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Our first operator-level analysis of the Games Experience in Belgium has revealed that our Orange users have enjoyed the best experience. Orange’s score of 80.6 was 3.8 points ahead of second-placed Proximus. That said, both Orange and Proximus have placed in the Good (75-85) category, in contrast to Telenet whose score of 72.6 puts it in the Fair (65-75) category. Opensignal’s Games Experience quantifies the experience when playing real-time multiplayer mobile games on mobile devices connected to servers located around the world.
Back in March, Telenet and Proximus scored 45.2 Mbps and 40.3 Mbps for Download Speed Experience, respectively. This time round, their scores have dropped to 40.9 Mbps and 36.3 Mbps, respectively — indicating declines of 4.3 Mbps (9.5%) and 4 Mbps (9.9%). In contrast, Orange users’ speeds were more resilient — dropping by just 0.4 Mbps to 30 Mbps. Despite the declines, Telenet was able to hold onto the Download Speed Experience award and its lead over second-placed Proximus actually increased in percentage terms — rising from 12.3% to 12.8%.
Proximus and Orange statistically tied for the Voice App Experience award, in contrast to our last report when Proximus won it outright. This occurred largely because Orange’s score fell by 3.6 points (4.4%) compared to the drop of 4.9 points (5.8%) observed by our Proximus users. In our last report, our Telenet, Orange and Proximus users reported Voice App Experience scores in the 82.4–83.5 range and as a consequence all three placed in the Good category. This time round, the highest score was below 80, causing the three operators to drop down a category to earn Acceptable ratings. This means that some users were satisfied but also may have experienced perceptible call quality impairments such as clicking sounds or distortion for short durations, and/or the volume may not be sufficiently loud. However, our users were generally able to comprehend without repetition.
In contrast to Voice App Experience, when we look at Video Experience none of the three national Belgium operators has dropped down a category, with all three still in the Excellent category — the highest rating we have for this measure of the mobile experience. Proximus’s score dropped by 3.1 points and Telenet’s by 0.6 points. In contrast, Orange’s rose by 1.1 points to 76.5 points.
Proximus is the only national operator to have won more than one award outright — Video Experience and 4G Coverage Experience — but its grip on our award table has weakened since our previous report, when it won five out of seven awards. However, while Telenet has drawn with it for Upload Speed Experience and Orange has done the same on Voice App Experience — two awards that Proximus won outright in our last report — Proximus has drawn with Telenet on 4G Availability, which Telenet previously won outright.
This is the first time that Opensignal has assessed how mobile users experience real-time multiplayer mobile gaming at the operator-level in Belgium. Orange comfortably beat second-placed Proximus by 3.8 points to win the Games Experience Award. Both Orange and Proximus have placed in the Good (75-85) category, while Telenet earned a Fair (65-75) rating. A Good rating indicates that most users deemed the experience acceptable. In addition, the gameplay experience was generally controllable and most users did not experience a delay between their actions and the game. A Fair rating on the other hand, means that users found the experience to be ‘average’ and the majority noticed a delay between their actions and the outcomes in the game.
Measured on a scale of 0-100, Opensignal’s Games Experience metric quantifies the experience when playing real-time multiplayer mobile games on mobile devices connected to servers located around the world. The approach is built on several years of research quantifying the relationship between 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 Fortnite, Pro Evolution Soccer and Arena of Valor) played around the world.
In contrast to our previous report when our users saw significant improvements in most of our measures of the mobile network experience, this time round they saw declines in the majority of the operators’ scores. For example, the average overall download speeds observed by our Telenet and Proximus users fell by 4.3 Mbps (9.5%) and 4 Mbps (9.9%), respectively. In contrast, our Orange users saw their speeds drop by only 0.4 Mbps (1.4%). Orange was also the only operator to see its Video Experience score increase, but Telenet was the only operator not to see a significant drop in its Upload Speed Experience score
It is worth noting that a lot has happened in recent months and the stage is set for long-term improvements in Belgium’s mobile network experience. For example, Proximus launched its commercial 5G service on April 1st using its existing spectrum and infrastructure and by early June had expanded its 5G network to an additional 26 locations in Flanders. In mid July the Belgian Institute for Postal Services and Telecommunications (BIPT) granted temporary rights to spectrum in the 3.6GHz-3.8GHz band to five operators to allow them to proceed with 5G deployments until a spectrum auction can be organised.
