Mobile Network Experience Report Saudi Arabia October 2020

Saudi Arabia

Mobile Network Experience Report
October 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
Francesco Rizzato Principal Technical Analyst

Key Findings

STC now wins six out of seven mobile experience awards

In this report, STC won all our mobile experience awards except for Games Experience, which remained in Mobily’s hands. While a quick glance at our awards table might show that STC is dominating Saudi Arabia’s mobile experience, Mobily was close behind STC in several categories, which means that the competition for our mobile experience awards in Saudi Arabia is still an open game.

Mobily keeps Games Experience but loses ground

In our previous country report, Mobily won three awards — Games Experience, Voice App Experience and Latency Experience — but this time Mobily secured first place in Games Experience alone. Besides, Mobily conceded some ground in Games Experience, as its lead on second-placed STC reduced from 3.3 points to 0.5 point, as Mobily’s score fell below the 40 points mark; the operator also joined STC and Zain in the Very Poor Games Experience category (0-40).

STC leads in Video Experience but Mobily is close behind

STC still leads in Video Experience, but we have seen our users’ average Video Experience scores decline slightly — by up to 2.1 points — on all three networks. Because Mobily’s decline of 0.5 points was the smallest among the three operators, Mobily has reduced the gap between it and first-placed STC and is now just 0.8 points behind. STC and Mobily remained in the Very Good (65-75) Video Experience category, while Zain still featured a Good score (55-65).

All operators improved their Download Speed Experience, and STC reached the 30 Mbps mark

Out of our seven award metrics, we observed the most noticeable improvements in the Download Speed Experience category, with STC, Zain and Mobily improving their scores by 4.2 Mbps, 4 Mbps and 3.8 Mbps, respectively. STC has now reached the 30 Mbps mark in Download Speed Experience, while Mobily and Zain scored 24.5 Mbps and 16.4 Mbps — up 18.3% and 32.3% from our previous report respectively.

4G Availability rises, but only slightly

In the last six months, our users on STC, Mobily and Zain saw their average 4G Availability improve by 1.6, 1.2 and 0.1 percentage points, respectively. By comparison, in our previous report we observed STC, Mobily and Zain significantly improve their 4G Availability scores by 5.5, 5 and 3.6 percentage points respectively.

Introduction

In the last 18 months, we have seen STC gain momentum across our mobile experience reports as the operator kept increasing the number of awards it has been winning outright. STC won two awards 18 months ago, then three, then five and finally six in this report. However, this does not mean that STC can rest easily looking forward: Mobily gained some ground in Video Experience and is now less than 1 point behind STC, while the scores of the two operators are very close in Voice App Experience and 4G Availability. On the other hand, STC maintains a significant lead in both of our speed experience metrics and in 4G Coverage Experience.

in a recent report, we found that our users in Saudi Arabia enjoyed the fastest average 5G Download Speed of 377.2 Mbps among fifteen countries analyzed, as well as the highest 5G Availability of 37% — which means our 5G users were able to spend more than one third of their time connected to 5G networks. As mobile operators continue their 5G rollout and upgrade their networks, and 5G adoption grows, we expect to keep seeing our users’ average speeds rise, but we also expect a positive impact on our other experiential metrics.

Opensignal Awards Table

Mobile Experience Awards Saudi Arabia
October 2020, Saudi Arabia 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
October 2020, Saudi Arabia
Video Experience
Games Experience
Voice App Experience
Download Speed Experience
Upload Speed Experience
4G Availability
4G Coverage Experience
Download Image

Overview

Click on metric labels below for a quick preview
Video Experience
in 0-100 points
STC
67.8
Mobily
67.1
Zain
60.4
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
STC
67.8
Mobily
67.1
Zain
60.4
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
72.1 (± 0.24) 72.0 (± 0.33) 64.4 (± 0.52)
3G Video Experience
46.8 (± 1.24) 46.6 (± 1.60) 39.0 (± 2.12)
+/- numeric values represent confidence intervals.
Mobile Network Experience Report | October 2020 | © Opensignal Limited
4G Video Experience in 0-100 points
72 (± 0.24)
72 (± 0.33)
64 (± 0.52)
3G Video Experience in 0-100 points
47 (± 1.24)
47 (± 1.60)
39 (± 2.12)
Mobile Network Experience Report | October 2020 | © Opensignal Inc.

