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Our users on Grameenphone’s network enjoyed an increase in average download speeds of 1.5 Mbps (20.4%). As a result, the operator forced a statistical tie against the previous winner Banglalink for the Download Speed Experience award — both operators were former joint winners of this award in the February 2020 report. However, it was our users on Robi’s network that saw the highest increase in average download speeds, of 2.1 Mbps (36.8%).
In the previous report, Banglalink and Grameenphone jointly won Upload Speed Experience. This time around, Grameenphone successfully breaks clear to claim the award outright, with a score of 4.1 Mbps. Banglalink slips to second place, which it now shares with Robi.
In the last report, Banglalink was the outright winner of the Video Experience award. However, this time around the award goes to Grameenphone, which regains recognition for Video Experience after having previously won the award in the February 2020 report. All mobile operators in Bangladesh placed in the Fair (40<55) category.
Banglalink continues its winning streak in these two categories. It has been the sole holder of the Games and Voice App Experience awards in every report since we first introduced the awards in Opensignal’s Bangladesh reports. The operator outright wins the Voice App Experience award for the fifth time in the row and the Games Experience award — for the fourth time.
We saw a three-way statistical tie in 4G Availability. As a result, all three Bangladeshi operators jointly win the prize. Banglalink jumps onto the podium with the previous joint winners Grameenphone and Robi, making this its first-ever win of this award. Our 4G users in Bangladesh were, on average, connected to 4G services on their networks almost 80% of the time.
In this fifth report on Mobile Network Experience in Bangladesh, we saw a tightly-fought competition for the awards between Banglalink and Grameenphone — and a lot of changes in the awards table. Grameenphone increased its award count at Banglalink’s expense, bringing it from one outright and two joint wins to three sole and two shared victories. It snatched the Video Experience away from Banglalink and broke out of a statistical tie with Banglalink for the Upload Speed Experience award, thus claiming both awards outright. Grameenphone also forced a statistical tie against Banglalink for the Download Speed Experience award, which resulted in a joint win for both. On a brighter note for Banglalink, the operator jointly wins the 4G Availability award for the first time, sharing it with previous winners Grameenphone and Robi.
Bangladesh is laying the groundwork for future commercial 5G deployments. The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) plans to run a 5G spectrum auction in March 2022. The regulator has already assigned 60 MHz in the 3.5 GHz band to state-owned operator Teletalk, to support 5G deployments — and Teletalk has begun trial 5G services in December 2021.
BTRC aims to boost the speeds of mobile users with revised guidelines raising the target for mobile internet speeds from 7 to 15 Mbps. The regulator has established a committee to consult with all the operators before proceeding with a formal proposal. Meeting these requirements will be challenging with the country’s substantial tax rates — higher than in India and Pakistan. According to the global mobile operators association — the GSMA — steep taxation often hampers network investment and innovations necessary for network improvement, expansion of rural coverage and future 5G adoption.
In this report, we have examined the mobile network experience of our users on the three nationwide mobile operators that own their own mobile network infrastructure — Banglalink, Grameenphone and Robi — over a period of 90 days beginning October 1, 2021, and ending December 29, 2021, to see how they fared.
| Mobile Experience Awards Bangladesh | |||
|---|---|---|---|
February 2022,
Bangladesh Report
|
B
Banglalink
|
G
Grameenphone
|
R
Robi
|
Video Experience
| |||
Games Experience
| |||
Voice App Experience
| |||
Download Speed Experience
| |||
Upload Speed Experience
| |||
4G Availability
| |||
4G Coverage Experience
| |||
|
Mobile Experience Awards Winners
|
February 2022,
Bangladesh
|
|---|---|
|
Video Experience
|
G
Grameenphone
|
|
Games Experience
|
B
Banglalink
|
|
Voice App Experience
|
B
Banglalink
|
|
Upload Speed Experience
|
G
Grameenphone
|
|
4G Coverage Experience
|
G
Grameenphone
|
|
Mobile Experience Awards Draws
|
February 2022, Bangladesh
|
|---|---|
|
Download Speed Experience
|
B
Banglalink
G
Grameenphone
|
|
4G Availability
|
B
Banglalink
G
Grameenphone
R
Robi
|
In the last report, Banglalink was the outright winner of the Video Experience award, claiming it for the third time in a row. This time, Grameenphone takes it away from the previous winner. The operator won this award outright before, in the first report Opensignal published in February 2020. All mobile operators in Bangladesh placed in the Fair (40<55) category, which means very slow loading times and prolonged stalling, but the experience on lower resolution videos from some providers might have been sufficient.
