Uruguay
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.
Uruguay
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.
Key Findings
Our users in Uruguay enjoyed the best mobile gaming experience on Movistar’s network
Movistar wins the Games Experience award outright, with a score of 70 points on a 100 point scale. It commanded a lead of 3.9 points over second-placed Claro. Both operators placed in the Fair (65-75) category. Movistar also triumphs outright in Voice App Experience — and was the only operator that rated Good (80-87).
We see a two-horse race between Antel and Movistar for Download Speed Experience
Antel and Movistar jointly win the Download Speed Experience award, with statistically tied scores of 22.8 and 22.7 Mbps, respectively. When it comes to the other speed award — our users in Uruguay enjoyed the fastest upload speeds on Antel’s network, 1 Mbps faster than what our users on Movistar’s network saw.
Claro wins Excellent Consistent Quality, while Movistar — Core Consistent Quality
This time around, Claro claims its only outright victory in Excellent Consistent Quality, with a score of 77.1%. This score reflects the percentage of users’ tests on each operator’s network meeting the minimum recommended performance thresholds to watch HD video, complete group video conference calls and play games. However, Movistar wins the Core Consistent Quality award, with a score of 89.8%. Core Consistent Quality measures the percentage of users’ tests that met the minimum recommended performance thresholds for lower performance applications including SD video, voice calls and web browsing.
Our Movistar users connected to 3G or better services most of the time in Uruguay
Movistar completes its haul of four outright victories with the Availability award. Our users on this network were connected to 3G or better services for 99% of the time — 0.5 percentage points more than on Claro’s network. Antel comes third, with a score of 97.7%.
Antel triumphs in 4G Coverage Experience
Antel takes home its second outright victory for 4G Coverage Experience. The operator scored 9.3 points on a 10-point scale. This means our users on Antel’s network connected to 4G services in more than nine out of 10 locations they visited. Movistar comes second, 0.6 points behind the winner, while Claro lags behind with a score of 7.8 points.
Mobile Experience Awards
Market Overview
With four outright and two joint victories across nine categories, Movistar dominates the award table in the Mobile Network Experience Report for Uruguay. The operator claims two out of three of the experiential awards outright — Games Experience and Voice App Experience — along with Availability and Core Consistent Quality.
Antel is the sole winner of two awards — Upload Speed Experience and 4G Coverage Experience — and shares Download Speed Experience with Movistar, as both operators’ average download speeds clocked in at 22.7-22.8 Mbps. Claro claims its only outright victory in Excellent Consistent Quality — but the operator also jointly wins the Video Experience award along with Movistar.
On 12th January 2022, the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Mining introduced Mobile Number Portability in Uruguay, as a result of the Law 19,889/2020, which declared it as a right of mobile users. This allows mobile subscribers in Uruguay to port their mobile phone numbers to other networks — which will encourage subscriber churning in the case of inadequate mobile network experience. Opensignal has previously looked at Leavers’ experience in other South American markets — Brazil and Colombia. We observed that smartphone users that switched their mobile operators saw a significantly worse mobile experience than the average for their original operator before they switched, thus showing that mobile experience can help understand why users change operators.
Our results in this report are based on measurements collected across all major mobile operators in Uruguay – Antel, Claro and Movistar – over the period of 90 days between January 1, 2022 and March 31, 2022, to see how they fared.
Overall Experience
National Analysis
Claro and Movistar jointly win the Video Experience award, with scores in the 52.3-54.2 points range on a 100 point scale — which marks the only shared victory for Claro across the award table. Antel comes third, with a score of 50.7 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
Movistar wins the Games Experience award outright, with a score of 70 points on a 100-point scale, 3.9 points ahead of second-placed Claro (66.1 points). Both operators placed in the Fair (65-75) category. This means in most cases the game was responsive to the actions of the player with most users reporting that they felt like they had control over the game. The majority of players reported that they noticed a delay between their actions and the outcomes in the game.
With a score of 60.7 points, Antel rated Poor (40-65) — the majority of users reported delays 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
On top of Games Experience, Movistar also wins the Voice App Experience award outright, with a score of 80 points. It was the only operator that placed in the Good category (80-87) — which means many users were satisfied but some experienced minor quality impairments experienced by some users.
Both Antel and Claro placed in a category below — Acceptable (74-80). This means perceptible call quality impairments experienced by some users. Clicking sounds of short duration or distortion were heard, and/or the volume may not have been sufficiently loud. Listeners were generally able to comprehend without repetition.
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 users in Uruguay saw the fastest average download speeds on Antel and Movistar’s networks, which are in a statistical tie for the Download Speed Experience award, with scores of 22.8 and 22.7 Mbps, respectively. Claro comes third, just 0.5 Mbps shy of the 20 Mbps mark.
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
Antel wins Upload Speed Experience outright, with a score of 9.7 Mbps — just 0.3 Mbps shy of the 10 Mbps mark. Antel commanded a lead of 1 Mbps (11%) over Movistar. Claro comes third, with a score of 7.4 Mbps — 2.3 Mbps behind the winner and 1.3 Mbps behind the runner-up.
Upload speeds are becoming increasingly important in mobile services, with changing usage patterns and consumption habits. Mobile users now engage more on social media apps — creating and sharing high-resolution images and videos — and are increasingly creating content, rather than just consuming it, which gives operators with the fastest upload speeds a distinct advantage.
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
Antel
Claro
Movistar
National Analysis
Our Movistar users connected to 3G or better services most of the time in Uruguay — for 99% of the time. Claro comes second, 0.5 percentage points behind Movistar. Our users on third-placed Antel connected to 3G or better services for 97.5% of the time.
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.
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
Antel wins the 4G Coverage Experience award with a score of 9.3 points on a 10-point scale — 0.6 points ahead of Movistar and 1.5 points ahead of Claro, which scored 7.8 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.
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
Claro was the network that met the minimum recommended performance thresholds for HD video, group video conference calls and gaming in 77.1% of users’ tests. This was the highest result in Uruguay and helped the operator secure its only outright win this time around. Movistar comes second, 4.4 percentage points behind the winner, while Antel scored 69.4%.
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
While Claro wins Excellent Consistent Quality, it places only third in the other consistency award — Core Consistent Quality. Movistar claims this award outright with a score of 89.8%. This means, Movistar met the minimum recommended performance thresholds for lower performance applications including SD video, voice calls and web browsing in 89.8% of the tests. Movistar wins with a lead of 2.7 percentage points over second-placed Antel and 4.2 percentage points ahead of Claro.
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 user experience on every major network operator around the globe.
About Opensignal
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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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