Singapore

The gap between M1’s Video Experience score and that of the other two operators — Singtel and StarHub — that were tied for first place in our last report has widened to the point where it is only Singtel and StarHub that have statistically tied for the top spot in this reporting period. While our users on all three of these operators have seen small declines in their Video Experience since our previous report, our M1 users observed the largest drop in performance — a fall of 2.2 points (2.9%). However, M1, Singtel and StarHub have all retained their Excellent (75 or above) ratings for this measure of the mobile experience.

Our TPG users, on the other hand, have seen a marked improvement in their Video Experience. The new entrant’s score has risen by 5.2 points (7.4%) to 75.3 points — the same score as M1, which is an impressive achievement given that TPG only launched its commercial service back in late March. Its improved score has put TPG in the same category — Excellent — as its more established rivals.

As has been the case with our Video Experience metric, M1 has dropped out of contention for first place on Games Experience. What had been a three-way tie between M1, Singtel and StarHub has narrowed to a two-way statistical tie between Singtel and StarHub. All three of these operators have remained in the Good (75-85) category for Games Experience, while our TPG users had a Fair (65-75) Games Experience.

A Good Games Experience rating means that most users deemed the experience acceptable. The gameplay experience was generally controllable and the user received immediate feedback between their actions and the outcomes in the game.

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 other two experiential metrics — Video Experience and Games Experience — our Voice App Experience award has gone from being won outright by Singtel to a three-way tie between it, StarHub and TPG. While Singtel and M1 both saw their scores decline by 0.9 points, our StarHub and TPG users saw their Voice App Experience improve by 0.5 and 1.9 points, respectively. The only movement our users observed as far as categories are concerned is that TPG has moved up a notch — from Acceptable (74-80) to Good (80-87) — bringing it in line with its more established rivals. A Good Voice App Experience means that many users were satisfied, although some may have experienced minor quality impairments such as clicking sounds or distortion.

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. Voice App Experience for each operator is calculated on a scale from 0 to 100.

StarHub has decisively broken the two-way tie that existed between it and Singtel in our previous report and is now the sole winner of our Download Speed Experience award. Our StarHub users saw their average overall download speeds increase by a remarkable 4.5 Mbps (8.6%), while their Singtel counterparts observed a 2.2 Mbps (4.2%) drop in their speeds. As a result, StarHub’s margin of victory stands at an impressive 7 Mbps.

Of the other two operators, recent entrant TPG has the most to celebrate, as it has narrowed the gap between it and Singapore’s established operators. Our users on TPG’s network saw their average overall download speeds rise by 3.4 Mbps (15.5%) to hit 25.2 Mbps — and this achievement is all the more remarkable given the headwinds created by the COVID-19 pandemic and the damage it has caused to the global economy. In contrast, M1’s Download Speed Experience score fell by 4.5 Mbps (12.7%). This means that the gap between the two operators has dropped from the 13.4 Mbps seen in our last report to 5.6 Mbps.

The outright win that Singtel achieved in our previous report for Upload Speed Experience has been replaced with a two-way statistical tie between it and StarHub. This change is due to a 0.5 Mbps rise in StarHub’s score and a 0.7 Mbps drop in Singtel’s, since our last report.

Our M1 users observed a 1.1 Mbps (7.2%) drop in their average upload speeds, while their counterparts on TPG saw theirs rise by nearly the same amount — 1 Mbps — but this increase was an impressive 20.5% in percentage terms. While TPG is rapidly catching up with M1 and Singtel on Download Speed Experience, even with this remarkable improvement, M1 and Singtel’s Upload Speed Experience scores are 2.3 and 2.6 times that of TPG’s, respectively.

In many of our other metrics TPG has been closing rapidly on M1 but in this case, M1 has been able to turn the tables. In our last report, TPG won the 4G Availability award outright, with a lead of at least 1.7 percentage points. This time, M1 has managed to turn the contest into a two-way statistical tie, with both operators being declared joint winners.

Given the incredibly high 4G Availability scores we have seen in the past from Singapore’s operators, large improvements were always going to be hard to come by. This time round, our users on Singtel, M1 and TPG’s networks spent fractionally less of their time connected to 4G services. The declines ranged from the drop of 0.5 percentage points seen by our Singtel users to the fall of 0.2 points that was observed by their M1 counterparts. In contrast, StarHub saw its 4G Availability score rise by 1.1 percentage points to 94.5%.

Little has changed since our last report in terms of 4G Coverage Experience with the three-way tie between Singtel, StarHub and M1 still yet to be broken. All three operator’s scores have also remained unchanged since last time, which is less than surprising given that both Singtel and StarHub have perfect scores — 10 out of 10 — for this measure of the mobile experience. In addition, M1 remains just 0.1 point off the same mark. TPG’s network is the only one on which our users have seen any change — and it’s for the better. The operator’s score rose by 0.2 points to 9.5.

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.