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Remarkably, this is the third report in a row in which Vodafone has won six out of seven of our mobile network experience awards outright. The only award where our users did not see Vodafone hold a significant lead over its rivals was 4G Coverage Experience, where all three operators have been locked in a three-way tie ever since we introduced this measure of the mobile experience this time last year.
Vodafone has returned to being the only operator in Portugal on which our users observed an Excellent (75 or above) Video Experience, while our users on its rivals’ networks had a Very Good experience instead. The operator had an Excellent rating for this measure of the mobile experience back in our February 2020 report, but fell back to Very Good in our last report. However, both MEO and NOS are just 2-2.2 points away from moving into the Excellent category.
While our users on all three operators’ networks have seen impressive increases in their average download speeds since our last report, our MEO users saw the largest improvement. The operator’s Download Speed Experience score rose by 7.4 Mbps (28%) to 33.6 Mbps, while Vodafone and NOS’s scores increased by 6.6 Mbps (21.9%) and 3.2 Mbps (17.3%), respectively. As a result, while Vodafone is still the outright winner of the Download Speed Experience award, its lead over second-placed MEO has shrunk further — dropping by 0.7 Mbps to 3.2 Mbps (9.6%).
While Vodafone continues to win the Upload Speed Experience award outright, it has made less progress than its rivals on this measure of the mobile experience. Our MEO and NOS users have seen their average upload speeds increase by 1.4 Mbps (16.6%) and 2 Mbps (22.4%) since our last report. In contrast, their Vodafone counterparts only saw their speeds rise by 0.2 Mbps (1.6%). These changes have caused Vodafone’s lead to drop from at least 2.7 Mbps to 0.9 Mbps.
NOS has joined Vodafone — the holder of the 4G Availability award — in the select club of operators with a 4G Availability score of more than 90%. Our NOS users spent 90.2% of their time connected to 4G services, up 1.1 percentage points from that seen in our previous report. However, both Vodafone and MEO saw larger increases in their 4G Availability score — 1.5 percentage points and 2.1, respectively. This means that Vodafone’s lead on this measure of the mobile experience has increased by 0.4 percentage points to 1.7 percentage points. In addition, MEO has moved past the 85% mark, with a score of 85.4%
While a glance at our awards table shows that Vodafone very much remains the operator to beat, its rivals have been chipping away at its supremacy in both Download Speed Experience and Upload Speed Experience. It’s worth noting that MEO’s Download Speed Experience score has risen by a truly impressive 9.6 Mbps (40%) since our February 2020 report. Back then it trailed Vodafone by 7.6 Mbps, but this time round, it is just 3.2 Mbps behind.
Looking ahead, much will rest on the outcome of the 5G spectrum auction that all three of Portugal’s national operators have signed up to, despite their concerns over rules designed to encourage new market entrants. The regulator ANACOM has recently highlighted the higher prices paid by Portuguese subscribers compared to those paid by their EU counterparts.
In this report, we’ve analyzed the mobile experience of our Portuguese users across all three national operators — NOS, MEO and Vodafone — over the 90 day period ending 29 November 2020. Our results include measurements from 5G devices.
