Mobile Network Experience Report Chile August 2020

Chile

Mobile Network Experience Report
August 2020

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.

Author
Sue Marek Insights Analyst

Key Findings

Entel claims Chile’s first-ever Games Experience award

Opensignal’s new Games Experience award measures how users experience real-time multiplayer mobile gaming on an operator’s network. In this first-ever operator-level assessment of the Games Experience in Chile, we found that all four operators have room for improvement. Entel was the winner by a long-shot with a score of 48.5 on a 100-point scale. Entel’s score was 15.4% higher than that of Movistar’s, which was in second place with a score of 42. Claro and WOM both scored lower than Entel and Movistar and placed in the Very Poor category. In this category nearly all users found the experience unacceptable and almost all users saw a noticeable delay within the game, with most of them feeling like they had no control of the gameplay.

Claro remains the leader in Video Experience

When it comes to providing a high-quality video experience to their customers, Entel, Movistar and Claro all scored in the Good category with scores between 55-65 on Opensignal’s 100-point scale. However, Claro won the Video Experience award with a score of 62.5. Claro has consistently won this category since March 2019 when Opensignal first started measuring Video Experience in Chile. Entel and Movistar also placed in the Good category with scores of 60.3 and 56.9, respectively. WOM was the only operator to fall into the Fair category with a score of 52.9 (40-55 on a 100-point scale), down from the score of 55.5 seen in our last report. A Good score means that users had a less consistent experience, even from the same video streaming provider and particularly for higher resolutions, when compared to users enjoying either a Very Good or Excellent Video Experience. Slower loading times and stalling were not uncommon. A Fair ranking means that users experienced very slow loading times and prolonged stalling with high resolution videos yet their experience with lower resolution videos from some providers may have been sufficient.

Entel, Movistar and Claro score a three-way tie for Voice App Experience award

Three out of four of Chile’s mobile operators statistically tied to win Opensignal’s Voice App Experience award, which assesses the perceived quality of voice calls on communication apps such as WhatsApp, Skype or Facebook Messenger. Entel, Movistar and Claro all scored a Poor rating (66-74 on a 100-point scale), which means users were dissatisfied and experienced call quality problems such as distortion, clicking sounds or silence during their calls. WOM’s score was slightly lower than the other three but also in the Poor category.

Claro and Entel tie for the Download Speed Experience award

Claro and Entel statistically tied for the top spot in Download Speed Experience with scores of 16.5 Mbps and 16.3 Mbps respectively. There is, however, a big speed gap between Claro and Entel and the third place operator Movistar, our users on the latter’s network clocked download speeds of just 10.5 Mbps. This is between 5.9 Mbps and 6 Mbps slower than the top two operators in this category. WOM’s score of 9.4 Mbps puts the operator in last place. In Opensignal’s May report, “State of the Mobile Network Experience 2020: One Year in the 5G Era,” Chile ranked No. 64 in download speeds out of the 100 countries that Opensignal measured.

Entel is the leader in 4G Availability and 4G Coverage

Entel maintained its strength in 4G Availability by winning this award with a score of 85.3%, which is 4.6 percentage points ahead of WOM’s score of 80.6%. This means that Opensignal users on Entel’s and WOM’s networks were able to, on average, connect to 4G services more than 80% of the time. Entel also was the winner of the 4G Coverage Experience award with a score of 8.0 on a scale of 1-10. This is an increase from a 7.9 score in our March 2020 report. This award measures how mobile subscribers experience 4G coverage on an operator’s network relative to locations visited by users of all network operators.

Introduction

Chile enjoys a competitive wireless market with four national operators. In addition, the country's president just announced plans for a 5G spectrum auction. Chilean President Sebastian Pinera said that companies that want to participate in the auction will be evaluated by their technical capabilities as well as their financial resources. Pinera estimated that 5G will reach 90% of Chile’s population but didn’t provide a timeline for when it will be available.

On the 4G front, Entel continues to be a leader among the mobile operators in Chile. The mobile operator won three Opensignal awards outright and tied for another three awards. The only award that it didn’t win outright or tie for the winning position was Video Experience, which Claro won.

In terms of 4G Coverage Experience, Entel achieved a score of 8.0 on a scale of 1-10 for the first time. This is an increase from a score of 7.9 in our March 2020 report. Claro and WOM also saw their scores rise by 0.1 points, while Movistar’s has not changed since our last report.

