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In this report we have a new winner for Download speed Experience — 3 won the award outright with a score of 22 Mbps, 2.3 Mbps faster than that of the previous winner, Vodafone. Vodafone won the award in our last two reports, but this time 3 prevailed thanks to an impressive 3.8 Mbps (21%) increase in the average download speeds observed by our users on its network and a 2.4 Mbps (10.9%) drop in those seen by Vodafone users. As a consequence, 3 has also replaced Vodafone as the only operator on which our users observed average speeds above 20 Mbps. 3 was not the only operator to have made excellent progress since our last report — eir’s Download Speed Experience score rose by 3.2 Mbps (20.3%) to 19.1 Mbps.
While Vodafone and eir continue to be statistically tied for Video Experience, eir has joined Vodafone in the Very Good (65-75) category. This means that our users on both operators’ networks had a better Video Experience than their 3 users, who have continued to observe a Good (55-65) experience. In addition, our eir and Vodafone users experienced generally fast loading times and only occasional stalling. However, the experience might have been somewhat inconsistent across users or video providers or resolutions. Both eir and Vodafone’s Video Experience scores have risen by 0.4 points since our last report, while 3’s rose by 1.7 points. As a result, 3 was only 1.8 points away from joining its rivals in the Very Good category.
Across all three of Ireland’s national operators our users have observed improvements of 3.3-3.5 points in their experience since our previous report. As a result of these changes, the award for Voice App Experience remains in the hands of both Vodafone and eir as it has done for the last two reports.
The proportion of time that our eir and Vodafone users spent connected to 4G services has risen above the 70% mark — a first for eir, while the last time Vodafone had a 4G Availability score of 70% or higher was back in our March 2020 report. Vodafone and eir’s scores for this measure of the mobile experience both rose by 4.5 percentage points compared with our last report. In contrast, 3’s score rose by one percentage point to 69.2%. In addition, all three operators have made modest progress in terms of 4G Coverage Experience, with their scores improving by 0.4-0.6 points. Vodafone remains the sole winner of the 4G Coverage Experience award.
In contrast to our last report in which all three operators were joint winners for the Upload Speed Experience award, this time round only 3 and eir are statistically tied for this measure of the mobile experience. This change was driven by 0.9 Mbps (13%) and 0.8 Mbps (12.5%) increases in the average upload speeds observed by our 3 and eir users respectively, aided by the fact that Vodafone’s Upload Speed Experience score rose by just 0.1 Mbps.
The battle over our awards table continues to be highly competitive, with only two awards continuing to be won outright — Download Speed Experience and 4G Coverage Experience. In addition, unlike in our last report they are now in different hands with 3 taking hold of the Download Speed Experience award and Vodafone retaining the 4G Coverage Experience award. On the other hand, both of the three-way ties that existed in our previous report — on Upload Speed Experience and 4G Availability — have narrowed down to two joint operators apiece. This time round, Vodafone still has the largest haul of awards — one outright win and four joint winners, though this is down from the two outright wins and five joint wins it claimed in our September 2020 report.
Since our last report, Ireland’s mobile networks have continued to develop:
In this report on Ireland's mobile market we have examined the real-world mobile experience of users across Ireland's three main mobile networks: 3, eir, and Vodafone in the 90 days ending January 29. Our metrics include measurements from our 5G users.
| Mobile Experience Awards Ireland | |||
|---|---|---|---|
March 2021,
Ireland Report
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3
3
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V
Vodafone
|
e
eir
|
Video Experience
| |||
Games Experience
| |||
Voice App Experience
| |||
Download Speed Experience
| |||
Upload Speed Experience
| |||
4G Availability
| |||
4G Coverage Experience
| |||
|
Mobile Experience Awards Winners
|
March 2021,
Ireland
|
|---|---|
|
Download Speed Experience
|
3
3
|
|
4G Coverage Experience
|
V
Vodafone
|
|
Mobile Experience Awards Draws
|
March 2021, Ireland
|
|---|---|
|
Video Experience
|
V
Vodafone
e
eir
|
|
Games Experience
|
V
Vodafone
e
eir
|
|
Voice App Experience
|
V
Vodafone
e
eir
|
|
Upload Speed Experience
|
3
3
e
eir
|
|
4G Availability
|
V
Vodafone
e
eir
|
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