5G Experience Report Thailand November 2021

Thailand

5G Experience Report
November 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
Robert Wyrzykowski Senior Analyst

Key Findings

AIS wins the 5G Download Speed award with a stunning result of nearly 220 Mbps

AIS takes home our first 5G Download Speed award, as our users on this network enjoyed a lightning fast average 5G download speed of 219.6 Mbps. This is 2.7 times faster than the speed of 81.5 Mbps that our TrueMove H users saw and 8.5 times faster than the 25.7 Mbps that our DTAC users experienced . Notably, in our recent 5G Global Mobile Network Experience Awards report, AIS achieved the highest download speed improvement for 5G over 4G with a score of 1775.2% in our Download Speed — 5G Global Impact category. AIS users experienced the greatest improvement in their download speeds using 5G in the world — nearly 19 times faster.

The 5G Upload Speed award also goes to AIS

AIS was successful with winning the other 5G speed award — 5G Upload Speed. Our AIS users clocked an 5G Upload Speed of 28.9 Mbps — nearly 8 Mbps (37.6%) ahead of the 21 Mbps that our users saw on TrueMove H’s network and nearly twice as fast as the speed our DTAC users saw on their network (15.4 Mbps). Upload speeds are becoming more vital, as mobile internet trends move away from downloading content to sharing photos and videos and for supporting real-time communications services.

TrueMove H and AIS share our two awards for 5G’s extent

Opensignal’s 5G Availability shows the proportion of time Opensignal users with a 5G device and subscription had an active 5G connection. TrueMove H and AIS jointly win the 5G Availability award, with scores surpassing the 20% milestone — meaning our users spent over 20% of their time connected to 5G. Both operators also jointly won the 5G Reach award, which measures how 5G users experience the geographical extent of an operator’s network.

There’s nothing to separate the operators in 5G Games Experience and 5G Voice App Experience

Both categories saw the awards shared in a statistical tie between AIS, DTAC and TrueMove H. 5G Games Experience analyzes how the multiplayer mobile games experience is affected by mobile network conditions including latency, packet loss and jitter — while the 5G Voice App Experience measures the quality of experience for over-the-top (OTT) voice services. All of the operators placed in the Good (75-85) category for 5G Games Experience and also in the Good (80-87) category for 5G Voice App Experience.

AIS and DTAC jointly win the 5G Video Experience award

AIS and DTAC shared the first ever 5G Video Experience award in Thailand, with statistically tied scores around 78.2 points on a 100-point scale. TrueMove H followed the joint winners close behind, losing by only around 1.8 points to its competitors. All operators placed in the Excellent (75 and above) category. The 5G Video Experience metric quantifies the quality of video streamed to mobile devices by measuring real-world video streams over an operator's 5G network, including a mixture of resolutions from the world’s largest video content providers.

Introduction

In Opensignal's first 5G Experience Report on Thailand, AIS dominates the awards table, with two outright and five joint crowns — which means wins in all of our categories. TrueMove H secured four shared wins, while DTAC — shared three awards, all for our experiential metrics. AIS claimed both of its sole wins in our 5G speeds categories — 5G Download Speed and 5G Upload Speed. TrueMove H shared two of its awards with AIS for our 5G extent metrics — 5G Availability and 5G Reach. For our experiential awards, AIS shares the 5G Video Experience award with DTAC, while all three operators jointly win the two remaining awards — 5G Games Experience and 5G Voice App Experience.

Thailand held its 5G spectrum auction in February 2020, when the regulator NBTC assigned frequencies in 700 MHz, 2600 MHz and 26 GHz to Thai operators for 100.52 billion baht ($3.2 billion). AIS and TrueMove H obtained licenses in the 2.6 GHz and 26 GHz bands, while DTAC purchased only 26 GHz licenses.

On top of that, AIS secured spectrum in the 700 MHz band, while state-run firms CAT and TOT that merged together to form National Telecom (NT), purchased licenses in the 700 MHz and 26 GHz bands respectively. NT is expected to reveal its 5G investment plans by the end of 2021, while it considers either returning its 700 MHz spectrum assets or forming a partnership with AIS and True Move to use its block in the 700 MHz range.

