Thailand

Mobile Network Experience Report
May 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

TrueMove H’s download speeds have risen by more than 60%

TrueMove H is the outright winner of our Download Speed Experience award, having beaten the previous winner — DTAC — by a margin of 5.3 Mbps (52.6%). This feat is all the more impressive due to the fact that in our last report the average download speeds seen by our TrueMove H users were 0.8 Mbps slower than those observed by their DTAC counterparts. These changes were driven by a remarkable 5.9 Mbps (62.6%) increase in TrueMove H’s Download Speed Experience score and a 0.2 Mbps drop in DTAC’s.

TrueMove H extends its lead on Upload Speed Experience

TrueMove H is once again the winner of our Upload Speed Experience award, having held it ever since we introduced this measure of the mobile experience in our May 2019 report. This time, its lead over second-placed AIS has more than doubled, rising from 1.3 Mbps to 3.1 Mbps. This is because TrueMove H’s score rose by 1.2 Mbps (17.9%) while AIS’s fell by 0.6 Mbps (11.2%). While the average upload speeds seen by our DTAC users rose by 0.1 Mbps (3.1%), they were around 2.4 times slower than those seen by their counterparts on TrueMove H’s network and 1.4 Mbps below those seen by our AIS users.

Our Thai users’ 4G Availability rises back above 90%

AIS remains the outright winner of the 4G Availability award and its winning streak extends all the way back to our November 2018 report. It is closing in on the 95% mark as its score has risen by 1.2 percentage points to 94.7%. Its rivals haven’t been idle in this regard, with DTAC and TrueMove H’s scores rising by 2.2 and 0.8 percentage points, respectively, to stand at 92.5% and 90.7%. As a result of these improvements, our Thai users spent more than 90% of their time connected to 4G regardless of their choice of national operator. In addition, AIS also retains its hold on the 4G Coverage Experience award and has hit the nine points out of 10 mark, thanks to an increase of 0.2 points in its score. However, its lead has dropped from 0.6 points to 0.5 points as second-placed TrueMove H’s score rose by 0.3 points.

The mobile experience in Bangkok Metropolis reflects national trends

In contrast to our previous report, in which AIS was the dominant operator in Bangkok Metropolis for all but one measure of the mobile experience (it tied with TrueMove H on Video Experience), this time round, TrueMove H is the outright winner of the regional awards for this region for Video Experience, Download Speed Experience and Upload Speed Experience. This mirrors the operator’s successes at the national level. Similarly, AIS had the highest score in the region for Games Experience and Voice Experience, though it was a joint winner along with DTAC for 4G Availability, rather than winning outright (which it did at the national level). Our wider look at the mobile experience across seven regions also was mainly in line with our national awards table.

Introduction

This time around, either AIS or TrueMove H win all our awards, as the latter has taken possession of DTAC’s sole award in the last report — Download Speed Experience. TrueMove H now holds both our speed awards, while AIS continues to hold both our awards for the extent of 4G networks — 4G Availability and 4G Coverage Experience.

The experiential awards remain less neatly split, with TrueMove H holding onto the Video Experience award and AIS maintaining its grip on our Games Experience and Voice App Experience awards. It’s interesting to note that despite TrueMove H’s lead on speed and Video Experience, it is in third place on Games Experience and Voice App Experience —indicating why it is important to look at different aspects of the mobile network experience.

In this report, we've analyzed the mobile network experience for all three of Thailand's national operators — AIS, DTAC and TrueMove H — over a period of 90 days beginning January 1 and ending March 31, 2021, to see how they fared. Alongside the national analysis, we've also measured our users' experience in seven regions of the country to see how they match up. We have used 5G measurements in addition to those from previous generations of mobile network technology when determining the overall scores for each award.

Opensignal Awards Table

Mobile Experience Awards Thailand
May 2021, Thailand Report
Video Experience
Games Experience
Voice App Experience
Download Speed Experience
Upload Speed Experience
4G Availability
4G Coverage Experience
Download Image
Mobile Experience Awards Winners
May 2021, Thailand
Video Experience
Games Experience
Voice App Experience
Download Speed Experience
Upload Speed Experience
4G Availability
4G Coverage Experience
Download Image

Overview

Click on metric labels below for a quick preview
Video Experience
in 0-100 points
AIS
54.2
DTAC
60.9
TrueMove H
64.6
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
The brackets represent confidence intervals.
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National Analysis

Video Experience

TrueMove H is once again the sole winner of the Video Experience award, having won it outright ever since the November 2019 report, when it successfully broke a statistical tie with DTAC. This time, TrueMove H won with a score of 64.6 points, up 3.4 points from its score in the last report. Both our TrueMove H and DTAC users continued to report having a Good experience when streaming video over mobile connections. However, AIS’s score moved in the opposite direction, falling by 3.3 points to 54.2 points and causing it to drop down a category from Good (55-65) to Fair (40-55).