Unfortunately, opposition to 5G deployments has already hampered Proximus’s 5G rollout and it has had to suspend its 5G service in some areas, which implies that any positive impact from the introduction of 5G on the country’s mobile network experience may take longer to make its presence felt compared to some other European countries where the general public is less concerned about 5G deployments.
| Mobile Experience Awards Belgium | |||
|---|---|---|---|
September 2020,
Belgium Report
|
P
Proximus
|
O
Orange
|
T
Telenet
|
Video Experience
| |||
Games Experience
| |||
Voice App Experience
| |||
Download Speed Experience
| |||
Upload Speed Experience
| |||
4G Availability
| |||
4G Coverage Experience
| |||
|
Mobile Experience Awards Winners
|
September 2020,
Belgium
|
|---|---|
|
Video Experience
|
P
Proximus
|
|
Games Experience
|
O
Orange
|
|
Download Speed Experience
|
T
Telenet
|
|
4G Coverage Experience
|
P
Proximus
|
|
Mobile Experience Awards Draws
|
September 2020, Belgium
|
|---|---|
|
Voice App Experience
|
P
Proximus
O
Orange
|
|
Upload Speed Experience
|
P
Proximus
T
Telenet
|
|
4G Availability
|
P
Proximus
T
Telenet
|
|
Video Experience
Additional Metrics |
P
Proximus
|
O
Orange
|
T
Telenet
|
|---|---|---|---|
| in 0-100 points | |||
|
4G Video Experience
| 78.3 (± 0.48) | 78.1 (± 0.56) | 77.5 (± 0.52) |
|
3G Video Experience
| 63.7 (± 3.37) | 62.1 (± 2.97) | 58.8 (± 3.53) |
| 4G Video Experience | in 0-100 points |
|
P
Proximus
|
78 (± 0.48) |
|
O
Orange
|
78 (± 0.56) |
|
T
Telenet
|
78 (± 0.52) |
| 3G Video Experience | in 0-100 points |
|
P
Proximus
|
64 (± 3.37) |
|
O
Orange
|
62 (± 2.97) |
|
T
Telenet
|
59 (± 3.53) |
|
Games Experience
Additional Metrics |
P
Proximus
|
O
Orange
|
T
Telenet
|
|---|---|---|---|
| in 0-100 points | |||
|
4G Games Experience
| 81.7 (± 1.26) | 85.0 (± 0.13) | 77.5 (± 1.57) |
|
3G Games Experience
| 38.4 (± 0.87) | 43.1 (± 5.13) | 38.4 (± 1.13) |
| 4G Games Experience | in 0-100 points |
|
P
Proximus
|
82 (± 1.26) |
|
O
Orange
|
85 (± 0.13) |
|
T
Telenet
|
78 (± 1.57) |
| 3G Games Experience | in 0-100 points |
|
P
Proximus
|
38 (± 0.87) |
|
O
Orange
|
43 (± 5.13) |
|
T
Telenet
|
38 (± 1.13) |
|
Voice App Experience
Additional Metrics |
P
Proximus
|
O
Orange
|
T
Telenet
|
|---|---|---|---|
| in 0-100 points | |||
|
4G Voice App Experience
| 79.4 (± 0.47) | 80.1 (± 0.52) | 79.3 (± 0.55) |
|
3G Voice App Experience
| 69.0 (± 2.12) | 72.0 (± 1.86) | 66.1 (± 2.67) |
| 4G Voice App Experience | in 0-100 points |
|
P
Proximus
|
79 (± 0.47) |
|
O
Orange
|
80 (± 0.52) |
|
T
Telenet
|
79 (± 0.55) |
| 3G Voice App Experience | in 0-100 points |
|
P
Proximus
|
69 (± 2.12) |
|
O
Orange
|
72 (± 1.86) |
|
T
Telenet
|
66 (± 2.67) |
|
Download Speed Experience
Additional Metrics |
P
Proximus
|
O
Orange
|
T
Telenet
|
|---|---|---|---|
| in Mbps | |||
|
4G Download Speed
| 38.5 (± 0.91) | 32.4 (± 0.75) | 44.4 (± 1.35) |
|
3G Download Speed
| 7.2 (± 0.59) | 8.4 (± 0.67) | 6.3 (± 0.70) |
| 4G Download Speed | in Mbps |
|
P
Proximus
|
39 (± 0.91) |
|
O
Orange
|
32 (± 0.75) |
|
T
Telenet
|
44 (± 1.35) |
| 3G Download Speed | in Mbps |
|
P
Proximus
|
7 (± 0.59) |
|
O
Orange
|
8 (± 0.67) |
|
T
Telenet
|
6 (± 0.70) |
|
Upload Speed Experience
Additional Metrics |
P
Proximus
|
O
Orange
|
T
Telenet
|
|---|---|---|---|
| in Mbps | |||
|
4G Upload Speed
| 13.0 (± 0.29) | 12.4 (± 0.32) | 12.7 (± 0.36) |
|
3G Upload Speed
| 1.8 (± 0.35) | 1.8 (± 0.17) | 2.3 (± 0.32) |
| 4G Upload Speed | in Mbps |
|
P
Proximus
|
13 (± 0.29) |
|
O
Orange
|
12 (± 0.32) |
|
T
Telenet
|
13 (± 0.36) |
| 3G Upload Speed | in Mbps |
|
P
Proximus
|
2 (± 0.35) |
|
O
Orange
|
2 (± 0.17) |
|
T
Telenet
|
2 (± 0.32) |
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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