Taiwan

5G Experience Report
December 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
Ian Fogg VP Analysis

Key Findings

Chunghwa wins the 5G Download Speed award for the first time

In the last two 5G Experience reports FarEasTone won this award, but now Chunghwa is victorious. The average 5G download speed experienced by our users using Chunghwa was 456.6 Mbps, ahead of second-placed FarEasTone with a score of 334.8 Mbps. On all four operators our users saw average 5G speeds over 100 Mbps.

On 5G Upload Speed, Chunghwa users saw the highest average speed

With a score of 60.6 Mbps, our Chunghwa users now saw faster 5G upload speeds than the 51 Mbps experienced by our FarEasTone users. In the previous report, both operators jointly won the 5G Upload Speed award, but now Chunghwa moves ahead of the statistical tie last time to win the award outright.

Only 5G Reach winner FarEasTone saw an improvement in its score

5G Reach quantifies the proportion of locations users visit where their smartphone sees that a 5G signal is present. Compared with the last 5G report only our FarEasTone users saw the share of locations with 5G service increase, rising from 4.7 to 5.9 on a ten-point scale. As a result, FarEasTone now wins the 5G Reach award outright where in the last report Chunghwa, FarEasTone and Taiwan Mobile shared the award.

FarEasTone now wins 5G Availability outright

Our FarEasTone users spent the most time with an active 5G connection — 32.5% of the time — ahead of previous joint winner Taiwan Mobile's 5G Availability score of 20.7%. This means that across all four operators, FarEasTone users were able to experience the massive improvement that 5G technology brings to speeds, video streaming, and multiplayer mobile gaming more of the time than users connecting with the other operators.

Chunghwa and FarEasTone jointly win both 5G Games Experience and 5G Video Experience

Two operators share the awards for multiplayer mobile gaming and mobile video streaming. On 5G Games Experience, both winners rate as Excellent (85 or above) with statistically tied scores of 85.9 for Chunghwa and 86.3 for FarEasTone on a 100 point scale, but Taiwan Mobile is Good (75<85), and T Star is Fair (65<75). For 5G Video Experience, the gap between the two winners — Chunghwa and FarEasTone — and the others is narrower with all four operators ranking as Excellent (75 or above).

Introduction

The 5G experience is becoming mainstream in Taiwan as it has been over a year since 5G's launch in the middle of 2020. While four operators have long had 5G services available, the fifth national 5G operator is now live, and Opensignal will include GT in our next 5G report in Taiwan.

Globally, Taiwan has been one of the leaders in the quality of 5G mobile experience. In our last 5G international benchmark in September Taiwan topped a number of categories and was competing with other leading markets such as South Korea, Hong Kong, Norway, and UAE in most of the others. Taiwan's operators also rated highly in Opensignal's 5G Mobile Network Experience Awards 2021.

Opensignal Awards Table

5G Mobile Experience Awards Taiwan
December 2021, Taiwan Report
5G Availability
5G Reach
5G Video Experience
5G Games Experience
5G Voice App Experience
5G Download Speed
5G Upload Speed
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Mobile Experience Awards Winners
December 2021, Taiwan
5G Availability
5G Reach
5G Download Speed
5G Upload Speed
Mobile Experience Awards Draws
December 2021, Taiwan
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 %
Chunghwa
13.8
FarEasTone
32.5
T Star
16.5
Taiwan Mobile
20.7
08.7517.526.2535
The brackets represent confidence intervals.
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National Analysis

5G Availability

FarEasTone comfortably wins the 5G Availability award with a score of 32.5% ahead of Taiwan Mobile on 20.7%. By comparison, T Star and Chunghwa saw scores of 16.5% and 13.8% respectively.

5G Availability represents the proportion of time where our users had an active 5G connection. A higher score means users are able to enjoy the uplift in mobile experience that 5G provides over older mobile network technologies more of the time. Because it measures time the results are particularly sensitive to the places where users spent most of their day, for example indoors at work or in the home.

Availability is not a measure of coverage or the geographic extent of a network. It won't tell you whether you are likely to get a signal if you plan to visit a far-flung region that is off the beaten track. Instead, it measures what proportion of time people have a network connection, in the places they most commonly frequent.

5G Availability
in %
Chunghwa
13.8
FarEasTone
32.5
T Star
16.5
Taiwan Mobile
20.7
08.7517.526.2535
The brackets represent confidence intervals.
Download Image

5G Reach

5G Reach is the proportion of locations where our users saw a 5G signal compared with the total number of locations that they visited. In simple terms, 5G Reach measures the mobile experience in all the locations that matter most to everyday users — i.e. all the places where they live, work and travel. 5G Reach for each operator is measured on a scale from 0 to 10.

