Uruguay

In our previous report, Claro jointly won the Video Experience award with Movistar. This time around, Claro wins outright, with a score of 73.4 — an improvement of 3.2 points (4.5%). Claro defeated Movistar by 1.3 points, as the latter’s score rose by 2.2 points (3.2%). Antel slightly lagged behind but also managed to improve its score by 2.1 points (3.2%). Just like in our last two reports, all operators in the country placed in the Very Good (65-75 points) category, which means generally fast loading times and only occasional stalling for our users when streaming video over mobile networks.

Looking at our users’ experience broken down by mobile technology generation, our Claro and Movistar users enjoyed an Excellent (75 or above) 4G Video Experience — meaning fast loading times and almost non-existent stalling — while Antel rated as Very Good (65-75). Both Claro and Movistar moved up from the Very Good to Excellent category compared to our October 2020 report, with our Claro users reporting a particularly large improvement of 3.2 points (4.4%).

Video Experience quantifies users’ perceived quality of video streamed to mobile devices on a scale from 0 to 100 by measuring real-world video streams over an operator's network. The videos tested include a mixture of resolutions and are streamed directly from the world’s largest video content providers.

Movistar triumphed this time, with a score of 70.4, beating both Antel and Claro, which statistically tie for second-place. All three operators placed in the Fair (65-75) category — which means most users might have felt like they had control over the game but noticed a delay between their actions and the outcomes in the game. In terms of 4G Games Experience — our Movistar users enjoyed the smoothest experience, with a score of 76.2. This placed the operator in the Good (75-85) category, meaning most users deemed the experience acceptable. The gameplay experience was generally controllable and users received immediate feedback between their actions and the outcomes in the game. Most users did not experience a delay between their actions and the game.

Opensignal’s Games Experience analyzes how mobile network conditions — including latency, packet loss and jitter — impact the real-time multiplayer mobile gameplay over operators’ networks. It considers multiple genres of multiplayer mobile games to measure the average sensitivity to network conditions. The games tested include some of the most popular real-time multiplayer mobile games — such as Fortnite, Pro Evolution Soccer and Arena of Valor — played around the world.

All three mobile operators hit or exceeded the 80-point threshold for Voice App Experience, elevating themselves from the Acceptable (74-80) category to Good (80-87) — this means that many users were satisfied with the quality of over-the-top (OTT) voice services, but some experienced minor quality impairments. Claro and Movistar jointly win the Voice App Experience award again, as a result of a statistical tie. With its score of 80 points, Antel wasn’t far behind the joint winners — its users saw a 1.3 point (1.6%) improvement in Voice App Experience from our last report.

Opensignal's Voice App Experience measures the quality of experience for OTT voice services — mobile voice apps such as WhatsApp, Skype and Facebook Messenger — using a model derived from an International Telecommunication Union (ITU)-based approach for quantifying overall voice call quality and a series of calibrated technical parameters. This model characterizes the exact relationship between the technical measurements and perceived call quality. Voice App Experience for each operator is calculated on a scale from 0 to 100.

For the fourth consecutive time, our users in Uruguay enjoyed the fastest Download Speed Experience on Antel’s network — 22.1 Mbps, up 5.8% from our last report. Claro and Movistar statistically tie for second-place — Claro caught up with Movistar thanks to an increase of 1.2 Mbps (6.9%), compared to the more modest rise of 0.1 Mbps (0.5%) experienced by Movistar users. Antel’s network was the only one on which the overall average download speeds observed by our users surpassed 20 Mbps.

However, when looking at 4G alone, our users experienced average 4G download speeds over 20 Mbps on all three operators. The highest speeds seen by our users was with Antel — 25.3 Mbps — a 4.8% increase compared to our previous report. Antel beat second-placed Movistar by 3.2 Mbps (14.4%) — the runner-up saw a small decline in average 4G download speeds of 0.7 Mbps (3%). Claro had the third-highest 4G Download Speed score, but our Claro users enjoyed an impressive 7.5% (1.5 Mbps) increase in their average 4G download speeds, which helped the operator cross the 20 Mbps threshold. In terms of 3G Download Speed, our Claro users reported the fastest speeds (9.1 Mbps), while those on Movistar experienced a notable boost of 0.5 Mbps (9.2%).

When it comes to sending pictures and sharing files over mobile devices in Uruguay, Antel’s users continue to have an unbeatable experience. The operator wins the Upload Experience Award award for the fourth time in a row, this time with a score of 9 Mbps, which was unchanged since our last report. Claro’s score also stagnated, at 6.9 Mbps and our Movistar users saw a minor fall of 0.2 Mbps (2.2%) in their average upload speeds.

In regards to Upload Speed Experience by mobile network technology generation, our Antel users experienced the fastest average 4G upload speeds (10.4 Mbps), which is a small decline of 1.5% compared to the previous report, but Antel remained the only operator in the market above the 10 Mbps milestone. Our users on Movistar observed a drop of 0.6 Mbps (6%) in their average 4G upload speeds, down to 9.0 Mbps.

Our Movistar 4G users spent 94.3% of time connected to 4G which allowed the operator to win the 4G Availability award for the fourth consecutive time. Movistar managed to improve its score by one percentage point and widen its lead over second-placed Antel to 4.3 percentage points. Antel reached the 90% threshold, thanks to a 0.4 percentage point increase, while Claro’s users were able to connect to 4G networks for 88.1% of the time.

4G Availability shows the proportion of time users with a 4G device and subscription have a 4G connection. It measures what proportion of time people have a 4G network connection in the places they most commonly frequent, something often missed by traditional coverage metrics.

Antel claims the 4G Coverage Experience award for the third time in a row — winning every time since we added this award to our Mobile Network Experience reports for Uruguay back in April 2020. Antel achieved a score of 9.0 which is unchanged from our previous report. Movistar saw an increase of 0.2 points and reached a score of 8.3, while Claro improved its score by 0.1 points, up to 7.3.

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. It measures the mobile coverage experience in all the locations that matter most to everyday users.