Games Experience

Games Experience
in 0-100 points
STC
37.8
Mobily
38.3
Zain
35.7
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
39.5 (± 0.14) 40.6 (± 0.56) 36.7 (± 0.16)
3G Games Experience
32.8 (± 0.22) 33.6 (± 0.30) 30.7 (± 0.42)
+/- numeric values represent confidence intervals.
Mobile Network Experience Report | October 2020 | © Opensignal Limited
4G Games Experience in 0-100 points
40 (± 0.14)
41 (± 0.56)
37 (± 0.16)
3G Games Experience in 0-100 points
33 (± 0.22)
34 (± 0.30)
31 (± 0.42)
Mobile Network Experience Report | October 2020 | © Opensignal Inc.

Voice App Experience

Voice App Experience
in 0-100 points
STC
72.9
Mobily
71.7
Zain
68.0
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
74.8 (± 0.20) 73.7 (± 0.32) 70.0 (± 0.38)
3G Voice App Experience
63.5 (± 0.63) 63.3 (± 0.92) 57.1 (± 1.25)
+/- numeric values represent confidence intervals.
Mobile Network Experience Report | October 2020 | © Opensignal Limited
4G Voice App Experience in 0-100 points
75 (± 0.20)
74 (± 0.32)
70 (± 0.38)
3G Voice App Experience in 0-100 points
63 (± 0.63)
63 (± 0.92)
57 (± 1.25)
Mobile Network Experience Report | October 2020 | © Opensignal Inc.

Download Speed Experience

Download Speed Experience
in Mbps
STC
30.0
Mobily
24.5
Zain
16.4
08.7517.526.2535
The brackets represent confidence intervals.
Download Image
Download Speed Experience
Additional Metrics
in Mbps
4G Download Speed
34.7 (± 0.32) 29.4 (± 0.39) 18.8 (± 0.36)
3G Download Speed
5.1 (± 0.13) 4.3 (± 0.13) 3.4 (± 0.15)
+/- numeric values represent confidence intervals.
Mobile Network Experience Report | October 2020 | © Opensignal Limited
4G Download Speed in Mbps
35 (± 0.32)
29 (± 0.39)
19 (± 0.36)
3G Download Speed in Mbps
5 (± 0.13)
4 (± 0.13)
3 (± 0.15)
Mobile Network Experience Report | October 2020 | © Opensignal Inc.

Upload Speed Experience

Upload Speed Experience
in Mbps
STC
10.4
Mobily
7.0
Zain
6.8
03.757.511.2515
The brackets represent confidence intervals.
Download Image
Upload Speed Experience
Additional Metrics
in Mbps
4G Upload Speed
12.2 (± 0.11) 8.4 (± 0.13) 7.9 (± 0.12)
3G Upload Speed
1.2 (± 0.04) 1.1 (± 0.05) 1.0 (± 0.06)
+/- numeric values represent confidence intervals.
Mobile Network Experience Report | October 2020 | © Opensignal Limited
4G Upload Speed in Mbps
12 (± 0.11)
8 (± 0.13)
8 (± 0.12)
3G Upload Speed in Mbps
1 (± 0.04)
1 (± 0.05)
1 (± 0.06)
Mobile Network Experience Report | October 2020 | © Opensignal Inc.

4G Availability

4G Availability
% of time
STC
87.9
Mobily
86.2
Zain
85.5
022.54567.590
The brackets represent confidence intervals.
Download Image

4G Coverage Experience

4G Coverage Experience
in 0-10 points
STC
8.5
Mobily
6.7
Zain
7.0
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