|
Video Experience
Additional Metrics |
B
Banglalink
|
G
Grameenphone
|
R
Robi
|
|---|---|---|---|
| in 0-100 points | |||
|
4G Video Experience
| 49.8 (± 2.21) | 53.2 (± 1.42) | 49.0 (± 2.26) |
|
3G Video Experience
| 37.7 (± 4.80) | 41.0 (± 3.36) | 33.0 (± 5.17) |
| 4G Video Experience | in 0-100 points |
|
B
Banglalink
|
50 (± 2.21) |
|
G
Grameenphone
|
53 (± 1.42) |
|
R
Robi
|
49 (± 2.26) |
| 3G Video Experience | in 0-100 points |
|
B
Banglalink
|
38 (± 4.80) |
|
G
Grameenphone
|
41 (± 3.36) |
|
R
Robi
|
33 (± 5.17) |
Opensignal’s Video Experience quantifies the quality of video streamed to mobile devices by measuring real-world video streams over an operator's network. 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.
With a score of 39.6 points, Banglalink wins the Games Experience award for the fourth time in a row, remaining the only recipient of this award since Opensignal introduced the prize in Bangladesh. Grameeenphone and Robi were in a statistical tie for second place, with identical scores of 36.2 points, 3.4 points behind the winning Banglalink.
|
Games Experience
Additional Metrics |
B
Banglalink
|
G
Grameenphone
|
R
Robi
|
|---|---|---|---|
| in 0-100 points | |||
|
4G Games Experience
| 45.0 (± 2.00) | 39.1 (± 0.78) | 39.4 (± 1.15) |
|
3G Games Experience
| 35.1 (± 0.76) | 32.3 (± 0.54) | 32.6 (± 0.84) |
| 4G Games Experience | in 0-100 points |
|
B
Banglalink
|
45 (± 2.00) |
|
G
Grameenphone
|
39 (± 0.78) |
|
R
Robi
|
39 (± 1.15) |
| 3G Games Experience | in 0-100 points |
|
B
Banglalink
|
35 (± 0.76) |
|
G
Grameenphone
|
32 (± 0.54) |
|
R
Robi
|
33 (± 0.84) |
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.
This report marks the fifth consecutive outright victory for Banglalink in the Voice App Experience award category. Similar to Games Experience, the operator is keeping a firm grip on this award and we are yet to see another operator winning it, either outright or jointly. Banglalink triumphs with a score of 71.7 points — five points, on average, ahead of statistically-tied Grameenphone and Robi.
|
Voice App Experience
Additional Metrics |
B
Banglalink
|
G
Grameenphone
|
R
Robi
|
|---|---|---|---|
| in 0-100 points | |||
|
4G Voice App Experience
| 74.0 (± 1.04) | 69.0 (± 0.79) | 69.6 (± 1.09) |
|
3G Voice App Experience
| 67.0 (± 2.21) | 59.8 (± 1.65) | 60.6 (± 2.44) |
| 4G Voice App Experience | in 0-100 points |
|
B
Banglalink
|
74 (± 1.04) |
|
G
Grameenphone
|
69 (± 0.79) |
|
R
Robi
|
70 (± 1.09) |
| 3G Voice App Experience | in 0-100 points |
|
B
Banglalink
|
67 (± 2.21) |
|
G
Grameenphone
|
60 (± 1.65) |
|
R
Robi
|
61 (± 2.44) |
Opensignal's 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 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 users on Grameenphone’s network experienced an increase in average download speeds of 1.5 Mbps (20.4%), compared to the previous report. As Banglalink’s score remained statistically unchanged, this led to Grameenphone sharing the Download Speed Experience award with the previous outright winner. Our users on Robi’s network saw the highest increase in average download speeds, of 2.1 Mbps (36.8%). This allowed the operator to narrow the gap separating it from the winners from 3.9 to around 1.2 Mbps.
