Opensignal has expanded the number of cities included in this Japan Mobile Network Experience report to cover 15 cities across the country. We see differences from the national results in many locations, and wide variation in the experience of Rakuten's users in particular, in many cities users see a network experience close to the existing operators.
In Tokyo, au wins the Download Speed Experience award with 57.2 Mbps and national winner DoCoMo is the runner up. It's the same reversal of the national award in Osaka, where again au pips DoCoMo to the award. But Rakuten's Download Speed Experience in Tokyo is much closer to the winner than it is nationally with a score of 35.2 Mbps in Tokyo which is only a few Mbps behind third placed SoftBank score of 46.2 Mbps.
In a number of cities Rakuten's users' experience is noticeably better than in others. In Fukuoka, Hiroshima, Kobe and Sapporo the experience is much weaker. This is likely because Rakuten's 4G network has deployed less wireless capacity in those locations. Opensignal understands that Rakuten's 4G network uses the 1800 MHz band, and the company has deployed different amounts of spectrum in different cities ranging from a substantial 20 Mhz in locations like Tokyo down to just 5 MHz in some areas. In total, Rakuten wins eight city awards outright, and joint wins in a further 23 city awards.
SoftBank either wins or jointly wins every experiential city award — Games, Video or Voice App Experience — except Voice App Experience in Funabashi.
In Kyoto, home of Nintendo, the Games Experience award is won outright by SoftBank, but Download Speed Experience is jointly won by DoCoMo and au, with SoftBank in third place. For tourists looking to share photos or videos of the many world heritage sites, all four operators tie for the Upload Experience Award in Kyoto.
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