Costa Rica
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.
Costa Rica
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
Claro wins all five overall experience awards for the third consecutive report
Claro continues to win all the awards for our users' overall experience, measured across all generations of mobile experience together, and by a significant margin in most cases. It is in first place across both speed awards — Download Speed Experience and Upload Speed Experience, along with Games Experience and on-demand Video Experience, for the third report in a row. Furthermore, Claro is the first operator in Costa Rica to win the Live Video Experience award.
Claro reigns supreme in terms of Consistent Quality
Claro wins Consistent Quality outright with a score of 54.7% — 9.1 percentage points greater than second-placed Kölbi. Liberty brings up the rear, scoring 30%. Consistent Quality replaces the Excellent Consistent Quality and Core Consistent Quality awards, which Claro won in the previous report. 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 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.
Our Claro users enjoy average download speeds that are 33.7% faster than those seen on Kölbi
Claro is once again the sole winner of the Download Speed Experience award — it is in first place this time with a score of 25.2Mbps, which is 6.4Mbps faster than runner-up Kölbi's score of 18.9Mbps. Claro also retains the Upload Speed Experience award with its score of 9.8Mbps, beating second-placed Liberty by 2.1 Mbps (28%). Kölbi brings up the rear with a score of 6.1Mbps.
Our smartphone users in Costa Rica spend over 97% of their time connected to a 3G or better signal
Our Kölbi users continue to observe the highest Availability in Costa Rica, spending 97.7% of their time connected to a 3G or better cellular signal — around 0.4 percentage points more than Claro and Liberty which tie for second place. However, when we look at 4G Availability, the proportion of time connected to 4G or better signal, Claro wins by an impressive margin. Our Claro 4G users achieve a 4G Availability of 89.6%, which is greater than that seen on Liberty and Kölbi by 4.4 percentage points and 22 percentage points, respectively.
Costa Ricans have a Good experience when streaming live video
Claro wins the inaugural Live Video Experience award in Costa Rica with a score of 46.6 points on a 100-point scale, which gives it a slender lead of around 1.7 points over Kölbi’s and Liberty's statistically tied scores of 44.8-45 points. These scores mean that all three operators place in the Good (43-53) category. This indicates that our users are, on average, able to stream video at least at 720p with low loading times, little stalling, and a satisfactory live offset.
Mobile Experience Awards
Market Overview
In Opensignal's latest analysis of the mobile network experience in Costa Rica, Claro continues to take home the largest haul of awards, winning seven out of nine categories outright. Claro beats the competition in Video Experience and Games Experience, as well as Live Video Experience. The operator also continues to reign supreme in Download Speed Experience and Upload Speed Experience. Additionally, Claro is also top in terms of Consistent Quality, which replaces Excellent Consistent Quality and Core Consistent Quality.
Kölbi is the only other operator to win one or more awards, the operator leads the pack in terms of Availability and newly introduced Coverage Experience, which measures the extent of overall coverage in the places people live, work, and travel. However, Claro is top when it comes to 4G Availability.
In this report, we have analyzed the mobile network experience of Costa Rica's three national operators — Claro, Kölbi and Liberty — in the 90 days starting on August 1, 2023, and ending on October 29, 2023, to see how they measure up. In addition, we also extend the analysis to seven different regions of Costa Rica, comparing the experience users had with the three national operators.
Overall Experience
National Analysis
Claro is the sole winner of Video Experience with a score of 51.5 points on a 100-point scale. It beats Kölbi and Liberty by around 2.1 points, as both operators are in a statistical tie for second place with scores of 49.2-49.5 points.
With these scores, all three operators rate as Fair (48-58) for Video Experience. This, regardless of their choice of network operators, means our users are, on average, able to stream video at 720p or better with satisfactory loading times and substantial 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.
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
Our Claro users observe the best quality of experience while streaming mobile video live over cellular connections. Claro is the first operator to win the Live Video Experience in Costa Rica, with a score of 46.6 points on a 100-point scale. Kölbi and Liberty share second place, with statistically-tied scores of 44.8-45 points, around 1.7 points behind Claro.
