Canada
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.
Canada
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
Rogers comes top for Video Experience
Rogers is the outright winner of the Video Experience award with a score of 68.3 points on a 100-point scale and a lead of around 1.5 points over Bell and Telus’ statistically tied scores of 66.5-67.2 points. In addition, Rogers is the only Canadian carrier to achieve a Very Good (68-78) rating for Video Experience. This means our Rogers users are, on average, able to stream video at 1080p or better with satisfactory loading times and little stalling. Both Bell and Telus place one category lower — Good (58-68).
Bell catches Telus as Games Experience improves across the board
Since the last report in August 2022, the quality of the multiplayer mobile gaming experience in Canada has improved across all three networks. Our Bell users reported the greatest improvement in Games Experience, a sizable 8.8%, followed byTelus users (6.9%) and Rogers (6.1%). As a result, Bell and Telus are joint winners of the Games Experience award with statistically tied scores in the 70.3-71.1 points range, ahead of Rogers' 68.1 points.
Bell wins the Download Speed Experience award outright for the second time in a row
Our Bell users continue to observe the fastest overall download speeds in Canada. Therefore, Bell remains the sole winner of the Download Speed Experience award, this time with a score of 74Mbps — just 3.7% faster than Telus’ score but 25.9% faster than Rogers.
Bell and Telus stay ahead of Rogers in 4G Coverage Experience
Bell and Telus are again joint winners of the 4G Coverage Experience award, this time with identical scores of 9.8 out of a possible 10 — ahead of Rogers' score of 8.8 points — which means our users on Bell and Telus connect to 4G in the most locations out of all those visited by our users across all carriers.
Telus remains top for Core Consistent Quality
Telus defends its outright win for Core Consistent Quality with an impressive score of 90.9% — 1.4 percentage points ahead of Bell. However, for Excellent Consistent Quality, Bell joins Telus on the top spot of the podium as the two operators are statistically tied this time, with scores of 81-81.3%.
Mobile Experience Awards
Market Overview
In Opensignal's latest Mobile Network Experience report on Canada, we analyze the overall experience of our users across all network technologies. Our analysis reveals a mostly two-horse race between Bell and Telus as competition intensifies and the mobile network experience improves in the country.
Once again, Telus has the biggest haul of awards in Canada. However, there have been a few changes in the awards table since the last report in August 2022. Telus now shares the awards for Games Experience and Excellent Consistent Quality with Bell, which Telus won outright previously.
While these changes are evident on Opensignal's awards table, a lot is happening under the hood — the mobile network experience in Canada is improving. Since the previous report in August 2022, our users across all three national carriers have observed improvements across most categories, including Games Experience, Voice App Experience, Download Speed Experience and Upload Speed Experience. Some of this change may be seasonal, but the growth of 5G is also supporting improvements in Canadians’ overall experience as well.
In this report, we examine the mobile network experience of the three main mobile carriers in Canada — Bell, Rogers and Telus — over a period of 90 days, starting on October 1, 2022, and ending on December 29, 2022, to see how they fared nationally. Along with our national analysis, we've also examined our users' mobile network experience across Canada's major provinces to see how the national carriers compare with regional players that operate in some provinces, but not others, such as Quebec's Videotron, Ontario's Freedom Mobile or Saskatchewan's SaskTel.
We have published a companion Canada 5G Experience report which analyzes the experience of our 5G users when they are connected to 5G.
Overall Experience
National Analysis
Rogers is the new sole winner of the Video Experience award, ending the three-way statistical tie that existed in the previous report. Roger wins with a score of 68.3 points on a 100-point scale and a lead of around 1.5 points over Bell and Telus’ statistically tied scores of 66.5-67.2 points. Rogers alone achieves a Very Good (68-78) rating for Video Experience. This means our Rogers users are, on average, able to stream video at 1080p or better with satisfactory loading times and little stalling.
Both Bell and Telus place one category lower — Good (58-68). A Good rating indicates that our users are, on average, able to stream video at 720p or better with satisfactory loading times and little stalling.
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
Since the last report, the quality of experience while playing multiplayer mobile games has improved across all three major carriers in Canada. Our Bell users reported the biggest improvement of 8.8%, followed by Telus (6.9%) and Rogers (6.1%). As a result of these improvements, Bell and Telus are now the joint winners of the Games Experience award.
The Games Experience of all three operators places in the Fair category (65-75). This means users find their experience to be 'average'. In most cases, the game is responsive to the player's actions, with most users reporting that they feel like they have control over the game. The majority of players report that they notice a delay between their actions and the outcomes in the game.
