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With four awards, Telkomsel again dominates the mobile network experience awards for Indonesia, winning double the number of awards of any other operator. Given the fierce competition across so many operators — most countries have less — winning four awards is an impressive achievement. Of the five national operators, two operators fail to win an award, and only 3 and Telkomsel win more than one award.
Since we first started reporting on Video Experience in Indonesia, Telkomsel has been the only operator to win the award for this mobile experience measure, and this report is no exception. However, all four of its peers saw their scores improve in this category. As a consequence of which, Indosat and 3 have upgraded their rating from Fair and joined Telkomsel in the Good category.
While Telkomsel users continue to enjoy the fastest average overall download and upload speeds, on average, its rivals have boosted their scores by 13.2-30% on Download Speed Experience and by 4.9-26.7% in Upload Speed Experience since the last report. As a result of which, on Download Speed Experience, Telkomsel’s lead on its closest rival XL has fallen from 40.3% to 12.7%. That said, with Indonesia having been in lockdown for most of the current data collection period, the average download speeds observed by our users have proven to be resilient, despite the challenges faced by operators due to increased data consumption.
3 wins Games Experience with a score of 67.6, on a one hundred point scale, with Telkomsel in second place. In our last report, we saw 3 gaining momentum on Voice Experience, and in the past six months, while 3’s score grew by 2.3 points, Telkomsel’s score declined by 2.1. Because of these changes, 3 is now the new winner in the category. Our users on both operators’ networks perceived an Acceptable Voice App Experience (74-80) while using over-the-top (OTT) voice services on apps such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Skype, etc. On the other hand, Indosat, XL and Smartfren remain in the Poor (66-74) rating bracket.
In our latest look at the mobile network experience in Indonesia, Telkomsel continues to hold the lion’s share of our awards, having held onto those for Video Experience, Download Speed Experience, Upload Speed Experience, and 4G Coverage Experience. As far as the award table is concerned, the only difference since our last report in July is that 3 has jumped into the lead in Voice App Experience. The operator now holds two awards outright, including Games Experience.
Meanwhile, 4G-only operator Smartfren has also made some progress, but this has not been enough to allow it to catch up with its peers, especially on our speed metrics. Smartfren’s Download Speed Experience and Upload Speed Experience scores remain lower than Telkomsel’s 3G Download Speed and 3G Upload Speed scores. That said, our Indonesian users have continued to see improvements in their mobile experience on the majority of national networks.
As this period includes the introduction of the lockdown measures in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, it also indicates to what degree the Indonesian mobile experience has weathered the resulting changes in our users’ data consumption habits and locations, and as operators offered free or cheaper to extend support to its customers.
In this report, we have analyzed Indonesia’s mobile network experience on five national networks — Indosat, XL, Smartfren, Telkomsel and 3 — over 90 days, starting on August 1, 2020, both nationally and in 28 of the country’s largest cities.
| Mobile Experience Awards Indonesia | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
December 2020,
Indonesia Report
|
I
Indosat
|
X
XL
|
S
Smartfren
|
T
Telkomsel
|
3
3
|
Video Experience
| |||||
Games Experience
| |||||
Voice App Experience
| |||||
Download Speed Experience
| |||||
Upload Speed Experience
| |||||
4G Availability
| |||||
4G Coverage Experience
| |||||
|
Mobile Experience Awards Winners
|
December 2020,
Indonesia
|
|---|---|
|
Video Experience
|
T
Telkomsel
|
|
Games Experience
|
3
3
|
|
Voice App Experience
|
3
3
|
|
Download Speed Experience
|
T
Telkomsel
|
|
Upload Speed Experience
|
T
Telkomsel
|
|
4G Availability
|
S
Smartfren
|
|
4G Coverage Experience
|
T
Telkomsel
|
Telkomsel continues to lead on Video Experience in Indonesia. The operator has won our Video Experience award for the fourth time in a row and maintained a Good rating with a score of 62.8. At the same time, the overall Video Experience in Indonesia is improving. Out of all the national operators, 3 has seen the largest increase in its score since our last report — 5.7 points — followed by Smartfren and Indosat; their scores have risen by of 3.3 and 2.2 points, respectively. As a result of these changes, Indosat and 3 moved up a rating — from Fair to Good.
