Costa Rica
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.
Costa Rica
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
Claro is the operator to beat in Costa Rica
Claro wins the lion’s share of Opensignal awards this time. Our smartphone users in Costa Rica clocked the fastest overall download and upload speeds when connected to Claro's network. Claro users also enjoyed the best quality of experience when streaming videos, playing multiplayer mobile games, or using over-the-top (OTT) voice services. As a result, Claro is the outright winner of Opensignal's awards across both speed categories — Download and Upload speed Experience — and across all three experiential categories — Video Experience, Games Experience and Voice App Experience.
Kölbi is now the sole winner of Availability
Kölbi and Liberty (formerly Movistar) shared the Availability award in the previous report. However, this time Kölbi broke out of the statistical tie and wins outright, as our Costa Rican users on its network spent 97.6% of their time connected to mobile data services (3G and above). However, when we look at the proportion of time connected to 4G only, Claro reigns supreme in 4G Availability with 87.1%, which is significantly higher than Liberty (82.5%) and Kölbi (67.4%).
Liberty is top for 4G Coverage Experience
Liberty is the 4G Coverage Experience award winner with 8.4 points, slightly ahead of Kölbi's score of 8.2 points (out of 10). While 4G Availability assesses the proportion of time 4G subscribers spent connected to a 4G network, 4G Coverage Experience analyzes the locations where customers of a network operator received a 4G signal relative to the locations visited by users of all network operators.
Kölbi wins the Excellent Consistent Quality award, while Claro leads in Core Consistent Quality
Kölbi wins Excellent Consistent Quality, this time with a score of 55.9%, followed by Liberty (49.3%) and Claro (27.8%), respectively. Meanwhile, Claro wins Core Consistent Quality with 75.7% — just 1.5 percentage points ahead of Kölbi. Consistent quality metrics measure how often our users' experience on a network was sufficient to support common applications' requirements.
Mobile Experience Awards
Market Overview
In this report, we've analyzed the mobile network experience of Costa Rica's three national operators — Claro, Kölbi and Liberty (formerly Movistar) — in the 90 days starting on August 1, 2022, and ending on October 29, 2022, to see how they measure up. In addition, we delved deeper into seven different regions of Costa Rica, comparing the experience users had with the three national operators.
Opensignal's latest analysis shows that Claro remains the operator to beat in Costa Rica. Once again, Claro has won the lion's share of our awards — seven out of 10. In addition to the five award categories it retains from last time — Upload Speed Experience, Games Experience and Voice App Experience, 4G Availability and Core Consistent Quality — Claro wins two more categories this time — Download Speed and Video Experience.
These results mean smartphone users on Claro saw the fastest download and upload speeds in Costa Rica. In addition, Claro users enjoyed the best available experience while streaming videos, playing multiplayer mobile games, or using over-the-top voice services. Among many other reasons, this is likely because Claro users see the greatest 4G Availability in the country, on average. Higher 4G Availability scores mean that our users spent less time on older and less efficient mobile technology, such as 2G and 3G, or without any signal.
Overall Experience
National Analysis
Claro, which placed second in our previous report, has now claimed the top spot for Video Experience. Claro beat ex-winner Kölbi by 1.9 points with a winning score of 39.8 (on a scale of 0-100). This change resulted from an increase of 2.1 points for Claro and a drop of 1.6 points for Kölbi compared to the previous report.
These results mean smartphone users in Costa Rica enjoyed the best available quality of experience while streaming videos when connected to Claro's network.
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
Once again, Claro wins the Games Experience award, this time with a score of 54 points on a 100 point scale. This means our users in Costa Rica had the best available experience while playing multiplayer mobile games when connected to Claro. Claro's score improved by 1.1 points compared to the previous report, while Liberty users reported the most significant improvement of 6.4 points, followed by Kölbi's with an increase of 3.5 points.
