Türkiye
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.
Türkiye
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
Turkcell triumphs in speed awards again
Our Turkcell users once again enjoy the fastest speeds in Türkiye. Turkcell wins Download Speed Experience with a score of 29.8Mbps — 7.1Mbps faster than the runner-up Türk Telekom and nearly twice as fast as third-placed Vodafone, with speeds of 15.2Mbps. However, since the previous report, both Türk Telekom and Turkcell have observed declines in their scores of 1.2Mbps and 1.7Mbps respectively, while Vodafone’s score has improved by 0.8Mbps. Turkcell also wins Upload Speed Experience outright, with a score of 12.5Mbps — 1.4Mbps ahead of Türk Telekom. Our users on all Turkish networks enjoy boosts in faster average overall upload speeds ranging from 0.5Mbps for Türk Telekom to 0.8Mbps for Turkcell.
Türk Telekom wins Core Consistent Quality back from Turkcell
After temporarily losing Core Consistent Quality (lower performance applications including SD video, voice calls and web browsing) to Turkcell in the previous report, Türk Telekom wins the award outright this time around with a score of 90.6% — beating the previous sole winner by 0.6 percentage points. However, Turkcell retains Excellent Consistent Quality (HD video, group video conference calls, and gaming) with a score of 78.2% and a winning margin of 0.9 percentage points over second-placed Türk Telekom. Vodafone comes third for both awards, with scores of 69.5% and 87.1%, respectively. These scores reflect the percentage of users’ tests in which the operator met the minimum recommended performance thresholds.
Video Experience goes to Turkcell once again
Turkcell wins the Video Experience award outright again, with a score of 64.5 points on a 100-point scale. Türk Telekom takes the second spot, 1.7 points behind the winner, while Vodafone brings up the rear, with a score of 58.1 points. Our users in Türkiye enjoy Good (58-68) video services across all mobile operators. This means our users are, on average, able to stream video at 720p or better with satisfactory loading times and little stalling.
Türk Telekom remains the sole winner of Voice App Experience
Türk Telekom keeps Voice App Experience in a firm grip, as it defends the award with a score of 79.4 points — 1.3 points ahead of Vodafone and 3.1 points ahead of third-placed Turkcell. All operators place in the Acceptable (74-80) category for Voice App Experience — this means some users are satisfied but others experience perceptible call quality impairments. Türk Telekom was also the sole winner of another experiential award — Games Experience — but it now has to share it with Turkcell, with scores of 64.2-64.7 points on a 100-point scale.
All Turkish operators see improvements in their Availability scores
In the previous report Türk Telekom won Availability outright and Turkcell slipped off the winners’ podium. However, Turkcell climbs back on it and becomes a joint winner for Availability again, alongside Türk Telekom, with statistically tied scores of 98.7-98.8%. Vodafone treads on their heels with a score of 98.6% — just 0.2 percentage points lower, on average. These scores mean our users in Türkiye connect to 3G or better services at least 98.6% of the time. All Turkish operators observe improvements in their Availability scores compared to the previous report, ranging from 0.4 percentage points for Türk Telekom to 0.7 percentage points for Vodafone.
Mobile Experience Awards
Market Overview
In Opensignal's latest Türkiye Mobile Network Experience report, Turkcell wins four awards outright, as it successfully defends both speed awards, Video Experience and Excellent Consistent Quality. Türk Telekom ends up with two sole victories — it retains Voice App Experience and wins Core Consistent Quality back from Turkcell. Both operators are now joint winners for Games Experience and Availability, which were previously in the sole possession of Türk Telekom. This is the second report in a row with no wins — either outright or joint — for Vodafone.
Türkiye is yet to launch 5G services, but the Ministry of Industry and Technology has announced the ongoing work on the 5G roadmap, to facilitate future development of 5G infrastructure in the country. The first quarter of 2023 was a very challenging time for Türkiye, with the catastrophic earthquakes that hit the country in February 2023, which also affected the mobile network infrastructure. Turkish operators responded rapidly by dispatching mobile base stations, generators and vehicles with satellite services, alongside their own teams, to reinstate mobile connectivity in affected areas and help with rescue efforts.
Our results in this report are based on measurements collected across all major mobile operators in Türkiye – Türk Telekom, Turkcell and Vodafone – over the period of 90 days between February 1, 2023 and May 1, 2023, to see how they fared.
Overall Experience
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.
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.
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.
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).
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
Turkcell
Türk Telekom
Vodafone
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.
Consistency
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.
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.
Check how your internet connection impacts your favorite apps with the Meteor App
Journalists, please retain the Opensignal logo and copyright
(© Opensignal Limited) information when using this image.
This image may not be used for any commercial purpose, including use in advertisements or other promotional content, without prior written consent.
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