New Zealand

Our 2degrees users were the only ones to observe an improvement in their Video Experience since our last report — a rise of 0.6 points to 74.5 points, while Spark’s score dropped by 0.7 points and Vodafone’s by 2.2 points. 2degrees’ score is 1.9 points (2.7%) ahead of second-placed Spark. None of the operators have changed category since our last report, with Spark and 2degrees holding onto their Very Good (65-75) ratings and Vodafone having to content itself with a Good (55-65) rating.

When we break down our users’ Video Experience by mobile network technology generation, both Spark and 2degrees have hung onto their Excellent (75 or above) ratings for 4G Video Experience and Vodafone has again placed in the Very Good category for this measure of the mobile experience — despite our users seeing falls of 1.6-2.9 points (2-3.6%) depending on their choice of operator. There was far more movement in terms of the 3G Video Experience, as Spark’s and 2degrees’ scores rose by 6.6 points (14.8%) and 7.6 points (16.7%), respectively; in contrast our Vodafone users saw their 3G Video Experience score fall by 5.9 points (10.2%). As a result, while in our last report Vodafone was the only operator with which our users observed a Good 3G Video Experience, this time around it joined its rivals in the Fair category.

2degrees has won the Games Experience award outright — an achievement that is all the more impressive for the fact that it was the only operator not to tie for the award in our last report. The operator’s success has stemmed from resilience rather than growth, as its score fell by just 1.1 points compared with the declines of 6.5-6.7 points observed by our Spark and Vodafone users. Despite these declines, all three operators remained in the Fair category (65-75) for this measure of the mobile experience.

A Fair Games Experience means that our users found the experience to be “average”. In most cases the game was responsive to the actions of the player with most users reporting that they felt like they had control over the game.

The Games Experience metric quantifies the experience when playing real-time multiplayer 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. 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.

While the Voice App Experience award is still shared between two operators, Spark is the only one to tie for the award in both this and our previous report, with 2degrees knocking Vodafone out of contention. This switch occurred because the Voice App Experience observed by our 2degrees users fell by just one point, compared to the declines of 2.5-2.6 points that were seen by their Vodafone and Spark counterparts. All three operators have placed one category lower since our last report, falling from Good (80-87) to Acceptable (74-80).

Turning to our 4G and 3G Voice App Experience submetrics, while we saw falls across all three operators and on both submetrics — with 2degrees’ 3G Voice App Experience score being the only exception as it rose by 3 points — there was only one change in category, with a 3.3 point drop in Vodafone’s 3G Voice App Experience score pushing it down from Acceptable (74-80) to Poor (66-74), putting it in line with its rivals for this measure of the mobile experience.

Opensignal's Voice App Experience measures the quality of experience for over-the-top (OTT) voice services — mobile voice apps such as WhatsApp, Skype, Facebook Messenger etc. — using a model derived from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU)-based approach for quantifying overall voice call quality and a series of calibrated technical parameters. This model characterizes the exact relationship between the technical measurements and perceived call quality.

Spark is once again the winner of the Download Speed Experience award. However, it cannot rest on its laurels given that second-placed Vodafone has more than halved its margin of victory. In our last report, the difference between the two operators’ scores was 6.5 Mbps (19.1%), but this time round it has narrowed to 3 Mbps (7.8%). This is due to a 4 Mbps increase in the average overall speeds observed by our Vodafone users, while Spark’s score rose by only 0.5 Mbps. Vodafone wasn’t the only operator on which our users observed a significant boost to their overall average download speeds — our 2degrees users saw theirs rise by 3.5 Mbps (11.6%).

2degrees has now won our Upload Speed Experience over two consecutive reports. This time its score of 10.6 Mbps was at least 1.3 Mbps (14.4%) faster than that of its rivals, up from the gap of 0.9 Mbps (9.5%) seen in our last report. This was primarily driven by a 0.7 Mbps (6.9%) increase in our 2degrees users’ average overall upload speeds and 2degrees also benefited from a 0.1 Mbps drop in Spark’s score, as the latter placed second in our previous report. As our Vodafone users saw their Upload Speed Experience improve by 1.3 Mbps (16.4%), the operator was able to statistically tie with Spark for second-place.

Interestingly, 2degrees’ 3G Upload Speed score has risen from the 1.4 Mbps seen in our previous report to 3 Mbps, a gain of 1.6 Mbps (112.6%). In comparison, 2degrees’ 4G Upload Speed Experience score rose by only 0.2 Mbps (1.7%). We saw the reverse with Vodafone — its users observed their average 4G upload speeds rise by 0.8 Mbps (7.3%), while those on 3G fell by 0.1 Mbps (6.9)%. Spark’s 3G Upload Speed score rose by 0.6 Mbps (38.2%), while its 4G Upload Speed score fell by 0.4 Mbps (4.1%)

2degrees continued to reign in terms of 4G Availability, as its score of 89% beat that of second-placed Spark by 2.1 percentage points. However this was down from the gap of 2.8 percentage points that existed between the two operators’ scores in our previous report. 2degrees’ diminishing lead was driven by its score increasing by 1.1 percentage points compared to the 1.8 percentage point gain seen by our Spark users. However, both operators’ recent accomplishments in this area were far behind the massive 6.7 percentage point increase in Vodafone’s 4G Availability score. As a result of this improvement, what was a 13.1 percentage point gulf between Vodafone and second-placed Spark’s score has narrowed to 8.2 points. While Vodafone’s score remains below the 80% mark, if it can keep up this pace of improvement over the next couple of reports, then Spark and 2degrees might have a fight on their hands.

Our 4G Availability metric shows the proportion of time users with a 4G device and subscription have an LTE connection. When we report an average 4G availability of 75%, that means our LTE users were, on average, connected to LTE services on their network 75% of the time.

Availability is not a measure of coverage or the geographic extent of a network. It won’t tell you whether you are likely to get coverage if you plan to visit a far flung region that is off the beaten track. Instead, it measures what proportion of time people have a network connection, in the places they most commonly frequent, something often missed by traditional coverage metrics.

All three operators have made modest progress on 4G Coverage Experience since our last report, with our Vodafone and 2degrees users seeing their scores rise by 0.2 points, while Spark saw its score increase by just 0.1 points. Given this lack of movement, it is perhaps unsurprising to see that Spark remains the winner of the 4G Coverage Experience award, though its lead has shrunk slightly — from 0.7 points down to 0.6 points.

Opensignal’s 4G Coverage Experience metric is a measure of how mobile subscribers experience 4G coverage on an operator’s network. Measured on a scale of 0-10, it analyzes the locations where customers of a network operator received a 4G signal relative to the locations visited by users of all network operators.

In simple terms,4G Coverage Experience measures the mobile coverage experience in all the locations that matter most to everyday users — i.e. all the places where they live, work and travel. It considers all the areas that Opensignal users visit, the portion of locations that 4G is available to them, and locations that more users visit have higher importance to them.