|
Video Experience
Additional Metrics |
I
Indosat
|
X
XL
|
S
Smartfren
|
T
Telkomsel
|
3
3
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| in 0-100 points | |||||
|
4G Video Experience
| 58.6 (± 0.17) | 58.9 (± 0.20) | 37.7 (± 0.28) | 66.2 (± 0.11) | 61.0 (± 0.21) |
|
3G Video Experience
| 28.4 (± 0.77) | 33.3 (± 0.71) | — | 45.9 (± 0.37) | 42.0 (± 0.89) |
| 4G Video Experience | in 0-100 points |
|
I
Indosat
|
59 (± 0.17) |
|
X
XL
|
59 (± 0.20) |
|
S
Smartfren
|
38 (± 0.28) |
|
T
Telkomsel
|
66 (± 0.11) |
|
3
3
|
61 (± 0.21) |
| 3G Video Experience | in 0-100 points |
|
I
Indosat
|
28 (± 0.77) |
|
X
XL
|
33 (± 0.71) |
|
S
Smartfren
|
— |
|
T
Telkomsel
|
46 (± 0.37) |
|
3
3
|
42 (± 0.89) |
Video Experience quantifies video streaming quality by measuring real-world video streams across a range of content delivery networks, using dedicated video streaming tests to reflect the true experience of users over an operator’s mobile network. The metric calculation takes a number of technical measurements into account, including picture quality, video loading time and stall rate. A Good rating indicates that our users enjoyed an acceptable experience when streaming mobile video at lower resolutions, but loading times could still be slow and stalling was not uncommon, especially at higher resolutions. And as we descend to the Fair rating, loading times get longer and users will encounter more stops and stutters in video streams, most notably at higher resolutions.
3 held on to our Games Experience award with a score of 67.6 points (out of 100). The mobile games experience of our users on the remaining four networks lags behind their peers on 3.
|
Games Experience
Additional Metrics |
I
Indosat
|
X
XL
|
S
Smartfren
|
T
Telkomsel
|
3
3
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| in 0-100 points | |||||
|
4G Games Experience
| 58.4 (± 0.21) | 60.4 (± 0.29) | 45.1 (± 0.28) | 61.1 (± 0.16) | 73.7 (± 0.19) |
|
3G Games Experience
| 32.3 (± 0.13) | 34.4 (± 0.15) | — | 36.9 (± 0.12) | 36.9 (± 0.28) |
| 4G Games Experience | in 0-100 points |
|
I
Indosat
|
58 (± 0.21) |
|
X
XL
|
60 (± 0.29) |
|
S
Smartfren
|
45 (± 0.28) |
|
T
Telkomsel
|
61 (± 0.16) |
|
3
3
|
74 (± 0.19) |
| 3G Games Experience | in 0-100 points |
|
I
Indosat
|
32 (± 0.13) |
|
X
XL
|
34 (± 0.15) |
|
S
Smartfren
|
— |
|
T
Telkomsel
|
37 (± 0.12) |
|
3
3
|
37 (± 0.28) |
Opensignal’s Games Experience quantifies users’ multiplayer mobile gaming experience across cellular networks. 3’s score means most users deemed the experience “average”; it also indicates that the gameplay experience was generally controllable, with the majority of users noticing a delay between their actions and the outcomes in the game. Lower scores mean users’ experience becomes less enjoyable, marred with increased delays and lack of controllability in gameplay.
3 won our Voice App Experience award and maintained an Acceptable rating with an overall score of 78.5 points (out of 100). While Telkomsel was the only other operator to place in the Acceptable category, the other three operators — Indosat, XL and Smartfren — continued to place in the Poor category.
