Iraq
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.
Iraq
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
Asiacell users have the fastest experience in Iraq
Asiacell remains unbeaten in the average speeds seen by our Iraqi users. The operator wins Download Speed Experience and Upload Speed Experience for the third consecutive time, meaning no other Iraqi operator has won either award since we began reporting on the Iraqi mobile network experience back in January 2022. This time, our Asiacell users observed average download speeds of 24.6 Mbps, 10.9 Mbps (79.2%) faster than Zain users and 2.6 times faster than Korek’s score of 9.4 Mbps. Asiacell wins Upload Speed Experience with a score of 10.1 Mbps — 2.4 and 3.2 times faster than Zain’s and Korek’s scores of 4.3 Mbps and 3.1 Mbps, respectively.
Asiacell retains all three coverage awards
For the second time in a row Asiacell wins all three coverage awards outright (Availability, 4G Availability and 4G Coverage Experience). The average proportion of time that our Asiacell users spent with a 3G or better connection (Availability) was an impressive 98.3%, giving Asiacell a lead of around five percentage points over Korek and Zain, which had statistically tied scores of 93.2-93.6%. Asiacell’s lead was far larger for 4G Availability — it wins with a score of 86.9%, 17.1 percentage points ahead of second placed Zain’s 69.8%. Asiacell comes top for 4G Coverage Experience with a score of four points on a 10 point scale, followed by Zain with 3.7 points and Korek with 2.7 points.
Korek is a joint winner across both consistency awards
In the last report, Zain won the Excellent Consistent Quality and Core Consistent Quality awards outright. This time, the two awards are won jointly, but only Korek is a joint winner for both. Korek shares Excellent Core Consistency with Asiacell, because they have statistically tied scores of 42.9-44.2%, and wins Core Consistent Quality alongside Zain with tied scores of 72.9-73.0%. 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. Core Consistent Quality uses thresholds for less demanding common applications including standard definition (SD) video, voice calls and web browsing.
Asiacell users enjoy the best experience when streaming video or using voice apps in Iraq
Asiacell is the sole winner of the Video Experience and Voice App Experience awards as it was in the last report. This time, the operator wins Video Experience as our users achieved a score of 45.3 points on a 100 point scale, far ahead of Zain’s and Korek’s statistically tied scores of 29.7-32.7 points. Asiacell’s margin of victory for Voice App Experience was more modest, as it wins with a score of 73.1 points compared with Korek’s and Zain’s tied scores of 68.6-70.5 points.
Korek joins its rivals on the winners’ podium for Games Experience
This time, when playing multiplayer mobile games over cellular connections, our Iraqi users observed no statistically significant difference in their experience between Iraq’s three national operators. Asiacell, Korek and Zain are joint winners of the Games Experience award with scores of 39.5-42.5 points on a 100 point scale. This is a change from the previous report, when the award was only shared between Asiacell and Zain.
Mobile Experience Awards
Market Overview
Once again, Asiacell dominates the Iraqi mobile network experience. This time it wins seven out of 10 awards outright and shares the Excellent Consistent Quality award with Korek. Asiacell is also a joint winner for Games Experience alongside Korek and Zain. Korek and Zain do not win any awards outright, instead jointly winning three and two awards, respectively.
In this report, we've analyzed our data gathered in the 90 day period beginning on September 1 and ending on November 29, 2022, to see how Iraq’s three national operators — Asiacell, Korek and Zain — measure up.
Overall Experience
National Analysis
Asiacell again wins the Video Experience award outright. This time, it does so with a score of 45.3 points on a 100 point scale, giving it a lead of around 14.1 points over Zain’s and Korek’s statistically tied scores of 29.7-32.7 points.
A Fair rating means that our Asiacell users did not have a good experience either for higher resolution videos (very slow loading times and prolonged stalling) or for some video streaming providers. The experience on lower resolution videos from some providers might have been sufficient though.
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
Asiacell, Korek and Zain are joint winners of the Games Experience award with statistically tied scores of 39.5-42.5 points on a 100 point scale. This is a change from the previous report, when the award was shared between Asiacell and Zain.
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
Asiacell retains the Voice App Experience award, winning it outright with a score of 73.1 points compared with Korek’s and Zain’s statistically tied scores of 68.6-70.5 points.
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
Asiacell wins the Download Speed Experience award for the third report in a row. Our Asiacell users observed average download speeds of 24.6 Mbps, 10.9 Mbps (79.2%) faster than Zain users and 2.6 times faster than Korek’s score of 9.4 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
Asiacell remains unbeaten for Upload Speed Experience. It wins this time with a score of 10.1 Mbps — 2.4 and 3.2 times faster, respectively, than Zain’s and Korek’s scores of 4.3 Mbps and 3.1 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).
Coverage
Asiacell
Korek
Zain
National Analysis
Asiacell wins the Availability award for the second time in a row. It does so with a score of 98.3%, giving Asiacell a lead of around five percentage points over Korek and Zain, which had statistically tied scores of 93.2-93.6%.
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
Asiacell wins the 4G Availability award for the third report in a row. This time it wins with a score of 86.9%, 17.1 percentage points ahead of second placed Zain’s score of 69.8% and 24.8 percentage points ahead of Korek’s 62.1%.
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
Asiacell remains unbeaten on 4G Coverage Experience. It wins outright with a score of four points on a 10 point scale, followed by Zain with 3.7 points and Korek with 2.7 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
Asiacell and Korek are joint winners of the Excellent Consistent Quality award given their statistically tied scores of 42.9-44.2%. Zain is in third place, around 6.5 percentage points behind the joint winners, given its score of 37 points. In the last report, Zain won the award outright.
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 in the last report Zain won the Core Consistent Quality award outright, this time it has been forced to share it with Korek, given their statistically tied scores of 72.9-73.0%. Asiacell isn’t fair behind the two joint winners, given its score of 71.2%.
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