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Our Swisscom users continue to see the fastest download speeds for the eight consecutive time, as the operator remains unbeatable since our June 2018 report. Swisscom saw a speed boost of 14.7 Mbps in average download speed, compared to our last report, which was the highest increase out of all Swiss networks. This resulted in Swisscom clocking in at nearly 70 Mbps and extending its lead to 19.2 Mbps over second-placed Sunrise. Our Salt and Sunrise users also saw increases in their speeds. As a result, our users on all Swiss operators enjoyed average download speeds of over 45 Mbps. Swisscom also won the Upload Speed Experience award outright, for the fifth consecutive time.
In our two previous reports, Swisscom won all of the mobile network experience awards outright, except for the Voice App Experience award, which it shared with Salt. This hasn’t changed , as Salt still holds onto the award and jointly wins it with Swisscom for the fifth consecutive time. Both operators remain locked in a statistical tie for this award since we introduced it in our December 2019 report. Salt and Swisscom placed in the Good category (80-87), which means many users were satisfied but some experienced minor quality impairments.
While Swisscom has been sharing the Voice App Experience with Salt for a number of reports, it hasn’t lost its outright grasp on two of our remaining experiential awards — Video Experience and Games Experience. This time, Swisscom wins both awards outright again, for the fifth and fourth times in a row, respectively. Our users on Swisscom experienced a slightly smaller decline in Games Experience than second-placed Salt, which resulted in Swisscom’s leads over Salt increasing in both metrics.
Swisscom retains both of our 4G extent awards. The operator wins our 4G Availability award outright for the third time in a row — our 4G users were, on average, connected to 4G or better services on Swisscom’s network more than 95% of the time. Swisscom also rules in 4G Coverage Experience, the other of our 4G extent metrics, with a nearly perfect score of 9.9 points on a 10-point scale — claiming it for the fourth time in a row.
In this report, we include 5G Users submetrics, which reflect the overall experience of only those smartphone users that have both a 5G tariff plan and a 5G-capable smartphone. Our 5G users in Switzerland enjoy significantly faster average download and upload speed — over 100 Mbps and 20 Mbps respectively. We also observed significant improvements for our 5G users’ video experience and games experience across all Switzerland’s operators when compared to the average scores calculated across all our users.
Our award table remains unchanged since our December 2020 report — Swisscom wins outright all bar one of our awards and shares the remaining Voice App Experience award with Salt. Swisscom extended its lead over its competitors in four out of our seven categories — Video Experience, Games Experience, Download Speed Experience and 4G Availability.
Our users on all Switzerland’s mobile operators saw significant boosts in their average upload and download speeds. As a result, all Swiss operators have hit the 45 Mbps mark for average download speeds and have scored at least 15 Mbps for Upload Speed Experience.
To provide a greater understanding of the mobile experience, we also publish additional metrics looking at the experience of 5G users in Switzerland. This differs from our mobile network experience awards because instead of representing the experience for all users, these supporting metrics reflect the overall experience of only those smartphone users that have both a 5G tariff plan and a 5G-capable smartphone taking into account the amount of time these users spent connected to 4G and 5G. We saw significant uplifts in terms of average download and upload speeds as experienced by our 5G users in Switzerland, along with Video Experience and Games Experience. Our 5G users on all Swiss operators have their average download speeds of at least 100 Mbps and upload speeds of more than 20 Mbps — compared to scores of at least 45 Mbps for Download Speed Experience and above 15 Mbps for Upload Speed Experience,, which were measured across users of all network generations.
Our users on Sunrise’s network saw especially strong 5G uplifts, compared to their overall results and other operators. We acknowledged Sunrise in our recent 5G Global Mobile Network Experience Awards 2021 as one of the top operators in the world in all four 5G Global Impact categories — Download Speed, Upload Speed, Games Experience and Video Experience. These categories assess the uplift or improvement in mobile experience seen by our users while connected to 5G compared to the previous generation of network technology, 4G.
