Sri Lanka
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.
Sri Lanka
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
Dialog is the operator to beat in Sri Lanka
Dialog has accomplished a spectacular feat by winning nine out of ten awards outright and jointly winning the 4G Availability award with Airtel. These results mean Dialog users had the best experience when streaming mobile video, playing multiplayer games and using over-the-top voice apps over cellular connections. In addition, dialog users observed the fastest download and upload speeds in Sri Lanka. Further, Dialog beats the competition on measures for the consistency of the experience, in addition to Availability and 4G Coverage Experience.
Dialog is the outright winner of the Download Speed Experience award
Download Speed Experience for every major operator in Sri Lanka has improved since the last report. Our users on Dialog saw the biggest boost of 38.9% in their overall download speeds, followed by those on Airtel (32.6%). Meanwhile, Hutch and Mobitel users saw a relatively lower improvement of 18.4% and 11%, respectively. As a result, Dialog reclaims the Download Speed Experience award and establishes a lead of 10.8% over ex-winner Mobitel, with users’ overall speeds averaging 11.8 Mbps.
Dialog users enjoyed the best video experience
Dialog ranks top in Sri Lanka for the quality of experience while streaming video over mobile networks. Dialog wins the Video Experience award with an overall score of 41.3 points (on a 100 point scale) — 7.5-16 points ahead of the competition. As a result of these scores, Dialog earned a Fair (40 - 55) rating, while Airtel, Hutch and Mobitel placed in a lower category — Poor (under 40).
Dialog is top in Sri Lanka for Games and Voice App Experience
Dialog beats the competition on the quality of experience while playing multiplayer mobile games and using over-the-top (OTT) voice services in Sri Lanka. In Games Experience, Dialog wins the award with a lead of 10.4-11.6 points over Airtel and Mobitel which statistically tied for second place. Likewise, Dialog also wins the Voice App Experience award, but with a modest lead of 2.9-3.5 points (out of 100) over once again statistically tied Airtel and Mobitel.
Dialog has the most consistent experience
Dialog wins both the Excellent Consistent and Core Consistent quality awards for the second time in a row in Opensignal mobile network experience reports. This indicates Dialog users saw the greatest proportion of tests that met the minimum thresholds to support both regular and more demanding mobile applications.
Airtel and Dialog are joint winners of the 4G Availability award
Our users on Airtel and Dialog spent the greatest proportion of time connected to 4G with statistically tied scores in the 88-89.6% range, followed by Mobitel users (83.1%). Meanwhile, Hutch lagged significantly behind with average 4G Availability of 76%
Mobile Experience Awards
Market Overview
Dialog is entrenched as the operator to beat when it comes to the mobile network experience of smartphone users in Sri Lanka. In this report, Dialog swept away nine out of ten awards outright, improving on its already dominant position seen last time, in July 2022. This time Dialog added two new awards categories to its list of wins; the operator beats Mobitel on Download Speed Experience and Airtel on Availability. Moreover, our Dialog users reported the biggest improvement on both these metrics.
That's not to say the other operators aren't improving — Airtel users reported the second-largest upswing in Download Speed Experience (32.6%) and the biggest improvement in Video Experience as well as 4G Coverage Experience. Meanwhile, Mobitel scores reflected the biggest improvements in Games and Voice App Experience. However, Dialog manages to either stay ahead of the competitors or outpace them in almost every measure of mobile network experience in our report, except 4G Availability. In general, the overall mobile network experience in Sri Lanka is improving.
Regarding other developments in the country, the Telecommunication Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (TRCSL) has confirmed that it will kick off the preparations for implementing commercial 5G services in 2023. On the other, all four operators have been trialing 5G and strengthening their 4G networks ahead of the launch. After Airtel, Dialog also announced plans to sunset its 3G network in 2023 to free up spectrum to boost the capacity of its 4G network. The operator recently announced the successful testing of mmWave 5G technology.
While 5G may be a key area of focus for Sri Lanka, 4G continues to play a vital role because that's the network generation users spend most of their time connected to. Also, strong 4G networks will pave the road for a smoother transition to next-generation 5G networks. In this report, we have analyzed the mobile network experience for Sri Lanka's four operators, Airtel, Dialog, Hutch and Mobitel — over the 90 days starting October 1, 2022, and ending December 29, 2022.
Overall Experience
National Analysis
Dialog wins Video Experience outright with a score of 41.3 points — a noteworthy lead of 7.5-16 points over other operators. As a result, Dialog was the only operator that placed in the Fair (55-65) category, while Airtel, Hutch and Mobitel rated as Poor (40-55).
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
Dialog remains the winner of the Games Experience award, this time with a score of 53.9 points (on a 100 point scale). As a result, Dialog now commands a lead of 10.4-17.5 points over Airtel, Hutch and Mobitel. Lower scores mean users' experience becomes less enjoyable, marred with increased delays and lack of controllability in gameplay.
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
Dialog is also the winner of the Voice App Experience award with 75.7 points on a 100 point scale. Airtel and Mobitel follow in with statistically tied scores of 72.2-72.8 points, while Hutch is last placed with 67.4 points. With these scores, Dialog earned an Acceptable (74-80) rating, while other operators rated one category lower.
An Acceptable rating means that some users were satisfied. Perceptible call quality impairments were experienced by some users. Clicking sounds of short duration or distortion were heard, and/or the volume may not have been sufficiently loud. 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
The Download Speed Experience in Sri Lanka has improved across the board. Our Dialog users saw the greatest increase of 38.9% in their average download speeds, followed by those on Airtel (32.6%), Hutch (18.4%) and Mobitel (11%). As a result, this time, our users in Sri Lanka clocked the fastest overall download speeds on Dialog's network, averaging 11.8 Mbps — 10.8% faster than ex-winner Mobitel, which placed second. Meanwhile, the Download Speed Experience of Airtel and Hutch users lagged significantly, with speeds averaging 8.6 and 5.4 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
While we recorded huge boosts in Download Speed Experience across the operators, we saw relatively little change in their Upload Speed Experience. Airtel saw the most significant increase of 22.2%. As a result, Dialog remains the winner of the Upload Speed Experience award, this time with a score of 4.8 Mbps — just 0.7 Mbps ahead of Mobile. Airtel and Hutch follow further behind with speeds of 2-2.5 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
Airtel
Dialog
Hutch
Mobitel
National Analysis
Dialog wins Opensignal's Availability award, as our users on its network spent 93.8% of time connected to either 3G or better network technology — 2.1-5 percentage points greater than users on Airtel, Hutch and Mobitel.
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
Airtel and Dialog jointly win the 4G Availability award, with statistically tied scores in the 88-89.6% range, just slightly ahead of Mobitel (83.1%). At the same time, our Hutch users saw the lowest 4G Availability of 76%, on average.
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
Dialog also leads in 4G Coverage Experience award with an impressive score of 8.9 points — 0.9 points ahead of second-placed Mobitel — which means our Dialog users connected to the 4G network in almost 90 out of 100 locations they visited. Opensignal's 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.
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
Dialog met the minimum recommended performance thresholds in 55.9% of users' tests for HD video, group video conference calls, and gaming — the highest in Sri Lanka. As a result, Dialog takes home the Excellent Consistent Quality award.
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
Dialog is the sole winner of the Core Consistent Quality award. The operator's winning score of 82.8% gives it a lead of 7-17.9 percentage points over Airtel, Hutch and Mobitel.
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