Singapore
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.
Singapore
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
StarHub wins the Download Speed Experience award outright
Our StarHub users enjoyed the fastest average download speeds in Singapore — 65.9 Mbps, 9.4 Mbps (16.6%) faster than those seen by Singtel users, which observed the second fastest speeds (56.5 Mbps). As a result, StarHub wins the Download Speed Experience award outright. M1 and SIMBA are in third and fourth place respectively, with scores of 38.7 Mbps and 19.2 Mbps.
StarHub users had the best experience while playing multiplayer mobile games
With an impressive score of 81.5 on a 100 point scale, StarHub is the outright winner of the Games Experience award. The operator wins by a margin of around three points over M1 and Singtel which share second place with statistically tied scores of 77.7-78.9 points. These three operators all placed in the Good (75-85) category, with StarHub being 3.5 points short of an Excellent (85 or above) rating.
Singtel reigns supreme in terms of Consistent Quality
Singtel is the outright winner of both the Excellent Consistent Quality and Core Consistent Quality. This means that Singtel is the operator on which the highest percentage of users’ tests in Singapore met the minimum thresholds for demanding applications, such as watching HD video and completing group video conference calls, (Excellent Consistent Quality), and for lower performance applications including SD video, voice calls and web browsing (Core Consistent Quality).
Singtel and StarHub come top for mobile video streaming
As our Singtel and StarHub users observed no statistically significant difference in their experience when streaming video over mobile connections on their smartphones, the two operators are joint winners of the Video Experience award. Their scores of 65.5-67.1 points on a 100 point scale beat that of third placed M1 by around four points. SIMBA was further behind, given its score of 48 points.
Users saw the fastest upload speeds on Singtel and StarHub
Singtel and StarHub are joint winners of the Upload Speed Experience award due to our users on their networks having statistically tied average speeds of 14.5-14.9 Mbps. M1 is close behind with a score of 14.2 Mbps, while SIMBA’s score of 4.2 Mbps was on average 3.5 times slower than its rivals.
Mobile Experience Awards
Market Overview
The past few months have been relatively uneventful for Singapore’s mobile sector, with one of the biggest announcements being TPG’s decision to rebrand itself as SIMBA Telecom in April. In the same announcement, Singapore’s newest operator said that it had hit the 500,000 active subscriber mark.
Singtel and StarHub are the leading operators in terms of awards, with both operators winning two awards outright along with five joint wins. Singtel is the sole winner of the Excellent Consistent Quality and Core Consistent Quality awards, while StarHub secures Games Experience and Download Speed Experience outright. They share the Video Experience and Upload Speed Experience awards between them and are part of three way ties with M1 for the Voice App Experience and 4G Coverage Experience awards. The only award that SIMBA wins is the Availability award as part of a four-way tie with all the other operators.
In this report, we have analyzed the mobile network experience of Singapore’s four national operators — M1, Singtel, StarHub and SIMBA — in the 90 day period starting on February 1, 2022 and ending on May 1, 2022, to see how they measure up. We have used 5G measurements in addition to those from previous generations of mobile network technology when determining the overall scores for each metric.
Overall Experience
National Analysis
Singtel and StarHub are joint winners of the Video Experience award, as our users on these networks reported statistically tied scores of 65.5-67.1 points — beating third placed M1’s score by around four points. SIMBA is in last place with a score of 48 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
StarHub is the sole winner of the Games Experience award. This means that our StarHub users enjoyed the best experience in Singapore when playing multiplayer mobile games over cellular connections. StarHub wins with a score of 81.5 points on a 100 point scale, giving it a margin of victory of around three points over M1 and Singtel which share second place with statistically tied scores of 77.7-78.9 points.
M1, Singtel and StarHub placed in the Good (75-85) category, with StarHub being 3.5 points short of an Excellent (85 or above) rating. Placing in the Good category indicates that most users deemed the experience acceptable. The gameplay experience was generally controllable and the user received immediate feedback between their actions and the outcomes in the game. Most users did not experience a delay between their actions and the game. Meanwhile, SIMBA is in last place with a score of 58.4 points, putting it in the Poor (40-65) category.
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
M1, Singtel and StarHub share the Voice App Experience award due to a three-way statistical tie, indicating that our users on these networks did not observe any statistically significant differences in their experience when using over-the-top voice apps. These three operators are joint winners with scores in the 79.7-80.1 point range on a 100 point scale. SIMBA is in fourth place with a score of 78.2 points. This indicates an incredibly closely fought race, given that less than two points separate all four operators’ scores.
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
The operator with the fastest average download speeds in Singapore is StarHub, making it the winner of the Download Speed Experience award. Our StarHub users clocked up speeds of 65.9 Mbps, 9.4 Mbps (16.6%) faster than those seen by Singtel users, which observed the second fastest speeds (56.5 Mbps). M1 and SIMBA are in third and fourth place respectively, with scores of 38.7 Mbps and 19.2 Mbps.
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
Our users observed their fastest average upload speeds on Singtel and StarHub’s networks as the two operators have statistically tied scores of 14.5-14.9 Mbps. This makes them joint winners of the Upload Speed Experience award.
M1 is in third place with a score of 14.2 Mbps, 0.2-0.6 Mbps behind the two winners, while SIMBA is further behind with a score of 4.2 Mbps. In fact, the average upload speeds seen by our SIMBA users were on average 3.5 times slower than those seen on other networks.
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
M1
SIMBA
Singtel
StarHub
National Analysis
Our users did not see any statistical difference in the proportion of time that they spent connected to 3G, 4G or 5G between Singapore’s four operators and as result, all four are joint winners of the Availability award. Scores ranged between 99.3% and 99.5%. Such high scores indicate that Singaporean users spend the vast majority of their time with a mobile signal — a feat easier to achieve in a city-state like Singapore rather than a country with a large territory and many rural or sparsely populated areas.
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
Three operators share the 4G Coverage Experience award as joint winners: M1, Singtel and StarHub with identical — and perfect scores — of 10 points on a 10 point scale. This means that in all the locations visited by our users, those on these three operators’ networks were able to connect to 4G. SIMBA trailed the winners, with a still impressive score of 9.7 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
Singtel is the outright winner of the Excellent Consistent Quality award with a score of 83.4% and a lead of 3.1 percentage points over second placed StarHub’s score of 80.3%. M1 and SIMBA are in third and fourth place, respectively, with scores of 79.8% and 71.4%.
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
Our users on Singtel’s network saw the highest percentage of tests that met the thresholds for relatively undemanding applications including SD video, voice calls and web browsing. Singtel therefore wins the Core Consistent Quality award outright. Its score of 91.5%, gives it a modest lead of 0.3 percentage points over second placed M1’s score of 91.2%. StarHub is in third place with 90.4%, while SIMBA is in last place with a score of 89.9%.
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