However, in 4G Availability we saw a slight decline among three of the four operators. Claro had the largest decline of 3.4 percentage points from a score of 75% in our March 2020 report to a score of 71.5%.

We also saw a decline in other categories as well. In Video Experience, Claro won the category with a score of 62.5 but that was a 1.7% decline from 64.2 in March. WOM had a 4.7% decline in its Video Experience score from 55.5 in March to 52.9 in August. In Voice App Experience, Entel experienced a 5.2% decline from a score of 76.6 in March to 72.7 in August and WOM saw its score decline 5.5% from 70.9 in March to 67 in August. These declines were most likely related to the COVID-19 pandemic. In mid-April the Chilean government instituted a general lockdown in the city of Santiago and wide swathes of the country. The lockdowns caused an increase in data consumption, which in turn resulted in more congestion on the cellular networks. The lockdowns in Chile were only recently relaxed in some parts of the country. Opensignal took an in-depth look at the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mobile networks around the globe in this June report.

In Download Speed Experience we also saw some declines. Entel, which tied for first place with Claro, saw its download speed score decline by 1.7 Mbps from 18. in our last report to 16.3 Mbps. WOM saw its Download Speed Experience score decline from 10.3 Mbps to 9.4 Mbps. And in Upload Speed Experience our users also saw some decreases. Entel, which tied for first place with WOM, saw its Upload speed decline from 9.7 Mbps in our previous report to 8.5 Mbps. Movistar also saw a slight drop from 6.4 Mbps in March to 5.8 Mbps in August.

In this report, we’ve analyzed the mobile network experience for Chile’s four national operators, Entel, Movistar, Claro and WOM, over a 90-day period starting May 1, 2020 and ending July 29, 2020.

Opensignal Awards Table

Mobile Experience Awards Chile
August 2020, Chile Report
Video Experience
Games Experience
Voice App Experience
Download Speed Experience
Upload Speed Experience
4G Availability
4G Coverage Experience
Download Image
Mobile Experience Awards Winners
August 2020, Chile
Video Experience
Games Experience
4G Availability
4G Coverage Experience
Mobile Experience Awards Draws
August 2020, Chile
Voice App Experience
Download Speed Experience
Upload Speed Experience
Download Image

Overview

Click on metric labels below for a quick preview
Video Experience
in 0-100 points
Entel
60.3
Movistar
56.9
Claro
62.5
WOM
52.9
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
The brackets represent confidence intervals.
Download Image

National Analysis

Video Experience

Video Experience
in 0-100 points
Entel
60.3
Movistar
56.9
Claro
62.5
WOM
52.9
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
The brackets represent confidence intervals.
Download Image
Video Experience
Additional Metrics
in 0-100 points
4G Video Experience
63.2 (± 0.38) 61.2 (± 0.52) 69.2 (± 0.59) 56.9 (± 0.52)
3G Video Experience
45.2 (± 1.08) 43.2 (± 1.42) 48.0 (± 1.35) 38.5 (± 1.18)
+/- numeric values represent confidence intervals.
Mobile Network Experience Report | August 2020 | © Opensignal Limited
4G Video Experience in 0-100 points
63 (± 0.38)
61 (± 0.52)
69 (± 0.59)
57 (± 0.52)
3G Video Experience in 0-100 points
45 (± 1.08)
43 (± 1.42)
48 (± 1.35)
38 (± 1.18)
Mobile Network Experience Report | August 2020 | © Opensignal Inc.

Games Experience

Games Experience
in 0-100 points
Entel
48.5
Movistar
42.0
Claro
39.9
WOM
37.2
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
The brackets represent confidence intervals.
Download Image
Games Experience
Additional Metrics
in 0-100 points
4G Games Experience
53.7 (± 0.80) 54.4 (± 0.77) 50.3 (± 0.95) 38.4 (± 0.14)
3G Games Experience
37.4 (± 0.21) 34.6 (± 0.30) 36.3 (± 0.25) 33.0 (± 0.23)
+/- numeric values represent confidence intervals.
Mobile Network Experience Report | August 2020 | © Opensignal Limited
4G Games Experience in 0-100 points
54 (± 0.80)
54 (± 0.77)
50 (± 0.95)
38 (± 0.14)
3G Games Experience in 0-100 points
37 (± 0.21)
35 (± 0.30)
36 (± 0.25)
33 (± 0.23)
Mobile Network Experience Report | August 2020 | © Opensignal Inc.

