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Gaming is important to Taiwanese users and they benefit from having a good overall gaming experience. Three out of five Taiwanese operators received Good ratings in Opensignal’s new Games Experience Award, which measures how mobile users experience real-time multiplayer mobile gaming on an operator’s network. Taiwan Mobile, Chunghwa Mobile (CHT) and FarEasTone (FET) achieved scores of 75 and above on a scale of 0-100 but Taiwan Mobile was the leader with a score of 80.5 making it the winner of Opensignal's Games Experience award. A Good rating means the gameplay experience is generally controllable and the user receives immediate feedback between their actions and the outcomes in the game.
Two Taiwanese operators have now moved into the top category when it comes to their users’ high quality video experience. Both CHT and Taiwan Mobile have earned Excellent ratings, up from the Very Good ratings they received in our last report. CHT won the category with a score of 76.7 on a 0-100 scale. Taiwan Mobile was slightly behind CHT with a score of 75.3. An Excellent rating means that users had a very consistent experience with fast loading times and almost non-existent stalling. FET narrowly missed getting an Excellent rating with a score of 74.8, so it remained in the Very Good category, which means customers generally experienced fast loading times with only occasional stalling.
Taiwanese users have a pretty good experience if they want to make voice calls over communication apps such as WhatsApp, Skype or Facebook Messenger. Four of the five Taiwanese operators achieved scores of 80 and above on a scale of 0-100 meaning that they achieved a Good ranking in terms of user experience. FET, Taiwan Mobile and CHT ended up with a three-way tie to win this category. T Star fell slightly below the other three but still achieved a Good ranking with a score of 80.2. GT was the only operator to fall into the Acceptable category with a score of 79.2.
CHT once again won first place in Download Speed Experience, an award it has held since our July 2018 report. Our users on its network observed an average overall download speed of 38.5 Mbps — 8.7 Mbps faster than with rival FET, which had a score of 29.8 Mbps. Taiwan Mobile was only slightly behind with a score of 28 Mbps. In Upload Speed Experience, FET earned the first place slot with a score of 11.6 Mbps compared to CHT with a score of 10.7 Mbps and Taiwan Mobile with a score of 10.4 Mbps.
Taiwanese operators are very strong in 4G Availability, the time users spend connected to 4G. Taiwan Mobile and FET statistically tied for the top spot in this category with scores of 96.5% and 96.4% respectively. GT was just slightly lower than those two with a 95.7% score. All three of these Taiwanese operators now surpass the 95% mark in 4G Availability and all five Taiwanese operators have exceeded the 90% threshold. In 4G Coverage Experience, CHT was the winner. This measures how mobile subscribers experience 4G coverage on an operator’s network relative to locations visited by users of all network operators. CHT received a score of 9.8 on a scale of 0-10. While CHT was the leader, the other Taiwanese operators scored high in this category as well. Taiwan Mobile, FET and T Star all had scores over 9.0 with GT scoring 8.8.
Taiwan enjoys a very dynamic mobile market with strong coverage and intense competition among its five operators.
In January, Taiwan wrapped up its auction of 5G spectrum with all five operators participating and spending about US$4.6 billion on spectrum, making it the third-priciest spectrum auction in the world, according to Taipei Times CHT plans to be the first to launch a commercial 5G service on July 1. The move to 5G will set off a new round of competition in Taiwan as operators look to use 5G to differentiate their offerings.
Of course, key to Taiwan’s 5G rollout is the strength of its underlying 4G network. The first version of 5G (non-standalone access) uses the underlying 4G network, so 5G phones must be able to connect to a 4G signal to use 5G. Taiwanese users benefit from having very strong 4G Availability, with three operators — FET, Taiwan Mobile and GT — all offering 4G Availability of 95% or higher. According to our recent State of Mobile Experience 2020 report, only six countries currently have 4G Availability that exceeds 95%: Taiwan, the U.S., the Netherlands, Japan, South Korea and Norway. It’s also important to note that GT users benefit from that operator’s roaming relationship with Taiwan Mobile, which means that GT users roam on Taiwan Mobile’s network when necessary.
Not surprisingly, operators in Taiwan are very focused on delivering a strong gaming experience to their subscribers. In our February 2020 report on the State of the Mobile Games Experience in the 5G Era , Taiwan ranked No. 24 out of 100 countries. In fact, the country had a slight edge over Canada, which we have seen has some of the best download speeds in the world.
In our analysis of data from Opensignal users in Taiwan from February 1 until April 30, 2020, Taiwan Mobile won our first-ever Games Experience Award in Taiwan. If you’d like to see how your favorite gaming apps are performing with your current internet speed, download Opensignal’s Meteor app, available for Android and iOS.