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
Claro wins the Voice App Experience award with a score of 76.3 points. This means that our Claro users perceived the best available experience while using over-the-top (OTT) voice app services such as WhatsApp, Skype and Facebook Messenger. Kölbi and Liberty are in second and third place with 72.5 and 70.7 points, respectively. With these scores Claro garners an Acceptable (74-80) rating for Voice App Experience, while Kölbi and Liberty place in a lower rating category.
An Acceptable Voice App Experience means some users were satisfied. Some users experienced perceptible call quality impairments. For example, clicking sounds of short duration or distortion were heard, and/or the volume may not have been sufficiently loud. However, 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
After a long stint as the sole winner in Download Speed Experience, Kölbi loses the award to Claro. This time our users in Costa Rica clocked the fastest overall download speeds on Claro's network, averaging 20.8 Mbps — 5.1% faster than former winner Kölbi. This change was driven by the 16.1% improvement seen on Claro, compared to a slight decline of 4.5% on Kölbi.
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 Upload Speed Experience award once again goes to Claro. The operator retains the lead spot with a score of 7.8 Mbps — 2.1 Mbps faster than second-placed Kölbi. Meanwhile, Liberty trailed closely behind with 5.1 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).
Regional Analysis
Looking at the regional Video Experience, Claro and Kölbi are joint winners across six out of seven regions, including Limon, where all three operators statistically tie for first place. Puntarenas is the only province where Claro wins outright.
Meanwhile, Claro dominates the regional results for Games and Voice App Experience by winning outright across all seven provinces. Claro users enjoyed the best quality of experience when playing multiplayer mobile games or using over-the-top voice services across every province in Costa Rica.
Claro is also top across all seven provinces for mobile speeds. Claro wins the regional Download Speed awards outright in Alajuela, Guanacaste and Puntarenas — jointly winning a further four with Kölbi in the remaining provinces, including San Jose. In the case of regional Upload Speed Experience, Claro scoops up all the regional awards for Upload Speed Experience.
Regional Analysis Summary: Costa Rica, Mobile Network Experience Report, December 2022
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Coverage
Claro
Kölbi
Liberty
National Analysis
Kölbi is the outright winner of the Availability award, as our users across the three national networks spent the most time connected to a cellular signal on Kölbi's network — 97.6% on average and around 0.7 percentage points greater than Liberty (the former joint winner) and Claro, given their statistically tied scores of 96.8-97%.
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
Claro is the winner of the 4G Availability award as, on average, our users in Costa Rica spent the greatest proportion of time connected to 4G when using Claro — 87.1%. However, the 4G Availability scores on Liberty and Kölbi are noticeably lower, 82.5% and 67.4%, respectively.
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.
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
Liberty is the outright winner of the 4G Coverage Experience award with a score of 8.4 points on a 10 point scale — ahead of Kölbi's score of 8.2 points. This means that our Liberty users connected to 4G in most locations — 84 out of 100 locations — visited by our Costa Rican 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.
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.
Regional Analysis
Looking at the proportion of time users spend connected to mobile data services (3G and above) in Costa Rica, Kölbi wins outright in three provinces — Alajuela, Heredia and San Jose. In addition, Kölbi shares the podium with Liberty in the remaining four regions, including Cartago, where all three operators are statistically tied.
Regional Analysis Summary: Costa Rica, Mobile Network Experience Report, December 2022
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A-I
- Alajuela
- Cartago
- Guanacaste
- Heredia
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J-R
- Limon
- Puntarenas
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- San Jose
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Consistency
National Analysis
Once again, Kölbi wins Excellent Consistent Quality outright. It met the minimum recommended performance thresholds for HD video, group video conference calls and gaming in 55.9% of users' tests — 6.6 percentage points higher than Liberty’s and more than twice as high as Claro’s.
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
Claro is the outright winner of the Core Consistent Quality award, with a score of 75.7%, 1.5 percentage points greater than Kölbi. Meanwhile, Liberty was further behind with 68.5%. Core Consistent Quality is the percentage of user tests that met the minimum recommended performance thresholds for lower-performance applications, including standard definition (SD) video, voice calls and web browsing.
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