to what degree the Romanian mobile experience has weathered the resulting changes in Romanians’ data consumption habits and locations.
Our Vodafone, Orange and Telekom users reported small drops in Download Speed Experience over the data collection period when compared to that of our last report, of 0.3, 0.7 and 0.8 Mbps, respectively. That said, average download speeds were resilient, being more than 14 Mbps across all four operators. In contrast to its peers, the average download speeds observed by our Digi Mobil users rose from 12.9 Mbps to 14.9 Mbps, an increase of 2.1 Mbps. The modest impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on average download speeds fell away towards the end of this report’s data collection period, as can be seen in our global look at the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mobile experience.
The three-way statistical tie for the Upload Speed Experience award between Vodafone, Telekom and Orange that we observed in our previous report, is still present, with no operator able to break the dead-lock. However, the same can’t be said for the Voice App Experience award, where out of the three same operators, Telekom succeeded in claiming it outright. However, its lead is a slim one as its score is less than 2.7 points higher than that of last-placed Digi Mobil. As a consequence, Telekom will have to work hard if it wishes to hold onto the Voice App Experience award in our next report. Our Vodafone users observed their Voice App Experience decline from Good to Acceptable — causing Vodafone to fall in line with Digi Mobil and Orange and leaving Telekom as the only operator to still place in the Good category for this measure of the mobile experience.
Turning to Video Experience, while Orange has seen its lead over second-placed Vodafone slip from 3.7 points (5.6%) to 2.3 points (3.4%), it has fared less poorly than Telekom, whose users reported a drop of 2.2 points since our last report. As a consequence, it has dropped down a category for this measure of the mobile experience, from Good to Fair, while our users on its competitors’ networks received a Very Good Video Experience.
Although no other operator came close to the 13.2 percentage points improvement in 4G Availability seen by Digi Mobil’s users, on its rival networks users have still seen some significant gains, with those on Telekom and Vodafone seeing increases of 5.2 and 4.4 percentage points, respectively. Our Orange users saw a more modest improvement of 2.3 percentage points. As a consequence, our users across all four of Romania’s national operators observed 4G Availability of more than 80% — when they only did so on two operators — Vodafone and Orange — in our previous report.