Both AIS and TrueMove H deployed their 5G networks soon after the auction, using their newly purchased 2.6 GHz spectrum bands. AIS was the first to launch in February 2020 and TrueMove H followed the 5G trail in March 2020. Meanwhile, DTAC uses 700 MHz for its 5G deployment. There are substantial differences in spectrum holdings between the three main Thai operators — AIS holds 1,420 MHz (1200 MHz in 26 GHz band), True Move H — 990 MHz (800 MHz in 26 GHz), while DTAC — only has 270 MHz (200 in 26 GHz band). There may be a chance for DTAC and other operators to obtain spectrum in the 3.5 GHz band, which is key for 5G deployments worldwide. A satellite service provider Thaicom’s licenses in this range expired in September 2021 — but NBTC is yet to announce a 3.5 GHz auction.

In this report, we examine the 5G experience of our users on the three main mobile network operators in Thailand: AIS, DTAC and TrueMove H, over a period of 90 days beginning July 1 and ending September 28, 2021, to see how they fared. We have also published a companion report — Thailand Mobile Network Experience — which analyzes the overall experience of all our mobile users in Thailand.

Opensignal Awards Table

5G Mobile Experience Awards Thailand
November 2021, Thailand Report
5G Availability
5G Reach
5G Video Experience
5G Games Experience
5G Voice App Experience
5G Download Speed
5G Upload Speed
Download Image
Mobile Experience Awards Winners
November 2021, Thailand
5G Download Speed
5G Upload Speed
Mobile Experience Awards Draws
November 2021, Thailand
5G Availability
5G Reach
5G Video Experience
5G Games Experience
5G Voice App Experience
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Overview

Click on metric labels below for a quick preview
5G Availability
in %
AIS
20.4
DTAC
1.9
TrueMove H
20.9
06.2512.518.7525
The brackets represent confidence intervals.
Download Image

National Analysis

5G Availability

TrueMove H and AIS shared the 5G Availability award, with scores surpassing the 20% threshold meaning our users spent more than 20% of their time connected to 5G. Their competitor, DTAC, lagged behind with a score less than 2% — a tenth of the time on 5G that our users on TrueMove H and AIS saw. Notably. in our recent 5G Global Mobile Network Experience Awards report, TrueMove H was named as one of the global leaders for 5G Availability.

5G Availability
in %
AIS
20.4
DTAC
1.9
TrueMove H
20.9
06.2512.518.7525
The brackets represent confidence intervals.
Download Image

5G Availability shows the proportion of time Opensignal users with a 5G device and subscription had an active 5G connection. The higher the 5G Availability percentage, the more time users on a network were actually connected to 5G.

5G Reach

Similarly to our 5G Availability award, we saw another statistical tie between AIS and TrueMove H for our second measure of 5G extent — 5G Reach. Both operators scored around 4.6 points on a 10-point scale, significantly ahead of DTAC and its score of 1.0.

5G Reach
in 0-10 points
AIS
4.9
DTAC
1.0
TrueMove H
4.4
01.252.53.755
The brackets represent confidence intervals.
Download Image

5G Reach is a measure of how mobile users experience the geographical extent of an operator’s network. It analyzes the average proportion of locations where users were connected to a network out of all the locations those users have visited. This measure complements 5G Availability which represents the proportion of time 5G users spend connected to 5G.

5G Video Experience

AIS and DTAC shared the first ever 5G Video Experience award in Thailand, with statistically tied scores around 78.2 points on a 100-point scale. TrueMove H followed the joint winners close behind, losing by only around 1.8 points to its competitors. All Thai operators placed in the Excellent (75 and above) category. This means a very consistent experience across all users, video streaming providers and resolutions tested, with fast loading times and almost non-existent stalling.

