Norway
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.
Norway
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
Telenor wins on consistency
Telenor users had the most consistent experience in Norway, scoring highest in Excellent Consistent Quality — 90.8% of our Telenor users’ tests met the minimum recommended performance thresholds for common demanding applications such as watching HD video. Telenor led the nearest competition, ice, by three percentage points. Telenor is also the winner of the Core Consistent Quality award, meeting the criteria for less demanding usage cases in 94.5% of user tests — around one percentage point lead over ice and Telia, which tie for second place with scores of 93.4-93.6%.
Ice users have the best network Availability
Ice is the outright winner of the Availability award, scoring an impressive 99.1%, this represents the proportion of time our users on ice’s network were connected to either 3G, 4G, or 5G. In the previous report, ice shared the award with Telia. Now, Telia is in second place with 97.7%, followed by Telenor with 96.3%.
Telenor users enjoy the fastest overall download speeds
Telenor had the fastest Download Speed Experience, while sharing the fastest Upload Speed Experience in Norway with Telia. Our Telenor users recorded download speeds of 97.1 Mbps — a lead of 10.8 Mbps over Telia with 86.3 Mbps — third-placed ice follows at a distance, with 42.7 Mbps. Our Telenor and Telia users observed statistically tied overall upload speeds of 16.7-16.9 Mbps, ahead of ice users’ 12.6 Mbps.
Telenor and Telia significantly improve 5G Availability
Our Norwegian users spent a similar amount of time with an active 5G connection on both Telenor’s and Telia’s 5G networks, as the two operators had statistically tied scores in the 11.3-13.3% range. While the winners are unchanged from the last report, both operators’ scores have improved significantly. Our Telenor users saw the largest rise for the proportion of time spent on 5G — 5.4 percentage points, followed by Telia users with an increase of 4.5 percentage points.
Our Telia users have the best 5G Video Experience
Telia is the sole winner of the 5G Video Experience award. It wins with a score of 81.8 points on a 100 point scale, above Telenor’s score of 78.6 points. Both operators placed in the Excellent (75 or above) category.
Download speed boosted nearly three-fold with 5G on Telenor and Telia
Telenor and Telia share the 5G Download Speed award. Our 5G users on these operators saw average 5G download speeds in the 261.8-265.5 Mbps range. Our users’ 5G speeds on Telenor and Telia were faster than their average overall download speeds, by 2.7 and 3 times respectively.
Mobile Experience Awards
Market Overview
In Opensignal's latest Norway Mobile Network Experience report, we look at the overall experience of our users for the three national mobile operators, and their 5G experience on two of them – Telenor and Telia. Ice launched its 5G network less than a year before this report’s data collection period — in late 2021 in Oslo. The operator continues to actively expand its 5G network. To fairly gauge the winning experience among national operators, ice is thus omitted from 5G award metrics in the current awards table. However, 5G measurements for ice and the other two operators contributed to the scores for the overall experience metrics in this report.
Our analysis reveals stiff competition between all three national operators. Nine of the 14 mobile experience awards are shared by two or more operators. Despite this, Telenor wins outright in Download Speed Experience and both consistency awards, while Telia wins outright in 5G Video Experience. With a further nine joint wins, Telenor takes the most spots in the awards table. Meanwhile, ice wins two shared awards, and is also the outright winner for the Availability award — an improvement over the last report, where the operator shared the award with Telia.
2022 has been an eventful year for ice. During March 2022 it was acquired by Lyse, a regional industry group. Following this, Altibox — also a Lyse company — formed a partnership of local players to expand its nationwide 5G mobile network. As Altibox has historically provided fiber broadband and television, the Lyse’s acquisition of ice mean the creation of a new converged fixed/mobile operator. With the help of this partnership, the group will build 3,900 new base stations and upgrade over 3,200 existing ones across Norway.
Altibox s planning to launch a 5G fixed wireless access (FWA) service during the first half of 2023. The company previously acquired mobile spectrum at the September 2021 spectrum auction.
Meanwhile, Norway’s National Communications Authority (Nkom) announced in September 2022, that it will allocate additional frequencies for the mobile industry, in the 1.5 GHz and 26 GHz bands. This follows lengthy consultation with the industry over the course of the year — the current bands were selected following confirmation of demand from the industry. Other frequency bands were assessed and are in consideration for future allocation.
In this report we examine the mobile network experience of the four main mobile network operators in Norway — ice, Telenor and Telia — over a period of 90 days starting on August 1, 2022 and ending on October 29, 2022, to see how they fared.
Overall Experience
National Analysis
Telenor and Telia are the joint winners of the Video Experience award with scores of 67.9-68.3 points, on a 100 point scale. Ice places third, having scored 61.5 points.
There has been no change in this category since the last report. Telenor and Telia placed in the Very Good (65-75) category, while ice received a Good (55-65) rating.
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
All three Norwegian operators share the Games Experience awards as our users saw no statistical difference in their overall experience when playing multiplayer mobile games over cellular connections on the three networks. Norway’s operators scored in the 73.7-75 point range on a 100 point scale.
There has been no change of winners in this category, since the last report. The three operators were on the border between the Good (75-85) and Fair (65-75) categories.
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
Norway’s ice, Telenor and Telia are all joint winners of the Voice App Experience award, with scores of 79.3-80.7 points on a 100 point scale.
There has been no change of winners in this category, since the last report. The three operators scores placed them on the border between the between Good (80-87) and Acceptable (74-80) categories.
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 observed the fastest average overall download speeds on Telenor’s network — 97.1 Mbps, which was 10.8 Mbps (12.5%) faster than second-placed Telia’s score of 86.3 Mbps. As a result, Telenor is the outright winner of the Download Speed Experience award. Ice follows at a distance, with a score of 42.7 Mbps.