|
Download Speed Experience
Additional Metrics |
B
Banglalink
|
G
Grameenphone
|
R
Robi
|
|---|---|---|---|
| in Mbps | |||
|
4G Download Speed
| 11.2 (± 0.49) | 10.5 (± 0.25) | 9.7 (± 0.36) |
|
3G Download Speed
| 5.3 (± 0.38) | 4.8 (± 0.26) | 3.9 (± 0.27) |
| 4G Download Speed | in Mbps |
|
B
Banglalink
|
11 (± 0.49) |
|
G
Grameenphone
|
10 (± 0.25) |
|
R
Robi
|
10 (± 0.36) |
| 3G Download Speed | in Mbps |
|
B
Banglalink
|
5 (± 0.38) |
|
G
Grameenphone
|
5 (± 0.26) |
|
R
Robi
|
4 (± 0.27) |
Looking at 4G services, our users on Banglalink’s network enjoyed the fastest 4G download speeds in Bangladesh. Grameenphone hit the 10 Mbps mark for the first time since the February 2020 report, while Robi is only 0.3 Mbps shy of this milestone for average 4G download speeds.
In the previous report, Banglalink and Grameenphone shared the Upload Speed Experience award. Thanks to an increase in average upload speeds of 0.8 Mbps (24.7%) seen by our users, Grameenphone pulled ahead and successfully broke out of the statistical tie it was locked in with Banglalink. Grameenphone wins the award outright with a score of 4.1 Mbps, 0.8-0.9 Mbps ahead of its second-placed competitors. As our users on Robi’s network saw a boost in their average upload speeds of 0.4 Mbps (14.1%), the operator forced a statistical tie with Banglalink, whose score remained unchanged.
|
Upload Speed Experience
Additional Metrics |
B
Banglalink
|
G
Grameenphone
|
R
Robi
|
|---|---|---|---|
| in Mbps | |||
|
4G Upload Speed
| 4.4 (± 0.20) | 5.2 (± 0.16) | 4.1 (± 0.18) |
|
3G Upload Speed
| 1.3 (± 0.12) | 1.5 (± 0.14) | 1.2 (± 0.12) |
| 4G Upload Speed | in Mbps |
|
B
Banglalink
|
4 (± 0.20) |
|
G
Grameenphone
|
5 (± 0.16) |
|
R
Robi
|
4 (± 0.18) |
| 3G Upload Speed | in Mbps |
|
B
Banglalink
|
1 (± 0.12) |
|
G
Grameenphone
|
2 (± 0.14) |
|
R
Robi
|
1 (± 0.12) |
Grameenphone hit the 5 Mbps milestone for average 4G upload speeds, crossing the mark for the first time since the February 2020 report.
Banglalink forces a three-way statistical tie against the previous joint winners Grameenphone and Robi and joins the ranks of 4G Availability winners for the first time. We are yet to see an outright winner of this award in Bangladesh. Our 4G users in Bangladesh were, on average, connected to 4G services on their networks 76.9-79.1% of the time.
Opensignal’s 4G Availability shows the average proportion of time that our users spend with a 4G or better connection on each operator's network.
Grameenphone wins the 4G Coverage Experience award for the fourth consecutive report, this with a score of 7.2 points on a 10-point scale — 0.6 points ahead of second-placed Robi and three points ahead of Banglalink. All operators’ scores remained statistically unchanged since the last report. Grameenphone’s result means our users on this network connect to 4G services in at least seven out of 10 locations.
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.
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.
Opensignal is the mobile analytics company committed to improving mobile connectivity across the globe. We are the independent authority for understanding the true experience consumers receive on wireless networks.
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