A Fair Video Experience indicates that our users did not have a good experience either for higher resolution videos (very slow loading times and prolonged stalling) or for some video streaming providers. However, their experience on lower resolution videos from some providers might have been sufficient. A Good Video Experience on the other hand, indicates that our users had a superior experience to those who had a Fair one, but it was relatively inconsistent even from the same video streaming provider and particularly for higher resolutions, with noticeably slow loading times and stalling not being uncommon.

Video Experience
in 0-100 points
AIS
54.2
DTAC
60.9
TrueMove H
64.6
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
The brackets represent confidence intervals.
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Video Experience
Additional Metrics
in 0-100 points
4G Video Experience
57.8 (± 0.23) 65.8 (± 0.24) 69.0 (± 0.17)
3G Video Experience
37.4 (± 0.66) 39.5 (± 0.82) 48.5 (± 0.56)
+/- numeric values represent confidence intervals.
Mobile Network Experience Report | May 2021 | © Opensignal Limited
4G Video Experience in 0-100 points
58 (± 0.23)
66 (± 0.24)
69 (± 0.17)
3G Video Experience in 0-100 points
37 (± 0.66)
40 (± 0.82)
48 (± 0.56)
Mobile Network Experience Report | May 2021 | © Opensignal Inc.

Games Experience

AIS is the outright winner of the Games Experience award for the third report in a row. It continues to maintain a sizable lead over second-placed DTAC. In addition, AIS remains the only Thai operator on which our users had a Fair (65-75) Games Experience, as DTAC and TrueMove H again placed in the Poor (40-65) category. This indicates that there remains plenty of room for improvement in terms of the experience of our Thai users when playing multiplayer mobile games over cellular connections.

Games Experience
in 0-100 points
AIS
72.0
DTAC
61.9
TrueMove H
52.2
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
The brackets represent confidence intervals.
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Games Experience
Additional Metrics
in 0-100 points
4G Games Experience
76.4 (± 0.19) 67.8 (± 0.33) 60.2 (± 0.40)
3G Games Experience
51.4 (± 0.75) 39.8 (± 0.50) 36.0 (± 0.20)
+/- numeric values represent confidence intervals.
Mobile Network Experience Report | May 2021 | © Opensignal Limited
4G Games Experience in 0-100 points
76 (± 0.19)
68 (± 0.33)
60 (± 0.40)
3G Games Experience in 0-100 points
51 (± 0.75)
40 (± 0.50)
36 (± 0.20)
Mobile Network Experience Report | May 2021 | © Opensignal Inc.

A Fair Games Experience rating indicates that our users found the experience to be ‘average’. In most cases the game was responsive to the actions of the player with most users reporting that they felt like they had control over the game. The majority of players reported that they noticed a delay between their actions and the outcomes in the game.

In contrast, a Poor rating means that most users found this level of experience unacceptable. The majority of users reported seeing a delay in the gameplay experience and they did not receive immediate feedback on their actions. Many users felt a lack of controllability in the Games Experience.

Voice App Experience

Ever since we added the Voice App Experience award to our Thailand mobile network experience reports in November 2019, AIS has won it outright and this winning streak remains unbroken. In addition, AIS has extended its lead over second-placed DTAC by around 0.8 points since our last report to four points (5.2%). This is because while both operators’ scores increased, our AIS users saw the largest improvement in their experience when using mobile voice apps such as WhatsApp, LINE and Facebook Messenger — AIS’s score rose by 2.2 to DTAC’s 1.5.

While AIS moves ahead, the gap between third-placed TrueMove H and its rivals has grown as its score fell by 1.4 points to 72.1 points. None of these changes have caused a change in category since our last report — AIS and DTAC have retained their Acceptable (74-80) ratings, while TrueMove H has continued to place in the Poor (66-74) category.

An Acceptable rating means that our users were generally able to comprehend without repetition, although perceptible call quality impairments were experienced by some users, such as clicking sounds of short duration or distortion and/or the volume may not have been sufficiently loud. A Poor rating indicates that many users were dissatisfied and experienced call quality impairments that were perceptible and may have been annoying.