|
Voice App Experience
Additional Metrics |
I
Indosat
|
X
XL
|
S
Smartfren
|
T
Telkomsel
|
3
3
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| in 0-100 points | |||||
|
4G Voice App Experience
| 74.4 (± 0.09) | 74.1 (± 0.10) | 71.3 (± 0.13) | 77.6 (± 0.06) | 79.6 (± 0.08) |
|
3G Voice App Experience
| 61.2 (± 0.45) | 65.1 (± 0.41) | — | 70.0 (± 0.22) | 71.2 (± 0.41) |
| 4G Voice App Experience | in 0-100 points |
|
I
Indosat
|
74 (± 0.09) |
|
X
XL
|
74 (± 0.10) |
|
S
Smartfren
|
71 (± 0.13) |
|
T
Telkomsel
|
78 (± 0.06) |
|
3
3
|
80 (± 0.08) |
| 3G Voice App Experience | in 0-100 points |
|
I
Indosat
|
61 (± 0.45) |
|
X
XL
|
65 (± 0.41) |
|
S
Smartfren
|
— |
|
T
Telkomsel
|
70 (± 0.22) |
|
3
3
|
71 (± 0.41) |
An Acceptable rating means users were satisfied with the quality of the call and were generally able to comprehend without repetition, while some may have suffered from perceptible call quality impairments such as clicking sounds or distortion. Likewise, a Poor rating means many users were dissatisfied and likely suffered from increased call quality impairments.
Our Voice App Experience metric quantifies the quality of consumers’ experience for over-the-top (OTT) voice services using apps like WhatsApp, Skype and Facebook Messenger over mobile networks. It ranks operators on a scale of 0-100 using a mean opinion score (MOS) model derived from an International Telecommunication Union (ITU) based approach for quantifying overall voice call quality.
Telkomsel once again won our Download Speed Experience award. But our users on rival operators Indosat, 3 and XL have seen speeds improving. All three operator’s overall download speed scores have risen by 2-2.3 Mbps since our last report. XL and Indosat have now surpassed the 10 Mbps mark with scores of 11.3 and 10.7 Mbps, respectively, while 3 was further behind with a score of 9.4 Mbps.
Telkomsel still has a modest lead of 1.4 Mbps in Download Speed Experience with the speeds seen by our users on its network averaging 12.7 Mbps, but if trends continue, Telkomsel will soon be challenged by one of its rivals for first place. However, the the challenges of 2020 have altered user behavior and caused many operators to support their population with cheaper data packages that often offer greater amounts of mobile data. These trends may not continue in 2021 as the global situation recovers.
|
Download Speed Experience
Additional Metrics |
I
Indosat
|
X
XL
|
S
Smartfren
|
T
Telkomsel
|
3
3
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| in Mbps | |||||
|
4G Download Speed
| 11.7 (± 0.06) | 12.7 (± 0.06) | 4.9 (± 0.03) | 14.1 (± 0.04) | 10.2 (± 0.05) |
|
3G Download Speed
| 2.8 (± 0.03) | 3.3 (± 0.04) | — | 5.5 (± 0.04) | 4.2 (± 0.05) |
| 4G Download Speed | in Mbps |
|
I
Indosat
|
12 (± 0.06) |
|
X
XL
|
13 (± 0.06) |
|
S
Smartfren
|
5 (± 0.03) |
|
T
Telkomsel
|
14 (± 0.04) |
|
3
3
|
10 (± 0.05) |
| 3G Download Speed | in Mbps |
|
I
Indosat
|
3 (± 0.03) |
|
X
XL
|
3 (± 0.04) |
|
S
Smartfren
|
— |
|
T
Telkomsel
|
6 (± 0.04) |
|
3
3
|
4 (± 0.05) |
When we look at Download Speed Experience by technology, the 4G Download Speed results reflected our overall scores; Our Telkomsel users saw the highest speeds with a score of 14.1 Mbps, while XL, Indosat and 3 followed behind with scores of 12.7 Mbps, 11.7 Mbps and 10.2 Mbps respectively. We also saw the same trend in 3G Download Speed, where our Telkomsel users again had the best experience, this time with a score of 5.5 Mbps.
We saw a tight competition in Upload Speed Experience, with less than 0.6 Mbps separating four out of five national operators. While Telkomsel held on to our Upload Speed Experience award with a score of 5.7 Mbps, Indosat came close to challenging Telkomsel with a score of 5.6 Mbps — an improvement of 1.2 Mbps seen by our users since the last report. XL and 3 followed close behind with scores between 5.1-5.2 Mbps, while Smartfren was far behind with a score of 1.1 Mbps.
