Introduction
In this, our inaugural Mobile Network Experience report for Libya, we’ve analyzed our users’ mobile network experience across the two main mobile network operators in Libya — Al-Madar and Libyana — over a period of 90 days beginning June 1, 2020 to see how they compare.
Al-Madar has achieved that rare feat of winning all of our national awards outright — and in some measures of the mobile experience by an impressive margin. For example, it commanded a 12.8 point (22.8%) lead over Libyana on Voice App Experience, led on Upload Speed Experience by a margin of 27.8% and was seven percentage points ahead of its rival on 4G Availability.
While many of the scores observed by our Libyan users are modest by international standards, it should be noted that both Al-Madar and Libyana have been making rapid progress — progress that is all the more remarkable for taking place against the backdrop of a civil war. This was recently illustrated by the news back in August that Al-Madar had succeeded in restoring mobile services to the city of Sirte, which had been without them for three months in the wake of its capture by the rebel Libyan National Army (LNA) and its subsequent clashes with the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord.
In our Global Mobile Network Experience Awards 2020 report, we recognized both operators as Global Rising Stars in multiple categories — Video Experience, Download Speed Experience, Upload Speed Experience and 4G Availability in the case of Libyana, while Al-Madar had slightly less success, gathering three out of these four accolades with the exception being Download Speed Experience. Being recognized as a Global Rising Star signifies that the operator is one of the top 30 operators globally for the percentage change in their score for a specific measure of the mobile experience between H1 2019 and H1 2020.