5G User Experience Report Netherlands March 2021

Netherlands

5G User Experience Report
March 2021

Opensignal is the independent global standard for analyzing consumer mobile experience. Our industry reports are the definitive guide to understanding the true experience consumers receive on wireless networks.

Author
Sam Fenwick Senior Analyst

Key Findings

KPN wins Opensignal’s first 5G Download Speed award in the Netherlands

KPN has won our 5G Download Speed award outright with a score of 162.2 Mbps — an impressive 39 Mbps (31.7%) higher than second-placed T- Mobile’s score of 123.2 Mbps and nearly double Vodafone’s score of 84.9 Mbps.

Our T-Mobile users spent the most time connected to 5G

T-Mobile is the outright winner of our inaugural 5G Availability award, with a score of 20.4%. This means that our T-Mobile 5G users spent on average 20.4% of their time connected to 5G. T-Mobile’s score was 6.5 percentage points higher than KPN‘s score of 13.9% and more than double Vodafone’s score of 9.2% indicating that our T-Mobile users are able to experience 5G considerably more often than our 5G users connecting on other operators.

KPN wins all but one of our 5G speed awards outright

In addition to being the sole winner of our 5G Download Speed award, KPN is also the outright winner of our 5G Upload Speed and Download Speed Experience – 5G Users awards. The latter analyzes the download speeds observed by our 5G users across all generations of mobile network technology, not just 5G. The average upload speeds our KPN users observed while on a 5G connection (42.4 Mbps) were 7.1 Mbps (20%) faster than than those seen by their T-Mobile counterparts and nearly double those seen by our 5G users on Vodafone’s network. The only 5G speed award KPN did not win outright is Upload Speed Experience – 5G Users, where it statistically tied with T-Mobile, making the two operators joint winners for this measure of the mobile experience.

KPN and T-Mobile are joint winners for 5G Video Experience

Our first look at the 5G Video Experience in the Netherlands has revealed a statistical tie between KPN and T-Mobile, with scores of 84.1 and 82.4, respectively. Vodafone wasn’t far behind with a score of 81.7. All three operators’ 5G Video Experience scores along with those for Video Experience – 5G Users (which assesses our 5G users’ experience when streaming video across all generations of mobile network technology — not just 5G) placed in the Excellent category. An Excellent rating indicates a very consistent experience across all users, video streaming providers and resolutions tested, with fast loading times and almost non-existent stalling. The Netherlands’ three national operators were statistically tied on Video Experience – 5G Users, with scores between 81.2-81.9.

Introduction

In our first look at the 5G user experience in the Netherlands, KPN has performed strongly — winning three out of seven of our awards outright, including all but one of our 5G speed awards. In addition, KPN jointly wins our 5G Video Experience, Video Experience – 5G Users and Upload Speed Experience – 5G Users awards.

However, it was our T-Mobile users who spent the highest proportion of their time connected to 5G services (20.4%). Despite this advantage, when we analyzed the overall experience of our 5G users weighted by the proportion of time that they spent connected to each generation of mobile network technology, our KPN 5G users still observed the highest average download speeds in our Download Speed Experience – 5G Users award category. In addition, KPN and T-Mobile were statistically tied for both Video Experience – 5G Users (along with Vodafone) and Upload Speed Experience – 5G Users. Given that in our mobile network experience report (which uses the same data collection period) KPN and T-Mobile are joint winners for Download Speed Experience, it is a testament to KPN’s 5G network that it was able to win the Download Speed Experience — 5G Users award outright.

The scores seen by Dutch 5G users are impressive by international standards. The Netherlands placing in the top 10 5G countries for 5G Upload Speed Experience as well as for all three of our experiential metrics as measured on 5G connections — 5G Video Experience, 5G Games Experience and 5G Voice App Experience — along with 5G Availability and 5G Reach (the average proportion of locations where 5G users have connected to a 5G network out of all the locations those users have visited) in our recent “Benchmarking the global 5G experience”t insight.

It’s worth remembering that while 5G services were first launched in the Netherlands at the end of April 2020 by Vodafone — with KPN and T-Mobile following in late July of the same year — the country is still towards the start of its 5G journey, given that spectrum in the 3.5 GHz won’t be auctioned until 1Q 2022. Once operators have deployed the spectrum that will be made available in this auction, the mobile experience of our 5G users will improve significantly.

