Chile
Opensignal is the independent global standard for analyzing consumers' connectivity experiences. Our industry reports are the definitive guide to understanding what happens when people use their mobile and broadband connections in their daily life.
Chile
Opensignal is the independent global standard for analyzing consumers' connectivity experiences. Our industry reports are the definitive guide to understanding what happens when people use their mobile and broadband connections in their daily life.
Key Findings
WOM wins the Excellent Consistent Quality and Core Consistent Quality awards outright
WOM met the minimum recommended performance thresholds for HD video, group video conference calls and gaming for the highest percentage of users’ tests. As a result, it is the sole winner of the Excellent Consistent Quality award. WOM’s winning score of 58.4% commands a lead of 1.3 percentage points over second-placed Entel’s score of 57%. In addition, WOM wins the Core Consistent Quality award, just ahead of Entel and Movistar.
WOM users saw the fastest average upload speeds in Chile
WOM wins the Upload Speed Experience award with a score of 8.9 Mbps, 2.1 Mbps (30%) higher than second-placed Entel’s score of 6.9 Mbps. Claro and Movistar were further behind with statistically tied scores of 5.4-5.7 Mbps.
WOM wins the Availability award
Our WOM users spent the most time connected to either a 3G, 4G or 5G signal — 97.6% — making it the winner of the Availability award. However, Claro and Movistar were close behind with statistically tied scores around 97%.
Entel users saw 4G in the most locations
Entel is the winner of the 4G Coverage Experience award with a score of 8.4 points on a 10 point scale. This means that our Entel users connected to 4G in more than four out of five of the locations visited by all our users. The operator commands a lead of 0.4 points over second-placed Movistar, while WOM and Claro are in third and fourth place, respectively, with scores of 7.5 and 7.2 points.
Claro, Entel and WOM share the prize for Download Speed Experience
The highest average download speeds in Chile were seen by our Claro, Entel and WOM users, who reported speeds of 14.2-14.5 Mbps. Movistar’s score of 10.8 Mbps puts it around 3.5 Mbps behind the three front-runners.
Mobile Experience Awards
Market Overview
Our latest look at the Chilean mobile network experience reveals a very competitive landscape with four out of nine awards being held by more than one operator. WOM has the largest haul of awards — winning Upload Speed Experience, Availability, Excellent Consistent Quality and Core Consistent Quality outright, while also being a joint winner in all three experiential categories (Video Experience, Games Experience and Voice App Experience) and Download Speed Experience. Entel had the second strongest showing — winning 4G Coverage Experience outright and being a joint winner for Games Experience, Voice App Experience and Download Speed Experience.
Late December saw three of Chile’s national operators — Entel, Movistar and WOM — launch 5G services but it’s too early to give 5G awards in Chile. However, Opensignal has analyzed the 5G experience in many global markets and we’ve seen a tremendous jump in users’ experience with 5G technology. Users in Chile will hope for a similar improvement with 5G.
As of late March 2022, Claro was the only national Chilean operator yet to have launched 5G. Its challenge has been that in spectrum auctions it only acquired new 5G spectrum in a mmWave band (26 GHz). While it has a very large capacity — 400MHz — which supports very fast speeds, mmWave also has a very short range. While Claro agreed to buy a block of 3.5 GHz spectrum — which is more suited to wide reach — from Entel in May 2021, the regulator originally restricted use of this spectrum to fixed-wireless services. As a result, Claro cannot use it for smartphone 5G services, unless the regulator subsequently chooses to relax these restrictions.
In this report we examine the mobile network experience of the four main mobile network operators in Chile: Claro, Entel, Movistar and WOM, over a period of 90 days starting November 1, 2021 and ending January 29, 2022, to see how they fared. We have used 5G measurements in addition to those from previous generations of mobile network technology when determining the overall scores for each award.
Overall Experience
National Analysis
When it comes to streaming video on smartphones over mobile connections, Claro and WOM had the edge, as our users on their networks had the best available experience. The two operators are joint winners of the Video Experience award with statistically tied scores in the 37.6-39.9 point range on a 100-point scale. Entel is close behind with a score of 37.3 points, but Movistar has some catching up to do given its score of 32.9 points.
Definitions
Opensignal’s Video Experience quantifies the quality of video streamed to mobile devices by measuring real-world video streams over an operator's networks. The metric is based on 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 and using this ITU 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 — including Full HD (FHD) and 4K / Ultra HD (UHD) — and are streamed directly from the world’s largest video content providers.
In addition to Video Experience, we report on the following metrics related to video experience:
- 5G Video Experience: The average Video Experience of Opensignal users when they were connected to an operator’s 5G network.
- Video Experience – 5G Users: The average Video Experience of Opensignal users with a 5G device and a 5G subscription across an operator's networks. It factors in 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G video experience along with the availability of each technology.
- 4G Video Experience: The average Video Experience of Opensignal users on an operator's 4G network.
- 3G Video Experience: The average Video Experience of Opensignal users on an operator’s 3G network.