| Mobile Experience Awards Portugal | |||
|---|---|---|---|
February 2021,
Portugal Report
|
V
Vodafone
|
N
NOS
|
M
MEO
|
Video Experience
| |||
Games Experience
| |||
Voice App Experience
| |||
Download Speed Experience
| |||
Upload Speed Experience
| |||
4G Availability
| |||
4G Coverage Experience
| |||
|
Mobile Experience Awards Winners
|
February 2021,
Portugal
|
|---|---|
|
Video Experience
|
V
Vodafone
|
|
Games Experience
|
V
Vodafone
|
|
Voice App Experience
|
V
Vodafone
|
|
Download Speed Experience
|
V
Vodafone
|
|
Upload Speed Experience
|
V
Vodafone
|
|
4G Availability
|
V
Vodafone
|
|
Mobile Experience Awards Draws
|
February 2021, Portugal
|
|---|---|
|
4G Coverage Experience
|
V
Vodafone
N
NOS
M
MEO
|
|
Video Experience
Additional Metrics |
V
Vodafone
|
N
NOS
|
M
MEO
|
|---|---|---|---|
| in 0-100 points | |||
|
4G Video Experience
| 77.6 (± 0.26) | 74.8 (± 0.47) | 76.8 (± 0.31) |
|
3G Video Experience
| 58.5 (± 1.79) | 56.1 (± 2.74) | 51.0 (± 1.94) |
| 4G Video Experience | in 0-100 points |
|
V
Vodafone
|
78 (± 0.26) |
|
N
NOS
|
75 (± 0.47) |
|
M
MEO
|
77 (± 0.31) |
| 3G Video Experience | in 0-100 points |
|
V
Vodafone
|
58 (± 1.79) |
|
N
NOS
|
56 (± 2.74) |
|
M
MEO
|
51 (± 1.94) |
|
Games Experience
Additional Metrics |
V
Vodafone
|
N
NOS
|
M
MEO
|
|---|---|---|---|
| in 0-100 points | |||
|
4G Games Experience
| 77.6 (± 0.45) | 74.9 (± 0.66) | 75.9 (± 0.51) |
|
3G Games Experience
| 45.8 (± 2.00) | 40.1 (± 1.86) | 36.2 (± 0.58) |
| 4G Games Experience | in 0-100 points |
|
V
Vodafone
|
78 (± 0.45) |
|
N
NOS
|
75 (± 0.66) |
|
M
MEO
|
76 (± 0.51) |
| 3G Games Experience | in 0-100 points |
|
V
Vodafone
|
46 (± 2.00) |
|
N
NOS
|
40 (± 1.86) |
|
M
MEO
|
36 (± 0.58) |
|
Voice App Experience
Additional Metrics |
V
Vodafone
|
N
NOS
|
M
MEO
|
|---|---|---|---|
| in 0-100 points | |||
|
4G Voice App Experience
| 83.1 (± 0.21) | 82.3 (± 0.27) | 82.9 (± 0.24) |
|
3G Voice App Experience
| 75.5 (± 0.90) | 74.2 (± 1.35) | 71.7 (± 1.19) |
| 4G Voice App Experience | in 0-100 points |
|
V
Vodafone
|
83 (± 0.21) |
|
N
NOS
|
82 (± 0.27) |
|
M
MEO
|
83 (± 0.24) |
| 3G Voice App Experience | in 0-100 points |
|
V
Vodafone
|
76 (± 0.90) |
|
N
NOS
|
74 (± 1.35) |
|
M
MEO
|
72 (± 1.19) |
|
Download Speed Experience
Additional Metrics |
V
Vodafone
|
N
NOS
|
M
MEO
|
|---|---|---|---|
| in Mbps | |||
|
4G Download Speed
| 40.9 (± 0.53) | 23.1 (± 0.39) | 38.8 (± 0.53) |
|
3G Download Speed
| 5.4 (± 0.16) | 6.1 (± 0.32) | 4.7 (± 0.17) |
| 4G Download Speed | in Mbps |
|
V
Vodafone
|
41 (± 0.53) |
|
N
NOS
|
23 (± 0.39) |
|
M
MEO
|
39 (± 0.53) |
| 3G Download Speed | in Mbps |
|
V
Vodafone
|
5 (± 0.16) |
|
N
NOS
|
6 (± 0.32) |
|
M
MEO
|
5 (± 0.17) |
|
Upload Speed Experience
Additional Metrics |
V
Vodafone
|
N
NOS
|
M
MEO
|
|---|---|---|---|
| in Mbps | |||
|
4G Upload Speed
| 13.2 (± 0.20) | 12.0 (± 0.24) | 11.6 (± 0.20) |
|
3G Upload Speed
| 1.9 (± 0.09) | 1.6 (± 0.10) | 1.3 (± 0.08) |
| 4G Upload Speed | in Mbps |
|
V
Vodafone
|
13 (± 0.20) |
|
N
NOS
|
12 (± 0.24) |
|
M
MEO
|
12 (± 0.20) |
| 3G Upload Speed | in Mbps |
|
V
Vodafone
|
2 (± 0.09) |
|
N
NOS
|
2 (± 0.10) |
|
M
MEO
|
1 (± 0.08) |
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.
Opensignal is the mobile analytics company committed to improving mobile connectivity across the globe. We are the independent authority for understanding the true experience consumers receive on wireless networks.
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