FarEasTone wins the 5G Reach award outright with a score of 5.9 ahead of Taiwan Mobile's score of 5.1. On both operators our users saw 5G present in more than half of the locations they visited.

5G Reach
in 0-10 points
Chunghwa
4.2
FarEasTone
5.9
T Star
3.8
Taiwan Mobile
5.1
01.8753.755.6257.5
The brackets represent confidence intervals.
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5G Video Experience

For the second report in a row, Chunghwa and FarEasTone jointly win the 5G Video Experience award, this time with statistically tied scores of 84.1 and 83.5 respectively on a 100 point scale. However, all four operators rated as Excellent (75 or above). This means users had a very consistent experience across all video streaming providers and resolutions tested, with fast loading times and almost non-existent stalling.

Video Experience quantifies the quality of video streamed to mobile devices by measuring real-world video streams over operator networks. It uses an approach derived from International Telecommunication Union (ITU) models, built upon detailed studies which have derived a relationship between technical parameters that Opensignal measures at scale from smartphone users — 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 and using this 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.

5G Video Experience
in 0-100 points
Chunghwa
84.1
FarEasTone
83.5
T Star
82.5
Taiwan Mobile
82.8
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
The brackets represent confidence intervals.
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5G Games Experience

The same operators win 5G Games Experience as our 5G mobile video streaming award. Chunghwa and FarEasTone have statistically tied scores of 85.9 and 86.3, respectively. They are the only two operators in Taiwan to rate as Excellent (85 or above). This means that the vast majority of users deemed this network experience to be acceptable. Nearly all users felt like they had control over the game and received immediate feedback on their actions. There was not a noticeable delay in almost all cases.

5G Games Experience analyzes how the multiplayer mobile gaming experience is affected by 5G network conditions that Opensignal measures including latency, packet loss and jitter to determine the impact on gameplay and the overall multiplayer Games Experience. The approach is built on several years of research quantifying the relationship between technical network parameters and the gaming experience as reported by real mobile users. It considers multiple genres of multiplayer mobile games including battle royale — example titles include Garena Freefire or PUBG — and MOBA (massive online battle area) an example of which is Arena of Valor.

5G Games Experience
in 0-100 points
Chunghwa
85.9
FarEasTone
86.3
T Star
74.0
Taiwan Mobile
81.5
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
The brackets represent confidence intervals.
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5G Voice App Experience

5G Voice App Experience is the only award where we see Taiwan Mobile jointly winning. In fact, three operators share this award because Taiwan Mobile's score of 83.5 is statistically tied with Chunghwa's score of 83.9 and also with FarEasTone's score of 83.8.

Opensignal's Voice App Experience measures the quality of experience for over-the-top (OTT) voice services — mobile voice apps such as WhatsApp, LINE, Skype, Facebook Messenger etc. — using a model derived from the 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.

5G Voice App Experience
in 0-100 points
Chunghwa
83.9
FarEasTone
83.8
T Star
82.0
Taiwan Mobile
83.5
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
The brackets represent confidence intervals.
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5G Download Speed

With an average 5G download speed over 100 Mbps faster than the speeds our users experienced on its rivals Chunghwa wins the 5G Download Speed award. Its score of 456.6 Mbps is far ahead of FarEasTone's score of 334.8 Mbps, Taiwan Mobile's 253.7 Mbps and T-Star's 131.9 Mbps.

This is the first time that Chunghwa has won the 5G Download Speed award. In the two previous Opensignal 5G reports for Taiwan, FarEasTone won instead. Our 5G users saw much faster download speeds with 5G technology than the overall Download Speed Experience of all of our users — see the companion Taiwan Mobile Network Experience Report.

5G Download Speed
in Mbps
Chunghwa
456.6
FarEasTone
334.8
T Star
131.9
Taiwan Mobile
253.7
0115230345460
The brackets represent confidence intervals.
Download Image

5G Upload Speed

Chunghwa also wins the 5G Upload Speed award outright with a score of 60.6 Mbps. Previous joint winner FarEasTone is now in second place with a score of 51 Mbps. However, the other two operators are a long way behind these two leaders with our users on them experiencing much slower average 5G upload speeds of 22.2 Mbps using Taiwan Mobile and 19.6 Mbps on T Star.

A fast upload speed is useful for sharing photos and videos on social media. It also helps reduce the time to download files from cloud services or send large attachments on email or messaging apps.

5G Upload Speed
in Mbps
Chunghwa
60.6
FarEasTone
51.0
T Star
19.6
Taiwan Mobile
22.2
016.2532.548.7565
The brackets represent confidence intervals.
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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