But the island isn’t only strong in gaming. Our results also show that Taiwanese consumers enjoy a pretty good experience with voice apps. In Opensignal’s Voice App Experience category, which assesses the perceived quality of voice calls using apps like WhatsApp, Skype or Facebook Messenger, four out of the five Taiwanese operators achieved scores of 80 and above on a scale of 1-100 with GT only falling slightly below 80 with a score of 79.2.
Here’s a link to the Chinese language version of this report.
| Mobile Experience Awards Taiwan | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
June 2020,
Taiwan Report
|
G
GT
|
F
FarEasTone
|
C
Chunghwa
|
T
Taiwan Mobile
|
T
T Star
|
Video Experience
| |||||
Games Experience
| |||||
Voice App Experience
| |||||
Download Speed Experience
| |||||
Upload Speed Experience
| |||||
4G Availability
| |||||
4G Coverage Experience
| |||||
|
Mobile Experience Awards Winners
|
June 2020,
Taiwan
|
|---|---|
|
Video Experience
|
C
Chunghwa
|
|
Games Experience
|
T
Taiwan Mobile
|
|
Download Speed Experience
|
C
Chunghwa
|
|
Upload Speed Experience
|
F
FarEasTone
|
|
4G Coverage Experience
|
C
Chunghwa
|
|
Mobile Experience Awards Draws
|
June 2020, Taiwan
|
|---|---|
|
Voice App Experience
|
F
FarEasTone
C
Chunghwa
T
Taiwan Mobile
|
|
4G Availability
|
F
FarEasTone
T
Taiwan Mobile
|
Taiwanese users experience better streaming video on their mobile devices than many users around the globe. Two of Taiwan’s operators — CHT and Taiwan Mobile — have Video Experience scores in the Excellent range, which means that our users enjoyed a very consistent experience with fast loading times and almost non-existent stalling. FET and T-Star earned Very Good ratings, which means Opensignal users on their networks experienced generally fast loading times with only occasional stalling. GT was the only operator to receive a Good rating, scoring 63.3 on a 0-100 scale, which means Opensignal users on its network had a less consistent experience with slower loading times.
|
Video Experience
Additional Metrics |
G
GT
|
F
FarEasTone
|
C
Chunghwa
|
T
Taiwan Mobile
|
T
T Star
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| in 0-100 points | |||||
|
4G Video Experience
| 63.2 (± 0.76) | 75.6 (± 0.36) | 78.1 (± 0.27) | 76.0 (± 0.41) | 71.7 (± 0.60) |
|
3G Video Experience
| — | 54.6 (± 4.05) | 54.6 (± 2.34) | 55.6 (± 3.53) | 49.8 (± 2.91) |
| 4G Video Experience | in 0-100 points |
|
G
GT
|
63 (± 0.76) |
|
F
FarEasTone
|
76 (± 0.36) |
|
C
Chunghwa
|
78 (± 0.27) |
|
T
Taiwan Mobile
|
76 (± 0.41) |
|
T
T Star
|
72 (± 0.60) |
| 3G Video Experience | in 0-100 points |
|
G
GT
|
— |
|
F
FarEasTone
|
55 (± 4.05) |
|
C
Chunghwa
|
55 (± 2.34) |
|
T
Taiwan Mobile
|
56 (± 3.53) |
|
T
T Star
|
50 (± 2.91) |
When it comes to 4G Video Experience, CHT once again earned an Excellent rating with a score of 78.1 on a scale of 0-100. Taiwan Mobile was a close second with a score of 76.0 and that also puts it in the Excellent range.
Opensignal measured the mobile gaming experience in Taiwan for the first time and we learned that our users have a pretty decent experience playing multiplayer games over a cellular network. Taiwan Mobile was the winner in this area with a score of 80.5 on a 0-100 scale. CHT came in second with a score of 79. FET followed with a score of 77.7. All three of these operators placed in the Good Category (75-85) on a scale of 0-100. This means that most users found the experience acceptable and did not experience a delay between their actions and the game.
T-Star with a score of 70.8 and GT with a score of 66.8 placed in the Fair category which means that users found the experience to be “average”. In most cases the game was responsive to the actions of the player but the majority of users experienced some delays.