There has been no change of winners in this category, since the previous report. However, the average download speeds seen by our Telenor and Telia users have increased significantly compared to last time. Our Telia users saw the largest rise — 9.9 Mbps (13%) up — followed by Telenor users with an increase of 9.6 Mbps (11%). In contrast, our ice users did not see a statistically significant change in their average download speeds.
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 Norwegian users had a similar Upload Speed Experience on Telenor and Telia, with statistically tied scores in the 16.7-16.9 Mbps range, meaning that the two operators are joint winners for this award. Ice places third with a score of 12.6 Mbps.
There has been no change of winners in this category, since the last report. Our users did not observe any statistically significant changes in their average upload speeds regardless of their choice of operator.
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).
5G Experience
National Analysis
Telia is the outright winner of the 5G Video Experience award, with a score of 81.8 points, on a 100 point scale. Telenor places second with a score of 78.6 points. The operators’ scores for 5G Video Experience are much higher than their overall scores — across all generations of mobile technology — with the improvement ranging from 10.3 points for Telenor to 13.9 points for Telia.
There has been no change of winners in this category, since the last report. Telia and Telenor both placed in the Excellent (75 or above) category. This indicates a very consistent experience across all users, video streaming providers and resolutions tested on 5G connections, with fast loading times and almost non-existent stalling.
Definitions
5G Video Experience quantifies the quality of mobile video experienced by Opensignal users on real-world video streams when they were connected to 5G. 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 5G Video Experience, we are directly measuring video streams from end-user devices and using this ITU approach to quantify the video experience observed by our users on each operator’s 5G network 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.
National Analysis
Telenor and Telia are the joint winners of the 5G Games Experience award, which measures user experience for multiplayer mobile gaming experience when connected to 5G networks. The operators scored within the 77-81.3 point range.
There has been no change of winners in this category, since the last report. Telia and Telenor are placed in the Good category (75-85). This means 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.
Definitions
5G Games Experience measures how mobile users experience real-time multiplayer mobile gaming on an operator's 5G network. It analyzes how our users’ multiplayer mobile gaming experience was affected by mobile network conditions including latency, packet loss and jitter. 5G Games Experience for each operator is calculated on a scale from 0 to 100.
5G 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 5G Games Experience starts with measuring the end-to-end experience from users’ devices to internet end-points that host real games.
National Analysis
Telenor and Telia are the joint winners of the 5G Voice App Experience award, which measures our users’ experience with over-the-top (OTT) smartphone voice applications when connected to 5G. The operators scored within the 81.8-82.3 point range.
There has been no change of winners in this category, since the last report. Both Telia and Telenor placed in the Good category (80-87). This indicates that many users were satisfied with their experience when connected to 5G. Minor quality impairments were experienced by some users. Sometimes the background was not quite clear, it could have been either hazy or not loud enough. Clicking sounds or distortion were very rarely present.
Definitions
5G Voice App Experience quantifies the experience of Opensignal users when using over-the-top voice apps — such as WhatsApp, Skype and Facebook Messenger — on an operator’s 5G network. It uses 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. 5G Voice App Experience for each operator is calculated on a scale from 0 to 100.
National Analysis
Our Telenor and Telia users saw statistically similar average 5G download speeds in excess of 260 Mbps, meaning that the two operators are the joint winners of the 5G Download Speed award.
Telenor’s and Telia’s 5G Download Speed scores in Norway were 2.7-3 times faster than their overall Download Speed Experience scores, highlighting the extent to which average overall download speeds could improve once users spend the majority of their time connected to 5G.
There has been no change of winners in this category, since the last report.
Definitions
5G Download Speed shows the average download speed experienced by Opensignal users across an operator’s 5G network. 5G Download Speed for each operator is calculated in Mbps (Megabits per second).
National Analysis
Telenor and Telia share the 5G Upload Speed award, as our users observed a statistically equivalent experience on their network — 37-37.7 Mbps. These 5G upload speeds were 2.2-2.3 times faster than their overall Upload Speed Experience scores.
There has been no change of winners in this category, since the last report.
Definitions
5G Upload Speed measures the average upload speeds experienced by Opensignal users across an operator’s 5G network. 5G Upload Speed for each operator is calculated in Mbps (Megabits per second).
Coverage
ice
Telenor
Telia
National Analysis
Our users on ice’s network spent the largest proportion of time connected to either 3G, 4G, or 5G, which means that the operator is the winner for the Availability award, with a score of 99.1%. Telia comes behind with a score of 97.7%, followed by Telenor with 96.3% for Availability. This award category was previously shared between ice and Telia.
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
Telenor and Telia share the 5G Availability award, which represents the proportion of time that 5G users spent on average with an active 5G connection. The two operators had statistically tied scores in the 11.3-13.3% range. The higher the 5G Availability is, the greater the amount of time our 5G users benefited from the improved mobile experience that 5G provides.
There has been no change of winners in this category, since the last report. However, 5G Availability results for Telenor and Telia have improved significantly compared to those seen in the last report. Our Telenor users saw the largest rise — 5.4 percentage points — followed by Telia users with an increase of 4.5 percentage points.
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.
5G Availability shows the proportion of time Opensignal users with a 5G device and a 5G subscription had an active 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.
Consistency
National Analysis
Telenor is the sole winner of the Excellent Consistent Quality award as its score of 90.8% is three percentage points higher than that of second-placed ice’s 87.7%. Telia is in third place, with a score of 85.8%.
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
As is the case with Excellent Consistent Quality, Telenor is the outright winner of the Core Consistent Quality award. The operator wins with a score of 94.5%, around one percentage point ahead of ice and Telia, which are tied in second place with scores in the 93.4-93.6% range.
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