Colombia
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.
Colombia
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 enjoyed the fastest average download and upload speeds on Tigo’s network
Tigo wins both speed awards outright — Download Speed Experience and Upload Speed Experience with scores of 14.1 and 7.6 Mbps, respectively. It commanded a lead of 2.1 Mbps over the runner-up WOM for Download Speed Experience. In Upload Speed Experience, WOM takes second place as well, 1.2 Mbps behind Tigo.
Claro wins 4G Coverage Experience outright
Our users on Claro’s network connected to 4G locations in nearly seven out of 10 locations they visited. With a score of 6.9 points on a 10-point scale, Claro secures the 4G Coverage Experience award outright — 1.4 points ahead of Tigo and 1.9 points ahead of Movistar.
WOM takes home both Games Experience and Voice App Experience awards
The newcomer WOM wins two experiential awards outright this time around — Games Experience and Voice App Experience, with scores of 46.2 and 71.6 points respectively. Claro comes second in Games Experience while Tigo — in Voice App Experience. Tigo wins the third experiential award — Video Experience, with a score of 38.7 points — 0.9 points ahead of WOM.
Our users on Tigo’s network connected to 4G services 93.8% of the time
Tigo is the sole winner of the Availability award, with a score of 98.4% and a winning margin of 2.1 percentage points ahead of second-placed WOM. Claro and Movistar are tied for third place with identical scores of 94.8%. This means our users in Colombia connected to 3G or better services for at least 94.8% of the time. Tigo also wins 4G Availability, with a score of 93.8% — the only operator in Colombia that hit the 90% mark in this category.
Mobile Experience Awards
Market Overview
In Opensignal's latest Colombia Mobile Network Experience report we analyze the overall experience of our users. Tigo is the big winner in the awards table, as the operator wins five awards outright out of eight available — for Download Speed Experience, Upload Speed Experience, Video Experience, Availability and 4G Availability. WOM takes home two awards — Games Experience and Voice App Experience — while Claro is the sole winner of the 4G Coverage Experience award.
Claro, Movistar and Tigo have all been trialing 5G technology already. However, Colombia is still yet to assign 5G-capable spectrum to mobile operators, due to delays. Organizing a 5G spectrum auction will be one of the challenges for Colombia’s newly elected government, along with improving rural connectivity and ensuring swift and affordable renewals of existing spectrum licenses.
While waiting for the 5G spectrum auction, Claro and Tigo have been shifting their use of spectrum in the 1900 MHz band from 3G to 4G technology, while also using larger bandwidths for 4G connectivity — which will help to build strong 4G foundations for the anticipated initial 5G non-standalone roll-outs. Colombian operators have also been actively expanding their existing networks. Claro has rolled out 4G infrastructure in 210 rural towns in 23 departments over the last 12 months and plans to phase out its 2G network by the end of December 2022. Meanwhile, the newcomer WOM claims to have deployed 3,832 cell sites and signed up almost two million subscribers since its launch in April 2021.
Our results in this report are based on measurements collected across all major mobile operators in Colombia – Claro, Movistar, Tigo and WOM – over the period of 90 days between March 1, 2022 and May 29, 2022, to see how they fared.
Overall Experience
National Analysis
Tigo is the sole winner of the Video Experience award, with a score of 38.7 points — 0.9 points ahead of WOM. Both Claro and Movistar trailed behind, with scores of 31.1 and 30.4 points respectively.
Looking at 4G Video Experience, our users on WOM enjoyed the best video streaming experience, as the operator scored 44 points — 2.6 points more than Tigo, which wins the overall Video Experience award.
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
WOM triumphs in Games Experience with a score of 46.2 points respectively. Claro takes the second spot, with a score of 43.8 points — 2.4 points behind the winner.
In 4G Games Experience, we saw slightly higher scores — WOM saw the highest score for 4G Games Experience — 50.9 points. Claro followed closely, 1.6 points behind the leader.
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
WOM takes the Voice App Experience award home, with a score of 71.6 points — only 0.6 points ahead of second-placed Tigo. O
WOM saw the highest score for 4G Voice App Experience — 77 points, ahead of Claro’s 74.7 points. Both operators placed in the Acceptable (74-80) category. This indicates that some users were satisfied but some experienced perceptible call quality impairments.
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
Tigo secures the Download Speed Experience award, as our users enjoyed average download speeds clocking at 14.1 Mbps. This gave Tigo a winning margin of 2.1 Mbps over the second-placed WOM. Claro comes third, with a score of 11 Mbps, while Movistar trailed behind, as the only operator in Colombia with a score below the 10 Mbps mark this time around.
Our users saw the fastest average 4G download speeds when connected to 4G services on Tigo’s network — 15.2 Mbps. WOM came second with a score of 14 Mbps, 1.2 Mbps behind the leader. Claro and Movistar users saw average 4G download speeds of 13.6 and 11.1 Mbps, respectively.
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
Tigo is the sole winner of the Upload Speed Experience award, with a score of 7.6 Mbps. WOM comes second, 1.2 Mbps behind Tigo. Claro and Movistar took the third and fourth spots respectively, with scores of 5.8 and 5.7 Mbps.
Tigo also scored the highest in the 4G Upload Speed category, with average 4G upload speeds clocking in at 8.3 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
Movistar
Tigo
WOM
National Analysis
Tigo wins Availability outright, scoring 98.4%. This means our users on this network connected to 3G or better services 98.4% of the time on average. Tigo commanded a lead of 2.1 percentage points ahead of the runner-up WOM. Claro and Movistar are tied for third place with identical scores of 94.8%.
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
Tigo claims the 4G Availability award outright, with a score of 93.8%. This means our users on this network connected to 4G services 93.8% of the time. Tigo wins the award outright with a winning margin of 9.1 percentage points ahead of second-placed WOM. Our users in Colombia connected to 4G services more than 80% of the time across all operators — however, Tigo was the only operator in Colombia to surpass the 90% mark this time around.
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.
4G Availability shows the proportion of time Opensignal users with a 4G device and a 4G subscription — but have never connected to 5G — had a 4G 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
With a score of 6.9 points on a 10-point scale, Claro wins 4G Coverage Experience outright. Tigo takes the second spot, 1.4 points behind the winner, while Movistar comes third, scoring five points. WOM trails behind its competitors, with a score of 3.9 points. Claro’s score means our users on the winner’s network connected to 4G locations in nearly seven out of 10 locations visited by our users on average.
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.
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