In this report, we've analyzed the mobile network experience for Switzerland's national operators — Salt, Sunrise and Swisscom, over a period of 90 days beginning August 1 and ending October 29, 2021, to see how they fared. 5G measurements contributed to the overall scores. Alongside this analysis, we have also published a companion report — Switzerland 5G Experience Report — which analyzes the experience of our 5G users when connected to 5G technology.
| Mobile Experience Awards Switzerland | |||
|---|---|---|---|
November 2021,
Switzerland Report
|
S
Salt
|
S
Sunrise
|
S
Swisscom
|
Video Experience
| |||
Games Experience
| |||
Voice App Experience
| |||
Download Speed Experience
| |||
Upload Speed Experience
| |||
4G Availability
| |||
4G Coverage Experience
| |||
|
Mobile Experience Awards Winners
|
November 2021,
Switzerland
|
|---|---|
|
Video Experience
|
S
Swisscom
|
|
Games Experience
|
S
Swisscom
|
|
Download Speed Experience
|
S
Swisscom
|
|
Upload Speed Experience
|
S
Swisscom
|
|
4G Availability
|
S
Swisscom
|
|
4G Coverage Experience
|
S
Swisscom
|
|
Mobile Experience Awards Draws
|
November 2021, Switzerland
|
|---|---|
|
Voice App Experience
|
S
Salt
S
Swisscom
|
Swisscom wins the Video Experience award for the fifth consecutive time, on this occasion with a score of 76.2 points. It was the only operator in Switzerland which achieved an Excellent rating (75 and above), meaning fast loading times and almost non-existent stalling, while Salt and Sunrise placed in the Very Good (65-75) category. However, our 5G users saw substantial uplifts in quality and all Switzerland’s operators ended in the Excellent category for Video Experience – 5G Users.
|
Video Experience
Additional Metrics |
S
Salt
|
S
Sunrise
|
S
Swisscom
|
|---|---|---|---|
| in 0-100 points | |||
|
Video Experience – 5G Users
| 76.3 (± 0.96) | 78.1 (± 0.72) | 78.6 (± 0.37) |
| Video Experience – 5G Users | in 0-100 points |
|
S
Salt
|
76 (± 0.96) |
|
S
Sunrise
|
78 (± 0.72) |
|
S
Swisscom
|
79 (± 0.37) |
Opensignal’s Video Experience metric quantifies the quality of video streamed to mobile devices by measuring real-world video streams over an operator's networks. To calculate video experience, we are directly measuring video streams from end-user devices and using an ITU-based approach to quantify the overall video experience for each operator on a scale from 0 to 100. The videos tested include a mixture of resolutions and are streamed directly from the world’s largest video content providers.
For Games Experience, we saw a story similar to our other experiential metric — Video Experience. Swisscom is holding firmly onto this award and extends its lead over second-placed Salt, from 3.2 to 4.3 points, despite both operators’ scores declining. Swisscom wins the award outright for the fourth time in a row — remaining the only recipient of this award since we introduced it. While Swisscom and Salt placed in the Good (75-85) category and Sunrise was rated as Fair (65-75), our 5G users on all Swiss networks enjoyed a Good gaming experience, This means most 5G users deemed the experience acceptable. Gameplay experience was generally controllable and the user received immediate feedback between their actions and the outcomes in the game.
|
Games Experience
Additional Metrics |
S
Salt
|
S
Sunrise
|
S
Swisscom
|
|---|---|---|---|
| in 0-100 points | |||
|
Games Experience – 5G Users
| 79.4 (± 1.50) | 78.7 (± 1.40) | 81.6 (± 0.77) |
| Games Experience – 5G Users | in 0-100 points |
|
S
Salt
|
79 (± 1.50) |
|
S
Sunrise
|
79 (± 1.40) |
|
S
Swisscom
|
82 (± 0.77) |
Opensignal’s Games Experience metric is a measure of how mobile users experience real-time multiplayer mobile gaming on an operator’s network. Measured on a scale of 0-100, it analyzes how the multiplayer mobile gaming experience is affected by mobile network conditions including latency, packet loss and jitter.