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
Our Telus users continue to enjoy the best Voice App Experience. The operator wins the Voice App Experience award with 77.8 points (out of 100) — a lead of 0.9 points ahead of Bell and 1.7 points over Rogers. With these scores, all three operators place in the Acceptable category (74-80), which means some users are satisfied. Perceptible call quality impairments are experienced by some users. Clicking sounds of short duration or distortion are heard, and/or the volume may not be sufficiently loud. Listeners are 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
Bell users continue to experience the fastest overall download speeds in Canada, clocking up an average of 74Mbps — 2.6Mbps (3.7%) faster than Telus and a noteworthy 15.2Mbps (25.9%) faster than Rogers. Therefore, Bell is once again the winner of the Download Speed Experience award in Canada.
Compared to the last report, the biggest improvement in Download Speed Experience was recorded on Rogers (10.2%), followed by Bell (6.4%) and Telus (5.1%).
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
Rogers and Telus are joint winners of the Upload Speed Experience award, with statistically tied scores around 11.3Mbps. This is a change from the last report, when Rogers won outright. This ranking change is because Telus’ score increased by a greater amount than the other two carriers’ scores. Telus’ score jumped by 8.9%, while Rogers’ score rose by 6.7%. Third-placed Bell’s score of 10.7Mbps is up 5.6% from the previous report.
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
In the regional analysis, we assess how the mobile network experience differs across Canada's major provinces on the three national carriers – Bell, Rogers and Telus. Depending on the region, we also compare regional players, such as Videotron and Freedom Mobile.
Starting with regional Video Experience, Telus and Rogers bag six wins this time. They share the top spot in Alberta, Atlantic Provinces, and Ontario and collect three further joint wins alongside Bell in British Columbia, Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Meanwhile, Videotron is the outright winner in Quebec.
Moving onto Games Experience, the national joint winners Bell and Telus collect four joint wins in British Columbia, Manitoba and Saskatchewan, and in Ontario alongside Freedom Mobile. Meanwhile, Bell is the outright winner in Alberta and the Atlantic Provinces. At the same time, Telus and Videotron are joint winners in Quebec.
For Download Speed Experience, the three national carriers each pick up one outright win — in Quebec for Bell and in Alberta for Rogers, while our Telus users see the fastest average overall download speeds in Manitoba. Meanwhile, Bell and Telus are joint top in the Atlantic Provinces, British Columbia and Ontario. All three national carriers jointly win in Saskatchewan, where our users see a three-way statistical tie between Bell, Rogers and Telus.
Regional Analysis Summary: Canada, Mobile Network Experience Report, February 2023
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Coverage
National Analysis
Bell and Rogers jointly win the Availability award, with statistically tied scores of 98.9-99%, just slightly ahead of Telus (98.9%). This means that our Canadian users spend more than 98% of their time connected to either 3G, 4G, or 5G, regardless of their choice of carrier. Although Telus shares the same score as Rogers, Telus narrowly misses out on a joint win, because its confidence intervals do not overlap with Bell’s.
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.
National Analysis
Bell and Telus jointly win the 4G Coverage Experience award with identical scores of 9.8 on a 10-point scale — ahead of Rogers' score of 8.8 — which means our Bell and Telus users connect to 4G in 98 out of 100 locations visited by our Canadian 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.
Regional Analysis
Our regional analysis of Availability reveals fierce competition, with at least three carriers statistically tying for first place in each region. Regional operator Freedom collects three joint wins, in Alberta and Ontario, where it statistically ties with Bell and Telus, and in British Columbia, alongside Rogers and Telus. Meanwhile, Videotron is statistically tied for first place with Bell and Rogers in Quebec. SaskTel is a joint winner in Saskatchewan alongside Bell, Rogers and Telus.
Regional Analysis Summary: Canada, Mobile Network Experience Report, February 2023
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Consistency
National Analysis
Bell and Telus are the joint winners of the Excellent Consistent Quality award, as 81-81.3% of our users' tests on their networks meet the minimum recommended performance thresholds sufficient to support demanding common applications (such as HD video, group video conference calls, and gaming). Meanwhile, Rogers brings up the rear with 79.5%.
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
Telus is the sole winner of the Core Consistent Quality award, with a score of 90.9%. Moreover, Telus is the only Canadian operator with a score above the 90% mark — ahead of Bell and Rogers with 89.6% and 87.9%, respectively.
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