Voice App Experience
in 0-100 points
AIS
79.5
DTAC
75.5
TrueMove H
72.1
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
The brackets represent confidence intervals.
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Voice App Experience
Additional Metrics
in 0-100 points
4G Voice App Experience
80.5 (± 0.08) 77.0 (± 0.15) 74.3 (± 0.18)
3G Voice App Experience
74.9 (± 0.30) 69.2 (± 0.45) 64.3 (± 0.42)
+/- numeric values represent confidence intervals.
Mobile Network Experience Report | May 2021 | © Opensignal Limited
4G Voice App Experience in 0-100 points
80 (± 0.08)
77 (± 0.15)
74 (± 0.18)
3G Voice App Experience in 0-100 points
75 (± 0.30)
69 (± 0.45)
64 (± 0.42)
Mobile Network Experience Report | May 2021 | © Opensignal Inc.

Download Speed Experience

TrueMove H is the new outright winner of the Download Speed Experience award due to an impressive 5.9 Mbps (62.6%) increase in the average download speeds observed by our users on its network. This was more than sufficient to overturn the 0.8 Mbps lead that DTAC — the previous winner — commanded in our last report. A contributing factor was a 0.2 Mbps fall in DTAC’s score. Our AIS users saw a sharper drop, with their speeds falling by 1.3 Mbps (14.4%) to 7.8 Mbps — half those enjoyed by their TrueMove H counterparts. AIS’s Download Speed Experience score also fell in our previous report.

Download Speed Experience
in Mbps
AIS
7.8
DTAC
10.1
TrueMove H
15.4
05101520
The brackets represent confidence intervals.
Download Image
Download Speed Experience
Additional Metrics
in Mbps
4G Download Speed
8.7 (± 0.06) 11.6 (± 0.09) 18.0 (± 0.08)
3G Download Speed
3.3 (± 0.05) 3.6 (± 0.06) 6.0 (± 0.06)
+/- numeric values represent confidence intervals.
Mobile Network Experience Report | May 2021 | © Opensignal Limited
4G Download Speed in Mbps
9 (± 0.06)
12 (± 0.09)
18 (± 0.08)
3G Download Speed in Mbps
3 (± 0.05)
4 (± 0.06)
6 (± 0.06)
Mobile Network Experience Report | May 2021 | © Opensignal Inc.

Upload Speed Experience

TrueMove H continues to have sole possession of our Upload Speed Experience award — which it has maintained ever since its introduction in our May 2019 report. The operator’s score rose by 1.2 Mbps (17.9%) while that of second-placed AIS’s fell by 0.6 Mbps (11.2%). As a result, TrueMove H’s lead has more than doubled, rising from 1.3 Mbps to 3.1 Mbps. While the average upload speeds seen by our DTAC users rose by 0.1 Mbps (3.1%), they were around 2.4 times slower than those seen by their counterparts on TrueMove H’s network and 1.4 Mbps below those seen by our AIS users.

Upload Speed Experience
in Mbps
AIS
4.7
DTAC
3.3
TrueMove H
7.8
02.557.510
The brackets represent confidence intervals.
Download Image
Upload Speed Experience
Additional Metrics
in Mbps
4G Upload Speed
5.4 (± 0.03) 3.7 (± 0.03) 9.5 (± 0.05)
3G Upload Speed
1.6 (± 0.02) 1.5 (± 0.03) 1.7 (± 0.02)
+/- numeric values represent confidence intervals.
Mobile Network Experience Report | May 2021 | © Opensignal Limited
4G Upload Speed in Mbps
5 (± 0.03)
4 (± 0.03)
10 (± 0.05)
3G Upload Speed in Mbps
2 (± 0.02)
1 (± 0.03)
2 (± 0.02)
Mobile Network Experience Report | May 2021 | © Opensignal Inc.

4G Availability

Ever since our November 2018 report, AIS has been the sole winner of our 4G Availability award and this time around is no exception. The operator was only 0.3 percentage points away from the 95% mark, as its score has risen by 1.2 percentage points to 94.7%. Meanwhile, DTAC and TrueMove H’s scores increased by 2.2 and 0.8 percentage points, respectively, to stand at 92.5% and 90.7%. Because of these improvements, our Thai users spent more than 90% of their time connected to 4G regardless of their choice of national operator. This marks a return to the situation we saw back in our April 2020 report, which was before our users on all three operators’ networks reported declines in the proportion of time they spent connected to 4G in our previous report.

