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.
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.
Our Telekom users continue to experience the fastest average speeds in Germany — both overall and 5G =. In all these metrics, Vodafone places second and O2 takes the third spot — except for Upload Speed Experience where Vodafone and O2 are in a statistical tie for second place. Telekom’s winning margin over its second-placed competitors remains the same for both Download Speed Experience and Upload Speed Experience — 7.3Mbps and around 2.5Mbps, respectively.
Opensignal’s new Coverage Experience metrics measure the extent of mobile networks in the places people live, work, and travel. O2 wins Coverage Experience outright with a score of 8.3 points on a 10-point scale — making it its only win this time around. Meanwhile, 5G Coverage Experience goes to Telekom, which claims the award with a score of 3.4 points on a 10-point scale — 0.7 points ahead of the runner-up Vodafone.
In the previous report, Vodafone won both games awards — Games Experience outright and 5G Games Experience jointly with Telekom. However, this time around Telekom is the sole winner of both these awards, with scores of 74.1 and 87.4 points, respectively, on a 100-point scale. Both Telekom and Vodafone place in the Excellent (85 or above) category for 5G Games Experience, which means nearly all respondents feel like they have control over the game and they receive immediate feedback on their actions and there is not a noticeable delay in almost all cases. Meanwhile, O2 rates as Good (75-85) for this metric.
Telekom wins Consistent Quality outright with a score of 79.6% — 6.7 percentage points ahead of second-placed O2. Vodafone comes third, but only 0.1 percentage points behind the runner-up. This metric measures if the network is sufficient to support common mobile application requirements at a level that is ‘good enough’ for users to maintain (or complete) various typical demanding tasks on their devices. It assesses a number of experience indicators such as download speed, upload speed, latency, jitter, packet loss, and time to first byte.
Live Video Experience quantifies live video streaming used for current events, such as live sports, game streams, music concerts, or news. Telekom wins both Live Video Experience and 5G Live Video Experience outright, with scores of 57.3 points and 70.3 points on 100-point scales. Telekom commands a lead of 0.9 points over statistically tied O2 and Vodafone for Live Video Experience and a lead of 1.1 points over Vodafone for 5G Live Video Experience. All German national operators rate as Excellent (58 or above) for 5G Live Video Experience, which means our users are, on average, able to stream video at least at 1080p with low loading times, little stalling, and a satisfactory live offset.
O2 and Telekom were joint winners for Availability in the previous report. However, due to a boost in Telekom’s score of 0.6 percentage points and O2’s score remaining unchanged since the last report, Telekom wins the award outright with a score of 95.3%. This means our users on this network connect to 3G or better services 95.3% of the time. Due to an increase in its score of 0.5 percentage points, Vodafone moves from third to second place, which it shares with O2 with statistically tied scores of 94.4-94.7%.
In Opensignal's latest Germany Mobile Network Experience report we introduce Live Video Experience and 5G Live Video Experience, which represent the overall and 5G experience of our users when streaming real-time video over mobile networks.. Opensignal also introduces new Coverage Experience metrics that measure the extent of overall and 5G coverage in the places people live, work, and travel. Consistent Quality replaces the Excellent Consistent Quality and Core Consistent Quality awards used in previous reports.
Telekom strengthens its position in the awards table, as it wins all but one award outright this time around. It turns joint wins for 5G Games Experience and Availability into outright victories and also snatches Games Experience away from Vodafone. O2 secures a single sole win for Coverage Experience, while Vodafone walks away with no awards this time around.
The new market entrant 1&1 intends to launch its mobile services in December 2023. The operator will offer 4G services using both its own network and O2’s infrastructure through a national roaming agreement, while its 5G offering will be based on 5G MVNO wholesale services from Vodafone until July 2024, when it will switch to 1&1’s own 5G network and Vodafone’s national 5G roaming.
Other German operators continue to increase their 5G population coverage. Telekom reports having covered 95% of the German population with its 5G network — while 83% of Telekom’s 5G sites are connected to fiber-optics. Meanwhile, Vodafone claims to have covered 90% of Germans, including 45% of the population with its 5G Standalone (5G SA) services — and O2 has just launched the 5G SA network in October 2023, making it available to 90% of the German population.
Our results in this report are based on measurements collected across all major mobile operators in Germany – O2, Telekom, and Vodafone – over the period of 90 days between July 1, 2023 and September 28, 2023, to see how they fared.
Telekom is the sole winner of Video Experience with a score of 64.3 points on a 100-point scale. It beats O2 and Vodafone by around 1.7 points, as both operators are in a statistical tie for second place with scores of 62.6-62.7 points.
Regardless of their choice of a mobile operator, our German users experience Good (58-68) Video Experience — our users are, on average, able to stream video at 720p or better with satisfactory loading times and little stalling.
Video Experience scores account for adaptive bitrate streaming (ABR), a technology that allows Opensignal to accurately represent users’ real video experience including video streams up to 4K quality.
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:
Telekom triumphs for Live Video Experience in Germany with a score of 57.3 points on a 100-point scale, becoming the first-ever recipient of this award in Germany. O2 and Vodafone take second place, with statistically-tied scores of 56.2-56.5 points, 0.9 points behind the winner.