National Analysis
Chile’s operators are very closely matched in terms of the experience of Opensignal users when playing multiplayer mobile games on cellular connections. Just four points separate the operators’ scores. Claro, Entel and WOM are joint winners of the Games Experience award with statistically tied scores in the 48.1-50.6 point range. Movistar scored 46.5 points on a 100 point scale.
With these scores, there is still a lot of room for improvement in mobile gaming experience. Scores in the 40-65 range mean that this level of experience was challenging for most users. The majority of users reported seeing a delay in the gameplay experience and they did not receive immediate feedback on their actions.
Definitions
Opensignal’s Games Experience measures how mobile users experience real-time multiplayer mobile gaming on an operator’s network. Measured on a scale of 0-100, it analyzes how our users’ multiplayer mobile gaming experience is affected by mobile network conditions including latency, packet loss and jitter.
Games Experience quantifies the experience when playing real-time multiplayer mobile games on mobile devices connected to servers located around the world. 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. These parameters include latency (round trip time), jitter (variability of latency) and packet loss (the proportion of data packets that never reach their destination). Additionally, 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.
Calculating Games Experience starts with measuring the end-to-end experience from users’ devices to internet end-points that host real games. The score is then measured on a scale from 0 to 100.
In addition to Games Experience, we report on the following metrics related to games experience:
- 5G Games Experience: The average Games Experience of Opensignal users when they were connected to an operator’s 5G network.
- Games Experience – 5G Users: The average Games Experience of Opensignal users with a 5G device and a 5G subscription across an operator's networks. It factors in 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G games experience along with the availability of each technology.
- 4G Games Experience: The average Games Experience of Opensignal users on an operator's 4G network.
- 3G Games Experience: The average Games Experience of Opensignal users on an operator's 3G (e.g. UMTS/HSPA or CDMA 1X EV-DO) network.
National Analysis
Three operators are joint winners for the Voice App Experience award: Entel, Movistar and WOM. The three operators’ scores were in the 72.6-72.7 point range on a 100 point scale, but Claro — the only operator not to appear on the winners’ podium — wasn’t far behind given its score of 71.2. This means that only 1.5 points separated Chile’s four operators.
With these Voice App Experience scores, many users were dissatisfied and experienced call quality impairments. Distortion, clicking sounds or silence were experienced during calls, which were perceptible and may have been annoying.
Definitions
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 the 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.
In addition to Voice App Experience, we report on the following metrics related to voice app experience:
- 5G Voice App Experience: The average Voice App Experience of Opensignal users when they were connected to an operator’s 5G network.
- Voice App Experience – 5G Users: The average Voice App Experience of Opensignal users with a 5G device and a 5G subscription across an operator's networks. It factors in 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G voice app experience along with the availability of each technology.
- 4G Voice App Experience: The average Voice App Experience of Opensignal users on an operator's 4G network.
- 3G Voice App Experience: The average Voice App Experience of Opensignal users on an operator's 3G (e.g. UMTS/HSPA or CDMA 1X EV-DO) network.
National Analysis
Our Chilean users reported average download speeds above 10 Mbps across all four operators’ networks. Three operators share the Download Speed Experience award due to statistical ties: Claro, Entel and WOM. The three winning operators’ scores were in the 14.2-14.5 Mbps range, while Movistar’s score of 10.8 Mbps was around 3.5 Mbps behind that of the winners.
Definitions
Measured in Mbps, Download Speed Experience represents the typical everyday speeds a user experiences across an operator’s mobile data networks.
In addition to Download Speed Experience, we report on the following metrics related to download speeds:
- 5G Download Speed: The average download speed observed by Opensignal users with active 5G connections.
- Download Speed Experience – 5G Users: The average download speeds experienced by Opensignal users with a 5G device and a 5G subscription across an operator’s networks. It factors in 2G, 3G, 4G, and 5G download speeds along with the availability of each technology.
- 4G Download Speed: The average downlink speed observed by Opensignal users when they were connected to 4G.
- 3G Download Speed: The average downlink speed observed by Opensignal users when they were connected to 3G (e.g. UMTS/HSPA or CDMA 1X EV-DO).
National Analysis
The fastest average upload speeds in Chile were observed by our users on WOM’s network — 8.9 Mbps. This gives WOM a lead of 2.1 Mbps (30%) over second-placed Entel’s score of 6.9 Mbps. Meanwhile, Claro and Movistar are statistically tied for third place with scores of 5.4-5.7 Mbps.
Definitions
Upload Speed Experience measures the average upload speeds for each operator observed by our users across their mobile data networks. Typically upload speeds are slower than download speeds, as current mobile broadband technologies focus resources on providing the best possible download speed for users consuming content on their devices. As mobile internet trends move away from downloading content to creating content and supporting real-time communications services, upload speeds are becoming more vital and new technologies are emerging that boost upstream capacity.
In addition to Upload Speed Experience, we report on five supporting metrics related to upload speeds:
- 5G Upload Speed: The average upload speed observed by Opensignal users with active 5G connections.