Voice App Experience

Voice App Experience
in 0-100 points
Entel
72.7
Movistar
72.4
Claro
72.4
WOM
67.0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
The brackets represent confidence intervals.
Download Image
Voice App Experience
Additional Metrics
in 0-100 points
4G Voice App Experience
73.9 (± 0.30) 75.5 (± 0.34) 75.4 (± 0.41) 69.0 (± 0.37)
3G Voice App Experience
66.4 (± 0.59) 62.7 (± 0.72) 65.8 (± 0.60) 59.8 (± 0.61)
+/- numeric values represent confidence intervals.
Mobile Network Experience Report | August 2020 | © Opensignal Limited
4G Voice App Experience in 0-100 points
74 (± 0.30)
75 (± 0.34)
75 (± 0.41)
69 (± 0.37)
3G Voice App Experience in 0-100 points
66 (± 0.59)
63 (± 0.72)
66 (± 0.60)
60 (± 0.61)
Mobile Network Experience Report | August 2020 | © Opensignal Inc.

Download Speed Experience

Download Speed Experience
in Mbps
Entel
16.3
Movistar
10.5
Claro
16.5
WOM
9.4
05101520
The brackets represent confidence intervals.
Download Image
Download Speed Experience
Additional Metrics
in Mbps
4G Download Speed
18.4 (± 0.25) 12.5 (± 0.22) 21.5 (± 0.43) 10.9 (± 0.19)
3G Download Speed
6.0 (± 0.16) 4.1 (± 0.12) 5.6 (± 0.17) 4.2 (± 0.09)
+/- numeric values represent confidence intervals.
Mobile Network Experience Report | August 2020 | © Opensignal Limited
4G Download Speed in Mbps
18 (± 0.25)
13 (± 0.22)
22 (± 0.43)
11 (± 0.19)
3G Download Speed in Mbps
6 (± 0.16)
4 (± 0.12)
6 (± 0.17)
4 (± 0.09)
Mobile Network Experience Report | August 2020 | © Opensignal Inc.

Upload Speed Experience

Upload Speed Experience
in Mbps
Entel
8.5
Movistar
5.8
Claro
6.3
WOM
8.3
02.557.510
The brackets represent confidence intervals.
Download Image
Upload Speed Experience
Additional Metrics
in Mbps
4G Upload Speed
9.9 (± 0.11) 7.2 (± 0.12) 8.5 (± 0.16) 10.4 (± 0.14)
3G Upload Speed
1.6 (± 0.05) 1.2 (± 0.04) 1.7 (± 0.08) 1.0 (± 0.03)
+/- numeric values represent confidence intervals.
Mobile Network Experience Report | August 2020 | © Opensignal Limited
4G Upload Speed in Mbps
10 (± 0.11)
7 (± 0.12)
8 (± 0.16)
10 (± 0.14)
3G Upload Speed in Mbps
2 (± 0.05)
1 (± 0.04)
2 (± 0.08)
1 (± 0.03)
Mobile Network Experience Report | August 2020 | © Opensignal Inc.

4G Availability

4G Availability
% of time
Entel
85.3
Movistar
79.7
Claro
71.5
WOM
80.6
022.54567.590
The brackets represent confidence intervals.
Download Image

4G Coverage Experience

4G Coverage Experience
in 0-10 points
Entel
8.0
Movistar
7.8
Claro
7.0
WOM
7.4
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
The brackets represent confidence intervals.
Download Image
Learn more

Opensignal measures the real-world experience of consumers on mobile networks in the places they live, work and travel.

We continually adapt our methodology to best represent the true experience of smartphone users. Therefore, comparisons of the results to past reports should be considered indicative only.

For every metric we calculate statistical confidence intervals indicated on our graphs. When confidence intervals overlap, our measured results are too close to declare a winner. In those cases, we show a statistical draw. For this reason, some metrics have multiple winners.

In our bar graphs we represent confidence intervals as boundaries on either sides of graph bars. In our supporting-metric charts we show confidence intervals as +/- numerical values.

More about Methodology

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For every metric we calculate statistical confidence intervals indicated on our graphs. When confidence intervals overlap, our measured results are too close to declare a winner. In those cases, we show a statistical draw. For this reason, some metrics have multiple operator winners.

In our bar graphs we represent confidence intervals as boundaries on either sides of graph bars.

In our supporting-metric charts we show confidence intervals as +/- numerical values.

Why confidence intervals are vital in analyzing mobile network experience