Voice App Experience is the only award in our table which Swisscom didn’t outright claim this time. A statistical tie persists between Salt and Swisscom for the fifth consecutive time — since we introduced the award — which means both operators jointly win this award again. Both operators placed in the Good category (80-87), which means many users were satisfied but some experienced minor quality impairments. Sunrise placed in a category below — Acceptable (74-80) but our 5G users on this network had a Good (80-87) voice app experience. Meanwhile, our 5G users on Salt and Swisscom saw no statistical differences compared to the overall network experience.
|
Voice App Experience
Additional Metrics |
S
Salt
|
S
Sunrise
|
S
Swisscom
|
|---|---|---|---|
| in 0-100 points | |||
|
Voice App Experience – 5G Users
| 81.2 (± 0.67) | 81.2 (± 0.52) | 80.1 (± 0.35) |
| Voice App Experience – 5G Users | in 0-100 points |
|
S
Salt
|
81 (± 0.67) |
|
S
Sunrise
|
81 (± 0.52) |
|
S
Swisscom
|
80 (± 0.35) |
Opensignal's Voice App Experience measures the quality of experience for over-the-top (OTT) voice services — mobile voice apps such as WhatsApp, Skype, Facebook Messenger etc. — using a model derived from an International Telecommunication Union (ITU) 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.
Our Swisscom users experienced the highest average download speeds for the eighth time in a row. Users on all Swiss networks saw significant boosts in their average download speeds, compared to our previous report. Swisscom saw the highest increase in absolute terms of 14.7 Mbps (27.3%) and widened its lead over second-placed Sunrise to 19.2 Mbps (38.7%), with a score of 68.7 Mbps — very close to the 70 Mbps milestone. Salt and Sunrise’s scores also rose significantly— by 7.8 Mbps (20.8%) and 12.2 Mbps (32.7%) respectively. In effect, both operators hit the 45 Mbps milestone, with Sunrise’s score (49.5 Mbps) just 0.5 Mbps shy of the 50 Mbps threshold. Sunrise also broke out of the statistical tie for second place it was in with Salt in our last report.
|
Download Speed Experience
Additional Metrics |
S
Salt
|
S
Sunrise
|
S
Swisscom
|
|---|---|---|---|
| in Mbps | |||
|
Download Speed Experience – 5G Users
| 101.5 (± 5.43) | 154.0 (± 6.32) | 134.0 (± 2.93) |
| Download Speed Experience – 5G Users | in Mbps |
|
S
Salt
|
101 (± 5.43) |
|
S
Sunrise
|
154 (± 6.32) |
|
S
Swisscom
|
134 (± 2.93) |
Looking at our 5G User metrics, there is a significant uplift in average download speeds in mobile experience seen by our users while connected to 5G compared to those seen across all our users 4G. Our 5G users on all Swiss networks saw average download speeds of over 100 Mbps, with Sunrise clocking at 154 Mbps, 20 Mbps ahead of Swisscom and 52.5 Mbps ahead of Salt.
This report marks the fifth consecutive outright win of the Upload Experience award for Swisscom, this time with a score of 19.4 Mbps. Similar to Download Speed Experience, our users on all Swiss networks enjoyed significant increases in their average upload speeds, ranging from 1.8 to 2.5 Mbps. Salt and Sunrise hit the 15 Mbps milestone for average upload speed. Both operators were in a statistical tie for second place in our last report, but thanks to a higher increase of 2.5 Mbps (19.4%), Sunrise is now the only operator in second-place, 3.8 Mbps behind Swisscom.
|
Upload Speed Experience
Additional Metrics |
S
Salt
|
S
Sunrise
|
S
Swisscom
|
|---|---|---|---|
| in Mbps | |||
|
Upload Speed Experience – 5G Users
| 22.4 (± 0.94) | 29.5 (± 1.07) | 29.4 (± 0.56) |
| Upload Speed Experience – 5G Users | in Mbps |
|
S
Salt
|
22 (± 0.94) |
|
S
Sunrise
|
30 (± 1.07) |
|
S
Swisscom
|
29 (± 0.56) |
Our 5G users on all Swiss networks experienced significant increases in their average upload speeds compared to those seen across all our users, with all operators above the 20 Mbps threshold — and Sunrise and Swisscom just barely under the 30 Mbps milestone.
Swisscom claims the 4G Availability award outright for the third time in a row. Our 4G users were, on average, connected to 4G or better services on this network 95.5% of the time — 2.4 percentage points more than on Sunrise’s network and 8.3 percentage points more than on Salt’s. Since our previous report, Swisscom’s lead over Sunrise increased from 1.9 to 2.4 points.