- Upload Speed Experience – 5G Users: The average upload speeds experienced by Opensignal users with a 5G device and a 5G subscription across an operator’s networks. It factors in 2G, 3G, 4G, and 5G upload speeds along with the availability of each technology.
- 4G Upload Speed: The average uplink speed observed by Opensignal users when they were connected to 4G.
- 3G Upload Speed: The average uplink speed observed by Opensignal users when they were connected to 3G (e.g. UMTS/HSPA or CDMA 1X EV-DO).
Coverage
Claro
Entel
Movistar
WOM
National Analysis
Our WOM users spent the most time connected to either a 3G, 4G or 5G signal with a score of 97.6%, making WOM the winner of the Availability award. Claro and Movistar are in joint second place with statistically tied scores around 97%, while Entel is in last place — with a score of 96.7% as its confidence intervals do not overlap with Movistar’s.
Definitions
Our availability metrics are not a measure of a network’s geographical extent. They won’t tell you whether you are likely to get a signal if you plan to visit a remote rural or nearly uninhabited region. Instead, they measure what proportion of time people have a network connection, in the places they most commonly frequent — something often missed by traditional coverage metrics. Looking at when users have a connection rather than where, provides us with a more precise reflection of the true user experience.
We also keep track of the instances that leave mobile users most frustrated: when there is no signal to connect to at all. The most common dead zones users struggle with occur indoors. As most of our availability data is collected indoors (as that’s where users spend most of their time), we’re particularly astute at detecting areas of zero signal.
Our availability metrics take a user-centric, time-based approach that complements the user-centric and geographical-based methodology used by our reach metrics.
Availability shows the proportion of time all Opensignal users on an operator’s network had either a 3G, 4G or 5G connection.
Map Definition
The coverage maps show the locations where we received measurements from users connecting with 3G or better mobile service. Each map provides an indication of the areas in which it is possible to obtain mobile service from that mobile operator.
National Analysis
Our Entel users received a 4G signal in the most locations out of all those visited by our users across all four Chilean operators and as a result, Entel is the winner of the 4G Coverage Experience award. It scored 8.4 points on a 10 point scale, giving it a lead of 0.4 points over second-placed Movistar, while WOM and Claro are in third and fourth place, respectively, with scores of 7.5 and 7.2 points.
Definitions
4G Coverage Experience measures 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 simple terms, 4G Coverage Experience measures the mobile coverage experience in all the locations that matter most to everyday users — i.e. all the places where they live, work and travel. It considers all the areas that Opensignal users visit, the portion of locations that 4G is available to them, and locations that more users visit have higher importance to them.
Map Definition
The coverage maps show the locations where we received measurements from users connecting with 3G or better mobile service. Each map provides an indication of the areas in which it is possible to obtain mobile service from that mobile operator.
Consistency
National Analysis
WOM is the winner of the Excellent Consistent Quality award with a score of 58.4%. The operator wins with a narrow lead of 1.3 percentage points over second-placed Entel’s score of 57%. However, Movistar and Claro are further behind with scores of 51.6% and 48.5%, respectively.
Definitions
Consistent Quality measures how often users’ experience on a network was sufficient to support common applications’ requirements. It measures download speed, upload speed, latency, jitter, packet loss, time to first byte and the percentage of tests attempted which did not succeed due to a connectivity issue on either the download or server response component.
Full details on how the Consistent Quality metrics — Excellent Consistent Quality and Core Consistent Quality — are calculated can be found here.
Excellent Consistent Quality is the percentage of users’ tests that met the minimum recommended performance thresholds to watch HD video, complete group video conference calls and play games.
National Analysis
The winner of the Core Consistent Quality award is WOM thanks to its score of 79.1%, but Entel and Movistar weren’t far behind with scores of 78.8% and 78.1%, respectively. On the other hand, Claro was the only Chilean operator to score below 70%, given its score of 69.1%.
Definitions
Consistent Quality measures how often users’ experience on a network was sufficient to support common applications’ requirements. It measures download speed, upload speed, latency, jitter, packet loss, time to first byte and the percentage of tests attempted which did not succeed due to a connectivity issue on either the download or server response component.
Full details on how the Consistent Quality metrics — Excellent Consistent Quality and Core Consistent Quality — are calculated can be found here.
Core Consistent Quality is the percentage of users’ tests that met the minimum recommended performance thresholds for lower performance applications including SD video, voice calls and web browsing.
Related Analysis
Our Methodology
Collecting billions of individual measurements daily from over 100 million devices globally, Opensignal independently analyzes mobile and broadband user experience on every major network operator around the globe.
About Opensignal
Opensignal is the leading global provider of independent insights into consumers' connectivity experiences and choice of carrier. Our proprietary insights into mobile and broadband networks give operators the solutions they need to profitably compete and win, from executive level scorecards and public validation to pin-point level engineering analytics and consumer decision dynamics.
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Confidence Intervals
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