|
Games Experience
Additional Metrics |
G
GT
|
F
FarEasTone
|
C
Chunghwa
|
T
Taiwan Mobile
|
T
T Star
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| in 0-100 points | |||||
|
4G Games Experience
| 66.7 (± 1.36) | 79.5 (± 0.78) | 81.6 (± 0.62) | 82.2 (± 0.80) | 73.3 (± 0.68) |
|
3G Games Experience
| — | 44.5 (± 4.60) | 46.1 (± 3.05) | 43.4 (± 5.80) | 38.8 (± 0.70) |
| 4G Games Experience | in 0-100 points |
|
G
GT
|
67 (± 1.36) |
|
F
FarEasTone
|
80 (± 0.78) |
|
C
Chunghwa
|
82 (± 0.62) |
|
T
Taiwan Mobile
|
82 (± 0.80) |
|
T
T Star
|
73 (± 0.68) |
| 3G Games Experience | in 0-100 points |
|
G
GT
|
— |
|
F
FarEasTone
|
45 (± 4.60) |
|
C
Chunghwa
|
46 (± 3.05) |
|
T
Taiwan Mobile
|
43 (± 5.80) |
|
T
T Star
|
39 (± 0.70) |
Opensignal’s newly released Games Experience metric measures how mobile users experience real-time multiplayer mobile gaming on an operator’s network. It was developed from several years of research looking at the relationship between the technical network parameters and the gaming experience as reported by real mobile users. These parameters include latency (round trip time), jitter (variability of latency) and packet loss (the proportion of data packets that never reach their destination). Additionally, 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 Arena of Valor and PUBG — played around the world.
In Opensignal’s Voice App Experience analysis four of the five operators in Taiwan achieved scores of 80 and above on a scale of 1-100 which means all four operators received a Good ranking (80-87). A Good ranking means that many Opensignal users on their network were satisfied when using over-the-top voice apps but some users might have experienced minor quality problems such as background noise, clicking or other distortion.
Three operators — FET, Taiwan Mobile and CHT — statistically tied for the leading slot in Voice App Experience with scores of 82.4, 82.3 and 82.1 respectively. T Star also scored in the Good category with a score of 80.2. GT had the lowest score in the Voice App category with a 79.2, which puts it in the Acceptable range. This means that users were satisfied with their experience but some of them may have had call quality issues such as clicking sounds or distortion and/or the volume might not have been sufficiently loud.
|
Voice App Experience
Additional Metrics |
G
GT
|
F
FarEasTone
|
C
Chunghwa
|
T
Taiwan Mobile
|
T
T Star
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| in 0-100 points | |||||
|
4G Voice App Experience
| 79.2 (± 0.48) | 82.5 (± 0.23) | 82.6 (± 0.18) | 82.6 (± 0.23) | 80.8 (± 0.30) |
|
3G Voice App Experience
| — | 75.6 (± 1.38) | 75.0 (± 1.08) | 75.4 (± 1.66) | 71.8 (± 1.51) |
| 4G Voice App Experience | in 0-100 points |
|
G
GT
|
79 (± 0.48) |
|
F
FarEasTone
|
83 (± 0.23) |
|
C
Chunghwa
|
83 (± 0.18) |
|
T
Taiwan Mobile
|
83 (± 0.23) |
|
T
T Star
|
81 (± 0.30) |
| 3G Voice App Experience | in 0-100 points |
|
G
GT
|
— |
|
F
FarEasTone
|
76 (± 1.38) |
|
C
Chunghwa
|
75 (± 1.08) |
|
T
Taiwan Mobile
|
75 (± 1.66) |
|
T
T Star
|
72 (± 1.51) |
Opensignal also reported on two supporting measurements related to the voice app — the 4G Voice App Experience and the 3G Voice App Experience. In the 4G Voice App Experience both CHT and Taiwan Mobile earned a score of 82.6,, FET earned a score of 82.5 score, and T-Star achieved a score of 80.8. All of these earned a Good rating (80-87) on a scale of 1-100. GT was the only operator to receive an Acceptable score (79.2).
CHT dominated its rivals once again in Download Speed Experience. The overall download speed experienced by CHT users was 38.5 Mbps, which is 8.7 Mbps faster than its closest rival, FET, and 10.5 Mbps faster than Taiwan Mobile. T Star and GT were quite far behind in Download Speed Experience, with scores of 20.4 Mbps and 16.4 Mbps respectively.
|
Download Speed Experience
Additional Metrics |
G
GT
|
F
FarEasTone
|
C
Chunghwa
|
T
Taiwan Mobile
|
T
T Star
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| in Mbps | |||||
|
4G Download Speed
| 16.4 (± 0.36) | 30.7 (± 0.52) | 40.5 (± 0.47) | 28.8 (± 0.44) | 21.3 (± 0.34) |
|
3G Download Speed
| — | 5.3 (± 0.28) | 5.7 (± 0.21) | 5.1 (± 0.28) | 4.8 (± 0.22) |
| 4G Download Speed | in Mbps |
|
G
GT
|
16 (± 0.36) |
|
F
FarEasTone
|
31 (± 0.52) |
|
C
Chunghwa
|
41 (± 0.47) |
|
T
Taiwan Mobile
|
29 (± 0.44) |
|
T
T Star
|
21 (± 0.34) |
| 3G Download Speed | in Mbps |
|
G
GT
|
— |
|
F
FarEasTone
|
5 (± 0.28) |
|
C
Chunghwa
|
6 (± 0.21) |
|
T
Taiwan Mobile
|
5 (± 0.28) |
|
T
T Star
|
5 (± 0.22) |
When we look at 4G Download Speeds, CHT maintains its strong lead with a score of 40.5 Mbps. The average 4G download speeds observed by our CHT users were 9.8 Mbps faster than their FET counterparts, who saw the second fastest average 4G speeds (30.7 Mbps).