Opensignal’s 4G Availability metric shows the average proportion of time that our users spend with a 4G or better connection on each operator's network.
Swisscom reigns supreme both of our 4G extent awards and claims the 4G Coverage Experience award for the fourth time in a row — remaining the only winner of this award since we first introduced it. Swisscom does so with an almost perfect score of 9.9 points on a 10-point scale. While the operator saw no statistically significant changes in its score compared to our previous report. both Salt and Sunrise saw minor increases of 0.1 points in their scores. This brought them closer to first-placedSwisscom, narrowing the gap to 0.6 and 0.2 points, respectively.
Opensignal’s 4G Coverage Experience metric 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 our analysis of the mobile experience in seven of Switzerland’s largest cities — Basel, Bern, Geneva, Lausanne, Lugano, Sankt Gallen and Zurich — Swisscom wins 19 awards outright and 23 jointly, out of the 42 awards available. This means, Swisscom won every city-level award possible in Switzerland, either outrightly or jointly. It, however, didn’t achieve a clean sweep of outright wins in any categories — it got closest to this feat in the Download Speed Experience category, as it wins six city-level awards outright out of seven.
Similar to our previous report, Salt and Sunrise didn’t see any outright victories in any of the cities — but they secured a number of joint wins. Salt shared 15 city-level awards, with the majority of them in the Games and Voice App Experience categories. Meanwhile, Sunrise was a joint winner 17 times, mainly in 4G Availability and Voice App Experience.
Swisscom wins Video Experience awards outright in five Swiss cities — Bern, Geneva, Lausanne, Sankt Gallen and Zurich. It statistically tied with Salt in two cities — Basel and Lugano. Swisscom placed in the Excellent (75 and above category) across all seven cities. Our Salt users had an Excellent Video Experience in Basel and Lugano, while the operator rated Very Good (65-75) across the other cities analyzed in this report — while Sunrise placed in Very Good in all seven cities.
Compared to our city-level Video Experience awards, Games Experience awards were more fiercely fought over. Swisscom claimed only one outright victory in Bern, while sharing wins with Salt in the six remaining cities. In three cities — Geneva, Lausanne and Sankt Gallen — both Swisscom and Salt were additionally joined on the podium by Sunrise. Swisscom and Salt placed in the Good (75-85) category across all seven cities, while Sunrise did so in Geneva, Lausanne and Zurich.
The competition was even fiercer for our Voice App Experience awards, as we saw Salt and Swisscom scooping joint wins in all seven cities, placing in the Good (80-87) category in all of them. Both operators were joined by Sunrise for three-way statistical ties in five cities — Bern, Geneva, Lausanne, Lugano and Sankt Gallen. Noteworthy, there were very small differences in scores between the operators across the city, as only four points separated all 21 scores for three operators across the seven cities.
While Swiss mobile operators are in many statistical ties for our experiential awards, Swisscom dominates our city-level speed awards. The operator wins outright in six cities and jointly with Sunrise in Lausanne in our Download Speed Experience awards. Our users on all networks experienced average download speeds of over 40 Mbps across all seven cities in our analysis. On top of this, our users on Swisscom’s network saw their average download speed exceed 70 Mbps in five cities — Basel, Bern, Geneva, Sankt Gallen and Zurich. In Bern and Zurich, average download speed exceeded the 60 Mbps milestone for Sunrise and 50 Mbps for Salt.
Similar to the Download Speed Experience, Swisscom did well in the city-level Upload Speed Experience awards — collecting five outright wins and two shared victories with Sunrise in Lausanne and Sankt Gallen. Our users on Swisscom’s networks enjoyed average upload speeds over 20 Mbps in all the cities except for Lugan. By contrast, Sunrise users saw their average upload speed exceed 20 Mbps in Lausanne and Zurich, while none of the cities hit the 20 Mbps milestone for Salt.
Swisscom claimed two awards outright for 4G Availability in Bern and Lausanne and jointly won with Sunrise in the remaining five cities. Our 4G users were, on average, connected to 4G or better services on Sunrise and Swisscom’s network more than 90% of the time in all seven cities. Swisscom hit the 95% milestone in three cities — Bern, Lausanne and Sankt Gallen. Looking at our Salt users, on average they were connected to 4G or better services more than 90% of their time only in Bern.
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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.
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