Operators’ Live Video Experience scores are determined using a range of measures that impact users’ perceived live streaming viewing experience, including picture quality, video loading time, and stall rate, but also live playback offset — the time difference between real-time and the current playback position a viewer sees.
All German national operators rate as Very Good (53-58) — our users are, on average, able to stream video at least at 720p or 1080p with low loading times, little stalling, and a satisfactory live offset.
Unlike Video Experience, which represents on-demand video streams, Live Video Experience quantifies live video streaming used for current events. For example when users watch live sports, game streams, music concerts, or news where the event is happening at that moment in time.
Opensignal’s Live Video Experience quantifies the quality of real-time video streamed to mobile devices by measuring video streams over an operator's network. The metric extends the existing International Telecommunication Union (ITU) approach used for Opensignal's on-demand Video Experience metric, built upon detailed studies which have derived a relationship between technical parameters, including live playback offset, picture quality, video loading time and stall rate, with the perceived live video experience as reported by real people. To calculate live video experience, we are directly measuring live video streams from end-user devices and using this extension of ITU's approach to quantify the overall live video experience for each operator on a scale from 0 to 100. The videos tested include a mixture of resolutions and are streamed directly from the world’s largest video content providers.
In the previous report, Vodafone was the outright winner of Games Experience. However, this time around Telekom surpasses Vodafone and takes home this award with a score of 74.1 points on a 100-point scale, 0.7 points ahead of the previous sole winner.
All operators in Germany place in the Fair (65-75) category. This means users find the experience to be average and in most cases, the game is responsive to the actions of the player.
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:
Once again, the Download Speed Experience award goes to Telekom. The operator wins it outright with a score of 58.9Mbps, ahead of second-placed Vodafone. Our users on both Telekom and Vodafone networks have enjoyed identical boosts in speeds of 1.1Mbps and, as a result, Telekom’s winning margin over Vodafone remains the same — 7.3Mbps. Meanwhile, O2 lags behind, with a score of 37.7Mbps — more than 20Mbps slower than what our users on Telekom’s network experience.
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:
Telekom successfully defends Upload Speed Experience with a score of 12.8Mbps. It commands a lead of 2.5Mbps over O2 and Vodafone, which are statistically tied for second place with scores of 10.2-10.3Mbps. Telekom’s winning margin over the runner-up remains the same as in the previous report when it was also 2.5Mbps faster than Vodafone. All German national operators observe declines in their scores of 0.5-0.6Mbps.
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:
Telekom wins 5G Video Experience outright again, with a score of 76 points on a 100-point scale — 1.9 points ahead of Vodafone and 2.6 points ahead of O2.
All German national operators rate as Very Good (68-78), meaning that our users are, on average, able to stream video at 1080p or better with satisfactory loading times and little stalling when connected to 5G.
5G Video Experience scores account for adaptive bitrate streaming (ABR), a technology that allows Opensignal to accurately represent users’ real video experience including video streams up to 4K quality.
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.
Telekom becomes the first-time winner of 5G Live Video Experience in Germany, with a score of 70.3 points on a 100-point scale. Vodafone is the runner-up, 1.1 points behind the winner and O2 comes last, with a score of 68.1 points.
5G Live Video Experience is calculated using a range of measures that impact users’ perceived live streaming viewing experience over 5G connections, including picture quality, video loading time, and stall rate, but also live playback offset — the time difference between real-time and the current playback position a viewer sees.
Opensignal users in Germany enjoy Excellent (58 or above) 5G Live Video Experience. This means our users are, on average, able to stream video at least at 1080p with low loading times, little stalling, and a satisfactory live offset.
Unlike 5G Video Experience, which represents on-demand video streams, 5G Live Video Experience quantifies live video streaming used for current events. For example when users watch live sports, game streams, music concerts, or news where the event is happening at that moment in time.
Opensignal’s Live Video Experience quantifies the quality of real-time video streamed to mobile devices by measuring video streams over an operator's network. The metric extends the existing International Telecommunication Union (ITU) approach used for Opensignal's on-demand Video Experience metric, built upon detailed studies which have derived a relationship between technical parameters, including live playback offset, picture quality, video loading time and stall rate, with the perceived live video experience as reported by real people. To calculate live video experience, we are directly measuring live video streams from end-user devices and using this extension of ITU's approach to quantify the overall live video experience for each operator on a scale from 0 to 100. The videos tested include a mixture of resolutions and are streamed directly from the world’s largest video content providers.
5G Live Video Experience quantifies the quality of mobile video experienced by Opensignal users on real-world live video streams when they were connected to 5G.
In the last report, Vodafone joined Telekom on the winners’ podium for 5G Games Experience. However, this time Telekom regains its status as the sole winner of this award, with a score of 87.4 points on a 100-point scale.
Both Telekom and Vodafone place in the Excellent (85 or above) category, which means nearly all respondents feel like they have control over the game and they receive immediate feedback on their actions and there is no noticeable delay in almost all cases. Meanwhile, O2 rates as Good (75-85) for 5G Games Experience.