FET won this category — our users on its network observed average upload speeds of 11.6 Mbps. Our users on CHT and Taiwan Mobile observed average upload speeds of 10.7 Mbps and 10.4 Mbps, respectively. Upload speeds are becoming increasingly important as mobile users are spending more time uploading videos to social media services like TikTok or Twitch.
|
Upload Speed Experience
Additional Metrics |
G
GT
|
F
FarEasTone
|
C
Chunghwa
|
T
Taiwan Mobile
|
T
T Star
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| in Mbps | |||||
|
4G Upload Speed
| 4.7 (± 0.13) | 12.0 (± 0.18) | 11.3 (± 0.14) | 10.8 (± 0.16) | 7.4 (± 0.13) |
|
3G Upload Speed
| — | 1.4 (± 0.11) | 1.0 (± 0.05) | 1.5 (± 0.10) | 1.0 (± 0.08) |
| 4G Upload Speed | in Mbps |
|
G
GT
|
5 (± 0.13) |
|
F
FarEasTone
|
12 (± 0.18) |
|
C
Chunghwa
|
11 (± 0.14) |
|
T
Taiwan Mobile
|
11 (± 0.16) |
|
T
T Star
|
7 (± 0.13) |
| 3G Upload Speed | in Mbps |
|
G
GT
|
— |
|
F
FarEasTone
|
1 (± 0.11) |
|
C
Chunghwa
|
1 (± 0.05) |
|
T
Taiwan Mobile
|
2 (± 0.10) |
|
T
T Star
|
1 (± 0.08) |
Interestingly, when we break down 3G versus 4G connections, we find our users on FET topping 12.0 Mbps in 4G Upload Speed, while our users on CHT observed average 4G upload speeds of 11.3 Mbps. Our GT users meanwhile saw significantly lower 4G upload speeds of just 4.7 Mbps.
Taiwan Mobile and FarEasTone statistically tied for first place in our 4G Availability metric with Taiwan Mobile scoring 96.5% and FET achieving 96.4%. GT was slightly behind with a score of 95.7%, but this was a one percentage point improvement from our last report and it means that all three of these operators now surpass the 95% availability mark when it comes to 4G Availability.
As previously mentioned, all of Taiwan's operators are strong in this metric. Users on all five of Taiwan’s mobile networks experienced 4G Availability scores of 93.5% and higher indicating it is easy to find a 4G connection in the country.
CHT was the winner in Opensignal’s 4G Coverage Experience with a score of 9.8 on a scale of 1-10. FET and Taiwan Mobile drew for second place both with scores of 9.5. The higher the number means our users experienced 4G Coverage in more locations of higher relative importance according to the population that spends time in them.
T Star increased its 4G Coverage slightly from our last report with a score of 9.3 up from 9.2 in December. GT also saw its 4G Coverage score move up a little from 8.7 last December to 8.8.
In our regional analysis, we assessed the mobile experience in seven of Taiwan’s largest cities — Hsinchu City, Kaohsiung, New Taipei, Taichung, Tainan, Taipei and Taoyuan. It’s notable that in several of the cities there’s fierce competition between CHT, FET and Taiwan Mobile. Overall, CHT had nine wins and 24 draws; FET had five wins and 23 draws; and Taiwan Mobile had 0 wins and 23 draws.
CHT, which was the national leader in Video Experience, won in four cities but in the other three cities there was a closer race. CHT tied with Taiwan Mobile and FET in Taichung, drew with Taiwan Mobile in Taoyuan and tied with FET in the city of Kaohsiung.
Games Experience was another area of fierce competition. Taiwan Mobile was the winner of the national award but at the regional level it tied with CHT in all seven cities and in four of these — Kaohsiung, Taichung, Tainan, and Taoyuan — there was a three-way tie between Taiwan Mobile, CHT and FET.
CHT easily won the Download Experience award at a national level but on the regional level it tied with FET in the cities of Taichung and Kaohsiung.
Similarly, FET easily won the Upload Experience award at the national level but faced competition from CHT and Taiwan Mobile on the city level. FET won outright in five cities but tied with CHT and Taiwan Mobile in Tainan and Hsinchu City.
Interestingly, in 4G Availability, the city of Kaohsiung benefits from some of the highest scores with GT logging a score of 98.2% and FET with 97.4%.
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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