For the first time, Opensignal presents 5G awards in the Netherlands. We have analyzed our 5G users' experience across four 5G measures: the average speed of the 5G connection when users have an active 5G link — 5G Download Speed and 5G Upload Speed; the time users spend connected to 5G represented by 5G Availability; and the experience our users observed when streaming video over a 5G connection — 5G Video Experience.

We also have assessed our 5G users’ Video Experience, Download Speed Experience and Upload Speed Experience across different generations of mobile technology — we call these measures of the mobile experience Video Experience – 5G Users, Download Speed Experience – 5G Users and Upload Speed Experience – 5G Users. These combine the average scores that our 5G users experience on 3G or 4G when they are not connected to 5G, with their average 5G scores, based on the amount of time they spend connected to each generation of mobile network technology. Our 5G users have both a 5G smartphone and a 5G plan.

We have also published a companion report — Netherlands Mobile Network Experience March 2021 — which analyzes the overall experience of all our mobile users in the country.

Opensignal Awards Table

5G Mobile Experience Awards Netherlands
March 2021, Netherlands Report
5G Availability
5G Video Experience
Video Experience – 5G Users
5G Download Speed
Download Speed Experience – 5G Users
5G Upload Speed
Upload Speed Experience – 5G Users
Download Image
Mobile Experience Awards Winners
March 2021, Netherlands
5G Availability
5G Download Speed
Download Speed Experience – 5G Users
5G Upload Speed
Mobile Experience Awards Draws
March 2021, Netherlands
5G Video Experience
Video Experience – 5G Users
Upload Speed Experience – 5G Users
Download Image

Overview

Click on metric labels below for a quick preview
5G Availability
in %
KPN
13.9
T-Mobile
20.4
Vodafone
9.2
06.2512.518.7525
The brackets represent confidence intervals.
Download Image

National Analysis

5G Availability

5G Availability
in %
KPN
13.9
T-Mobile
20.4
Vodafone
9.2
06.2512.518.7525
The brackets represent confidence intervals.
Download Image

5G Video Experience

5G Video Experience
in 0-100 points
KPN
84.1
T-Mobile
82.4
Vodafone
81.7
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
The brackets represent confidence intervals.
Download Image

Video Experience – 5G Users

Video Experience – 5G Users
in 0-100 points
KPN
81.9
T-Mobile
81.2
Vodafone
81.6
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
The brackets represent confidence intervals.
Download Image

5G Download Speed

5G Download Speed
in Mbps
KPN
162.2
T-Mobile
123.2
Vodafone
84.9
041.2582.5123.75165
The brackets represent confidence intervals.
Download Image

Download Speed Experience – 5G Users

Download Speed Experience – 5G Users
in Mbps
KPN
117.3
T-Mobile
101.4
Vodafone
72.2
0306090120
The brackets represent confidence intervals.
Download Image

5G Upload Speed

5G Upload Speed
in Mbps
KPN
42.4
T-Mobile
35.4
Vodafone
22.0
011.2522.533.7545
The brackets represent confidence intervals.
Download Image

Upload Speed Experience – 5G Users

Upload Speed Experience – 5G Users
in Mbps
KPN
28.2
T-Mobile
24.7
Vodafone
15.2
07.51522.530
The brackets represent confidence intervals.
Download Image
Learn more

Opensignal measures the real-world experience of consumers on mobile networks in the places they live, work and travel.

We continually adapt our methodology to best represent the true experience of smartphone users. Therefore, comparisons of the results to past reports should be considered indicative only.

For every metric we calculate statistical confidence intervals indicated on our graphs. When confidence intervals overlap, our measured results are too close to declare a winner. In those cases, we show a statistical draw. For this reason, some metrics have multiple winners.

In our bar graphs we represent confidence intervals as boundaries on either sides of graph bars. In our supporting-metric charts we show confidence intervals as +/- numerical values.

More about Methodology

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For every metric we calculate statistical confidence intervals indicated on our graphs. When confidence intervals overlap, our measured results are too close to declare a winner. In those cases, we show a statistical draw. For this reason, some metrics have multiple operator winners.

In our bar graphs we represent confidence intervals as boundaries on either sides of graph bars.

In our supporting-metric charts we show confidence intervals as +/- numerical values.

Why confidence intervals are vital in analyzing mobile network experience