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.
Once again, the 5G Download Speed award goes to Telekom. The operator wins outright with a score of 173.5Mbps — beating second-placed Vodafone by 32.7Mbps and third-placed O2 by 45.6Mbps.
However, both O2 and Vodafone have narrowed the gap separating them from the winner, as they see increases in their scores of 6.2Mbps and 4.3Mbps, respectively — while Telekom’s score remains statistically unchanged since the last report.
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).
Telekom maintains its hold on 5G Upload Speed with a score of 32Mbps. Vodafone takes second place, 7.5Mbps behind the winner. Our 5G users on both operators have observed declines in their average 5G upload speeds, 1.1Mbps for Telekom and 1.3Mbps for Vodafone. O2 comes last, with its statistically unchanged score of 19.7Mbps.
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).
O2 triumphs for Coverage Experience with a score of 8.3 points on a 10-point scale, becoming the first winner of this award in Germany. This marks O2’s only win this time around in the awards table. Telekom takes second place with a score of 8.1 points, 0.2 points behind the winner, and Vodafone comes third with a score of 7.8 points.
The Opensignal Coverage Experience metric measures the extent of mobile networks in the places people live, work and travel. The metric represents the experience users receive as they travel around areas where they would reasonably expect to find coverage.
Traditional coverage metrics typically estimate either a percentage of land area covered, or a percentage of population covered; often neither will be an accurate measurement of the true user expectation and experience. In many markets there are areas where neither population density nor geographic area reflect the importance of coverage to users. For example, in a large mountain range most users will not expect coverage in the wilderness, but poor coverage in the relatively small area of a ski resort is critical for the enjoyment of a holiday. Estimates based purely on population give undue significance to coverage in the most densely populated areas.
Coverage Experience measures geographic coverage of populated areas and therefore more accurately reflects the coverage expectations and experience of typical users. It can give a result that is somewhat different to traditional estimates based on either geographic or population measures. The metric uses a scale from 0 to 10.
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.
Telekom is the first ever outright winner of 5G Coverage Experience in Germany, with a score of 3.4 points on a 10-point scale. It commands a lead of 0.7 points over the runner-up Vodafone, while O2 lags behind its competitors, with a score of 1.9 points.
The Opensignal Coverage Experience metric measures the extent of mobile networks in the places people live, work and travel. The metric represents the experience users receive as they travel around areas where they would reasonably expect to find coverage.
Traditional coverage metrics typically estimate either a percentage of land area covered, or a percentage of population covered; often neither will be an accurate measurement of the true user expectation and experience. In many markets there are areas where neither population density nor geographic area reflect the importance of coverage to users. For example, in a large mountain range most users will not expect coverage in the wilderness, but poor coverage in the relatively small area of a ski resort is critical for the enjoyment of a holiday. Estimates based purely on population give undue significance to coverage in the most densely populated areas.
Coverage Experience measures geographic coverage of populated areas and therefore more accurately reflects the coverage expectations and experience of typical users. It can give a result that is somewhat different to traditional estimates based on either geographic or population measures. The metric uses a scale from 0 to 10.
5G Coverage Experience shows the proportion of places Opensignal users with a 5G device and a 5G subscription had an active 5G connection.
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.
O2 and Telekom shared the Availability award in the previous report. This time around, Telekom wins the award outright with a score of 95.3%, due to a boost in its score of 0.6 percentage points while O2’s score remains unchanged from the last report. This means our Telekom users connect to 3G or better services 95.3% of the time.
Due to an increase in its score of 0.5 percentage points, Vodafone moves from third to second place, which it shares with O2 with statistically tied scores of 94.4-94.7%.
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.
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.
Telekom comes first for 5G Availability for the sixth consecutive time, remaining unmatched since Opensignal introduced the award to German Mobile Network Experience reports in August 2021. Our 5G users on Telekom’s network spend 15.9% of the time with an active 5G connection — 4.4 percentage points more than those on Vodafone’s network and 6.5 percentage points higher than O2’s score. Telekom’s winning margin over the runner-up has narrowed from 7.4 percentage points in the previous report.
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.
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.
Telekom wins Consistent Quality outright with a score of 79.6% — 6.7 percentage points ahead of second-placed O2. Vodafone comes third, but only 0.1 percentage points behind O2. These scores reflect the proportion of tests that pass the requirements of Consistent Quality, along with the proportion of completed tests to all tests conducted.
Consistent Quality measures if the network is sufficient to support common mobile application requirements at a level that is ‘good enough’ for users to maintain (or complete) various typical tasks on their devices.
We combine different experience indicators such as download speed, upload speed, latency, jitter, packet discard, and time to first byte to calculate Consistent Quality. These components are evaluated against thresholds recommended by various more demanding common applications used for a range of common tasks.
To calculate the metric value, the proportion of tests that pass the requirements of Consistent Quality is multiplied by the test success ratio, which is the proportion of completed tests to all tests conducted. Tests that pass indicate that activities such as video calling, uploading an image to social media, or using smart home applications will be possible without noticeable lag or slowdown.
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.
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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