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With a lead of almost 100 Mbps in the average 5G Download Speed score, FarEastTone wins Opensignal's first 5G Download Speed award for Taiwan. While Chunghwa won our overall Download Speed Experience award recently, for 5G it had to settle for second place with users experiencing average 5G Download Speeds of 254.2 Mbps tied with the 236.5 Mbps seen by our users on Taiwan Mobile.
The amount of time users spend connected to the latest mobile technology is as important as the speed it offers. The more time users spend connected, the more often they will be able to enjoy the superior 5G mobile experience. Here, Taiwan Mobile comfortably won the 5G Availability award with a score of 26.5% ahead of FarEasTone's 18.6%, Chunghwa's 16.2% and T Star's 14.8%.
Those users with both a 5G-capable smartphone and access to a 5G tariff see the fastest overall download speed using FarEasTone with an average speed of 206.9 Mbps ahead of two operators statistically tied for second place: Taiwan Mobile on 142.8 Mbps and Chungwa who's users experience average speeds of 127.5 Mbps. This award represents the complete average download speed experience of 5G users. It takes into account the average 4G Download Speed that 5G users see, as well as their actual 5G Download Speed using a 5G connection, as well as the amount of time they are connected to each type of network. Together, these measurements reveal 5G users' overall download speed experience.
We've recently analyzed the overall mobile network experience of users in Taiwan. In that report, Chunghwa won three awards outright — Video Experience, Download Speed Experience, and 4G Coverage Experience — but when we look at the experience using the latest 5G mobile technology we see different winners.
In January 2020, Taiwan's operators secured new 5G-ready spectrum in the 3.5 GHz and 28 GHz bands. Both bands have not previously been used for mobile services and so will provide additional wireless capacity to support greater volumes of mobile data, more use of mobile networks, as well as faster speeds. 5G services launched on June 30, which is a very quick turnaround for Taiwan's operators of just a few months from acquiring the right to use the new spectrum. We see the 5G experience in Taiwan is very good compared with other countries.
Wireless spectrum is an enabler of mobile services, but to Taiwanese mobile users what matters most is the extent to which the 5G experience improves on older existing technologies. In this report Opensignal quantifies the real-world 5G experience in Taiwan for the first time.
| 5G Mobile Experience Awards, Taiwan | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
December 2020, Taiwan Report
|
F
FarEasTone
|
C
Chunghwa
|
T
Taiwan Mobile
|
T
T Star
|
5G Download Speed
|
||||
5G Availability
|
||||
Download Speed Experience – 5G Users
|
||||
|
Mobile Experience Awards Winners
|
December 2020, Taiwan
|
|---|---|
|
5G Download Speed
|
F
FarEasTone
|
|
5G Availability
|
T
Taiwan Mobile
|
|
Download Speed Experience – 5G Users
|
F
FarEasTone
|
FarEasTone won the 5G Download Speed awards with its users seeing an average speed of 351.5 Mbps, ahead of Chunghwa with a score of 254.2 Mbps, Taiwan Mobile with 236.5 Mbps and T Star with 150.9 Mbps.
Opensignal users on all of the operators see a much faster average 5G Download Speed than the 4G Download Speed all our users see on each operator. FarEasTone's 5G Download Speed score is 9.5 faster than the 4G Download Speed score of 37 Mbps experienced by our users on its network. Similarly, Chunghwa's and T Star's 5G Download Speed scores are over five times faster and Taiwan Mobile's is over 7.4 times faster than the equivalent 4G speeds.
Opensignal's 5G results represent the end-to-end experience of users. We tested 5G Download Speed to the typical content delivery networks used to host popular mobile apps and websites.
Having very fast average 5G download speeds is only useful when users have a 5G connection. Opensignal's 5G Availability compares the amount of time 5G users spend connected to 5G — the higher the percentage, the more time users on a network are connected to 5G.
Taiwan Mobile wins the 5G Availability award with a score of 26.5%. This means our Taiwan Mobile 5G users are connected to an active 5G service over one quarter to the time. This is a significant lead over other operators where we see 5G Availability scores range from 18.6% to 14.8%.
When a user upgrades to a 5G-capable smartphone using an operator's 5G price plan, they will want to be able to experience the fastest 5G connection speed. Opensignal's 5G Download Speed award compares the part of their mobile experience where they are connected to 5G.
However, it is just as important to understand the overall speed experience that a 5G user enjoys because they spend some of their time connected to 4G and, for now, a minority of time connected to a 5G service. This is what our Download Speed Experience – 5G Users measures. It takes into account the average 3G and 4G Download Speed that 5G users see, as well as their average 5G Download Speed and time connected to each type of network to reveal the overall download speed experience.
When we examine this measure we see FarEasTone scoring 206.9 Mbps in Download Speed Experience – 5G Users, indicating that the overall average speed of 5G users is extremely fast. This is an impressive achievement that demonstrates 5G success for FarEasTone, at least at this early stage of 5G roll outs. Chunghwa and Taiwan Mobile tied for second place with average speeds over 64 Mbps slower than our award winner.
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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