5G Video Experience
in 0-100 points
AIS
78.8
DTAC
77.7
TrueMove H
76.4
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
The brackets represent confidence intervals.
Download Image

Opensignal’s 5G Video Experience quantifies the quality of video streamed to mobile devices by measuring real-world video streams over an operator's 5G network. The metric is derived from an International Telecommunication Union (ITU) approach, built upon detailed studies which have derived a relationship between technical parameters, including picture quality, video loading time and stall rate, with the perceived video experience as reported by real people. To calculate video experience, we are directly measuring video streams from end-user devices, Video Experience scores are 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.

5G Games Experience

We observed a three-way statistical tie between AIS, DTAC and TrueMove H, which means a joint victory for all three operators. All of them placed in the Good (75-85) category — which means that most users found their gameplay experience generally controllable, with no delay between their actions and the game.

5G Games Experience
in 0-100 points
AIS
80.5
DTAC
81.2
TrueMove H
79.2
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
The brackets represent confidence intervals.
Download Image

5G Games Experience measures real-world mobile network conditions to assess the mobile multiplayer games experience perceived by our users on different 5G networks. It analyzes how the multiplayer mobile Games Experience is affected by mobile network conditions including UDP latency, packet loss and jitter. Additionally, it considers multiple genres of multiplayer mobile games — to measure the average sensitivity to network conditions — such as Battle Royale and MOBA games of which PUBG, Fortnite and Arena of Valor are examples.

5G Voice App Experience

Similarly to our Games Experience award, all three main Thai mobile networks found themselves locked in a statistical tie for the Voice App Experience crown. This resulted in a shared victory for AIS, DTAC and TrueMove H. With scores around 81.8 points on a 100-point scale, all operators placed in the Good (80-87) category. This means many users were satisfied but some experienced minor quality impairments.

5G Voice App Experience
in 0-100 points
AIS
82.1
DTAC
82.2
TrueMove H
81.2
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
The brackets represent confidence intervals.
Download Image

Opensignal's 5G Voice App Experience measures the quality of experience for over-the-top (OTT) voice services — mobile voice apps such as WhatsApp, Skype and Facebook Messenger — using a model derived from an International ITU approach for quantifying overall voice call quality and a series of calibrated technical parameters. This model characterizes the exact relationship between real-world technical measurements from our users — when they were connected to 5G — and perceived call quality.

5G Download Speed

In our first report on 5G Experience in Thailand, AIS wins the 5G Download Speed award outright, with a massive lead over its competitors. Our users on this network enjoyed stunning average 5G download speeds of 219.6 Mbps. This is 2.7 times faster than what our TrueMove H users saw on their network (81.5 Mbps) and 8.5 times faster than what our DTAC users experienced (25.7 Mbps). This is a spectacular result that allows AIS to compete with other operators worldwide. Opensignal’s recent 5G Global Mobile Network Experience Awards report we recognized AIS as one of the 5G Global Leaders for 5G Download Speed.

5G Download Speed
in Mbps
AIS
219.6
DTAC
25.7
TrueMove H
81.5
055110165220
The brackets represent confidence intervals.
Download Image

Notably, in the same report, AIS achieved another notable feat. The operator scored the highest score of 1775.2% in our Download Speed — 5G Global Impact category. This means, AIS users experienced the highest improvement in the world of their download speeds on 5G, compared to their 4G Download Speed — nearly 19 times faster.

5G Upload Speed

AIS is a sole winner of our 5G Upload Speed award as well, with an 5G Upload Speed of 28.9 Mbps experienced by our users. TrueMove H came second, 7.9 Mbps behind the winner and our DTAC users saw average 5G upload speeds of 15.4 Mbps. Opensignal recently recognized AIS as one of the 5G Global Leaders for 5G Upload Speed in our 5G Global Mobile Network Experience Awards report.

5G Upload Speed
in Mbps
AIS
28.9
DTAC
15.4
TrueMove H
21.0
07.51522.530
The brackets represent confidence intervals.
Download Image

In the same report, both AIS and TrueMove H ranked highly in the Upload Speed — 5G Global Impact category, with the 350.1% and 137.3% uplifts compared to their users’ average 4G upload speeds, respectively. This means, AIS users saw 4.5 times faster upload speeds on 5G than on 4G, while for TrueMove H users the speeds were nearly 2.5 times faster on 5G.

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