4G Availability
% of time
AIS
94.7
DTAC
92.5
TrueMove H
90.7
023.7547.571.2595
The brackets represent confidence intervals.
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4G Coverage Experience

AIS is once again the winner of our 4G Coverage Experience award, having won it ever since its introduction to our Thailand mobile network experience reports in April 2020. While AIS saw the smallest increase in its score out of the three operators — 0.2 points — this was enough for it to hit the nine points out of 10 mark. Meanwhile, second-placed TrueMove H’s score rose by 0.3 points, causing AIS’s lead to drop from 0.6 points to 0.5 points. DTAC’s score rose to 7.1 points, up 0.4 points from its score of 6.7 points in our last report.

4G Coverage Experience
in 0-10 points
AIS
9.0
DTAC
7.1
TrueMove H
8.6
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
The brackets represent confidence intervals.
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Opensignal’s 4G Coverage Experience is a measure of how 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 users of all network operators.

In simple terms, 4G Coverage Experience measures the mobile coverage experience in all the locations that matter most to everyday users — i.e. all the places where they live, work and travel. It considers all the areas that Opensignal users visit, the portion of locations that 4G is available to them, and locations that more users visit have higher importance to them.

Regional Analysis

Our regional analysis has mainly played along national lines with TrueMove H and AIS winning 21 and 18 regional awards outright out of a possible 42. However, DTAC was a joint winner alongside AIS for 4G Availability in three regions — North, West and Bangkok Metropolis — with AIS winning in the remaining regions outright. The proportion of time that our AIS users spent connected to 4G ranged from 96.2% in Bangkok Metropolis to 92% in the West. DTAC’s 4G Availability scores only dipped below the 90% mark in the Northeast and South regions, while TrueMove H’s scores were also below this level in the same regions, and also in the West (but only by around 0.2 percentage points). However, TrueMove H was in last place in all seven regions for 4G Availability.

TrueMove H is the outright winner for Video Experience, Download Speed Experience and Upload Speed Experience in all seven regions, while the same was true for AIS for both Games Experience and Voice App Experience.

Our TrueMove H users had a Very Good (65-75) Video Experience in five out of seven regions, while our DTAC users’ experience in Bangkok Metropolis placed in the same category. The highest regional Video Experience score — 71.2 points — was reported by our TrueMove H users in Bangkok Metropolis.

Only our AIS users in Bangkok Metropolis observed a Good Games Experience and they also observed the highest regional Games Experience score — 77.9 points. AIS’s other regional scores for this award placed it in the Fair category. In contrast, our DTAC and TrueMove H users had a Fair Games Experience in Bangkok Metropolis — the two operators’ scores in the other regions placed in the Poor category.

Turning to our final experiential metric, Voice App Experience, our AIS users in the Central region and Bangkok Metropolis were the only ones to report a Good experience — the operator placed in the Acceptable category in all the other regions. Our DTAC users reported an Acceptable Voice App Experience in all but the Northeast region where they had a Poor one instead. Our TrueMove H users on the other hand, had an Acceptable Voice App Experience in the North region and Bangkok Metropolis, but a Poor one in the remaining five regions.

TrueMove H had the highest regional score for Download Speed Experience — an impressive 19.6 Mbps in Bangkok Metropolis. This score was 5.4-5.8 Mbps higher than that reported by our DTAC and AIS users in the same region. TrueMove H’s regional scores were comfortably in the double-digits with its lowest score being 12.3 Mbps in the Northeast. In contrast, AIS’s scores only rose above the 10 Mbps mark in Bangkok Metropolis with a score of 13.8 Mbps, while DTAC’s scores only crossed this threshold in Bangkok Metropolis (14.2 Mbps), West (11.2 Mbps) and Central (10.4 Mbps).

Remarkably, our TrueMove H users reported average upload speeds of 10.3 Mbps in Bangkok Metropolis, along with 8.2 Mbps in Central and 8 Mbps in the North. The lowest Upload Speed Experience score reportedly by our TrueMove H users was 5.6 Mbps in the South. By way of comparison, AIS’s regional Upload Speed Experience scores ranged between 8.1 Mbps and 3.2 Mbps, while DTAC’s were in the 4.2-2.8 Mbps range.