|
Upload Speed Experience
Additional Metrics |
I
Indosat
|
X
XL
|
S
Smartfren
|
T
Telkomsel
|
3
3
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| in Mbps | |||||
|
4G Upload Speed
| 6.2 (± 0.03) | 5.9 (± 0.03) | 1.1 (± 0.01) | 6.6 (± 0.03) | 5.8 (± 0.03) |
|
3G Upload Speed
| 0.9 (± 0.02) | 0.8 (± 0.02) | — | 1.3 (± 0.01) | 1.1 (± 0.02) |
| 4G Upload Speed | in Mbps |
|
I
Indosat
|
6 (± 0.03) |
|
X
XL
|
6 (± 0.03) |
|
S
Smartfren
|
1 (± 0.01) |
|
T
Telkomsel
|
7 (± 0.03) |
|
3
3
|
6 (± 0.03) |
| 3G Upload Speed | in Mbps |
|
I
Indosat
|
1 (± 0.02) |
|
X
XL
|
1 (± 0.02) |
|
S
Smartfren
|
— |
|
T
Telkomsel
|
1 (± 0.01) |
|
3
3
|
1 (± 0.02) |
Upload speeds are becoming increasingly important in mobile services, as social media, social sharing and video chat apps become more widely used. Mobile users are moving away from content consumption to content creation, which gives operators with the fastest upload speeds a distinct advantage.
Smartfren once again claimed our 4G Availability award. The average proportion of time that our Smartfren users spent connected to 4G has increased by 0.6 percentage points since our last report to reach an impressive 98.1%. Indosat, XL and 3 saw their scores increase by 1.3 percentage points, while Telkomsel’s score grew by 0.6 percentage points. As a result of these improvements, Smartfren’s lead has dropped from 4.8 percentage points to 4.1.
In addition to this, all five operators have now surpassed the 90% 4G Availability milestone. This means that 4G users in Indonesia, on average, are now able to connect to 4G services at least 90% of the time, regardless of their choice of networks.
Telkomsel also won our 4G Coverage Experience award with the highest score of 8.3 points (on a 10-point scale), followed by XL and Indosat’s scores of 6.1 and 5.9, respectively, while Smartfren and 3 were further away with scores of 5 and 4.4 respectively. Our users observed an improvement of 0.2 points on Telkomsel, Indosat and 3’s network, while their counterparts on XL and Smartfren saw an improvement of 0.1 points since our last report.
Given the unevenly distributed population density in the archipelago, with the most populated centers in and around Java, 4G Coverage Experience is a very important measure in Indonesia. A score of 8.3 shows that Telkomsel's users can find a 4G signal in many more locations than our users on other operators.
Opensignal’s 4G Coverage Experience is a measure of how our 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 Opensignal users of all network operators.
The results of our analysis of 28 of Indonesia’s largest cities largely mirrored those at the national level, with a few exceptions.
Telkomsel dominated our regional Video Experience measurements; the operator won in 21 cities outright and tied for first place in six cities — including four draws with Indosat and a further two with 3 in Banjarmasin and Samarinda. Meanwhile, Indosat bagged a win in Bandar Lampung. Our users on Telkomsel’s network enjoyed a Very Good Video Experience in 26 cities and a Good Video Experience in Cimahi and Kota Serang.
Moving on to our speed metrics, in the Download Speed Experience category, Telkomsel triumphed in 16 cities outright and shared the top place in a further seven. In the remaining five cities, Indosat won outright in three of them, while XL was the only winner in Surabaya. Meanwhile, in Upload Speed Experience, we saw a close competition between Telkomsel and Indosat in several cities. That said, our Telkomsel users in Banjarmasin experienced the fastest upload speeds averaging 11.2 Mbps, across all cities analyzed.
On Voice App Experience, Telkomsel and 3 came neck and neck in the vast majority of cities. While Telkomsel won four awards outright, 3 only won single-handedly in two cities — Kota Cirebon and Cimahi. Telkomsel jointly won this category in a further 21 cities, including Pekanbaru, Surabaya and Jambi, where we saw a three-way-split between Telkomsel, 3 and Indosat.
3 dominated in Games Experience at the city-level — it was a clear win for the operator in 14 cities, including Tangerang Selatan, Palembang, and Kota Bekasi, where users enjoyed a Good Games Experience. In addition to this, 3 jointly won in a further 12 cities, including nine cities where Telkomsel forced a tie for the top place.
Select any region or city below to display individual breakdown
Collecting billions of individual measurements daily from over 100 million devices globally, Opensignal independently analyzes mobile user experience on every major network operator around the globe.
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