Select any region or city below to display individual breakdown

Bangkok Metropolis

Video Experience
in Bangkok Metropolis
in 0-100 points
AIS
63.8
DTAC
65.8
TrueMove H
71.2
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Games Experience
in Bangkok Metropolis
in 0-100 points
AIS
77.9
DTAC
69.9
TrueMove H
65.6
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Voice App Experience
in Bangkok Metropolis
in 0-100 points
AIS
80.9
DTAC
78.0
TrueMove H
76.3
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Download Speed Experience
in Bangkok Metropolis
in Mbps
AIS
13.8
DTAC
14.2
TrueMove H
19.6
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Upload Speed Experience
in Bangkok Metropolis
in Mbps
AIS
8.1
DTAC
4.2
TrueMove H
10.3
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4G Availability
in Bangkok Metropolis
% of time
AIS
96.2
DTAC
96.0
TrueMove H
95.0
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Central

Video Experience
in Central
in 0-100 points
AIS
56.1
DTAC
61.6
TrueMove H
65.7
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Games Experience
in Central
in 0-100 points
AIS
74.3
DTAC
64.7
TrueMove H
56.0
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Voice App Experience
in Central
in 0-100 points
AIS
80.0
DTAC
76.4
TrueMove H
73.3
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Download Speed Experience
in Central
in Mbps
AIS
8.4
DTAC
10.4
TrueMove H
15.8
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Upload Speed Experience
in Central
in Mbps
AIS
5.5
DTAC
3.3
TrueMove H
8.2
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4G Availability
in Central
% of time
AIS
95.1
DTAC
93.4
TrueMove H
91.7
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East

Video Experience
in East
in 0-100 points
AIS
55.5
DTAC
60.5
TrueMove H
65.3
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Games Experience
in East
in 0-100 points
AIS
73.3
DTAC
64.1
TrueMove H
56.6
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Voice App Experience
in East
in 0-100 points
AIS
79.5
DTAC
75.9
TrueMove H
73.7
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Download Speed Experience
in East
in Mbps
AIS
8.2
DTAC
9.7
TrueMove H
15.8
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Upload Speed Experience
in East
in Mbps
AIS
5.0
DTAC
3.2
TrueMove H
7.9
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4G Availability
in East
% of time
AIS
95.1
DTAC
91.4
TrueMove H
90.2
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North

Video Experience
in North
in 0-100 points
AIS
55.2
DTAC
61.9
TrueMove H
65.5
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Games Experience
in North
in 0-100 points
AIS
69.0
DTAC
60.7
TrueMove H
57.1
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Voice App Experience
in North
in 0-100 points
AIS
78.9
DTAC
76.2
TrueMove H
74.5
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Download Speed Experience
in North
in Mbps
AIS
7.9
DTAC
9.2
TrueMove H
15.3
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Upload Speed Experience
in North
in Mbps
AIS
4.9
DTAC
3.1
TrueMove H
8.0
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4G Availability
in North
% of time
AIS
92.4
DTAC
93.2
TrueMove H
90.1
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Northeast

Video Experience
in Northeast
in 0-100 points
AIS
48.0
DTAC
57.1
TrueMove H
59.3
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Games Experience
in Northeast
in 0-100 points
AIS
69.4
DTAC
53.6
TrueMove H
43.5
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Voice App Experience
in Northeast
in 0-100 points
AIS
79.7
DTAC
73.2
TrueMove H
68.9
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Download Speed Experience
in Northeast
in Mbps
AIS
5.7
DTAC
8.3
TrueMove H
12.3
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Upload Speed Experience
in Northeast
in Mbps
AIS
3.2
DTAC
2.8
TrueMove H
6.5
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4G Availability
in Northeast
% of time
AIS
94.8
DTAC
89.1
TrueMove H
87.8
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South

Video Experience
in South
in 0-100 points
AIS
51.1
DTAC
57.6
TrueMove H
61.0
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Games Experience
in South
in 0-100 points
AIS
70.2
DTAC
57.2
TrueMove H
41.7
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Voice App Experience
in South
in 0-100 points
AIS
78.6
DTAC
74.3
TrueMove H
68.5
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Download Speed Experience
in South
in Mbps
AIS
6.1
DTAC
8.2
TrueMove H
14.6
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Upload Speed Experience
in South
in Mbps
AIS
3.5
DTAC
3.0
TrueMove H
5.6
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4G Availability
in South
% of time
AIS
93.4
DTAC
89.9
TrueMove H
87.2
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West

Video Experience
in West
in 0-100 points
AIS
53.3
DTAC
62.7
TrueMove H
65.2
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Games Experience
in West
in 0-100 points
AIS
69.1
DTAC
61.7
TrueMove H
51.6
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Voice App Experience
in West
in 0-100 points
AIS
78.6
DTAC
75.4
TrueMove H
72.1
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Download Speed Experience
in West
in Mbps
AIS
6.8
DTAC
11.2
TrueMove H
15.0
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Upload Speed Experience
in West
in Mbps
AIS
4.4
DTAC
3.3
TrueMove H
7.8
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4G Availability
in West
% of time
AIS
92.0
DTAC
91.8
TrueMove H
89.8
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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