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 three national operators rate as Good (43-53) — our users are, on average, able to stream video at least at 720p with low loading times, little stalling, and a satisfactory live offset.
Definitions
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.
National Analysis
Our users on Claro enjoy the best experience in Costa Rica when playing multiplayer mobile games over cellular connections. Claro wins the Games Experience award with a score of 61.5 points on a 100-point scale, giving it an impressive winning margin of 9.7 points over second-placed Liberty. Kölbi places last with 47.4 points.
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
Claro wins the Download Speed Experience award, scoring 25.2Mbps — 6.4Mbps (33.7%) faster than Kölbi with its score of 18.9Mbps, and 10.2Mbps (67.8%) faster than third-placed Liberty with its score of 15Mbps.
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
Our users on Claro enjoy the fastest average overall upload speeds in Costa Rica, 9.8Mbps on average — 2.1Mbps (28%) faster than those seen on second-placed Liberty. Kölbi brings up the rear with a score of 6.1Mbps.
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
As with the national results, Claro wins the vast majority of our regional awards outright. In fact, Claro achieves an impressive feat by winning the Games Experience and Download Speed Experience awards outright across all seven regions. This means our Costa Rican users across all regions, on average, enjoy the best overall experience when playing multiplayer mobile games over cellular connections and observe the fastest overall download speeds with Claro. Additionally, Claro leads in Upload Speed Experience in six regions, the exception being Limon where it comes joint first with Liberty.
Turning to regional Video and Live Video Experience, our users on Claro, Kölbi and Liberty do not see a statistically significant difference in their scores across six regions. Meanwhile, Claro and Liberty are joint-winners for both categories in Puntarenas.
Regional Analysis Summary: Costa Rica, Mobile Network Experience Report, December 2023
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- Limon
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Coverage
Claro
Kölbi
Liberty
National Analysis
Kölbi is the first operator in Costa Rica to win Opensignal's new Coverage Experience award. It does so with a score of 7.8 on a 10-point scale, ahead of runner-up Liberty's 7.3 points and third-placed Claro's 5.6 points. Opensignal's new Coverage Experience metric represents the real-world experience users receive as they travel around areas where they would reasonably expect to find coverage.
Definitions
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.
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
Our Kölbi users spend the highest proportion of their time connected to a 3G or better cellular signal — 97.7%, on average. Kölbi, therefore, continues to be the outright winner of the Availability award. Liberty and Claro are fractionally behind with statistically tied scores of 97.3-97.5%.
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
Claro is the winner of the 4G Availability award with its score of 89.6% — 5.6 percentage points above Liberty's 84%. Kölbi is a distant third with a score of 67.6%. This means that our 4G users on Claro's network spend almost 90% of their time with an active 4G signal.
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.
Regional Analysis
Looking at regional Availability, Kölbi is a winner across all seven regions — outright in San Jose and Heredia, shared with Liberty in five further regions and a three-way tie with Liberty and Claro in Cartago.
Regional Analysis Summary: Costa Rica, Mobile Network Experience Report, December 2023
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- Alajuela
- Cartago
- Guanacaste
- Heredia
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J-R
- Limon
- Puntarenas
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- San Jose
in Alajuela
in Cartago
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in San Jose
Consistency
National Analysis
Claro is the winner of the Consistent Quality award — which replaces Excellent Consistent Quality and Core Consistent Quality. It does so with a score of 54.7%, giving it a notable lead of 9.1 percentage points over Kölbi and 24.6 percentage points over Liberty, which place second and third, respectively. This indicates that our Costa Rican Claro users see the greatest proportion of tests that meet the minimum thresholds to support more demanding commonly used mobile applications, such as video calling or uploading an image to social media.
Definitions
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.
Regional Analysis
As with the national results, Claro shines too for regional Consistent Quality. Claro is a winner in all seven regions, and our Costa Rican users experience the highest Consistent Quality on Claro's network in Heredia.
Regional Analysis Summary: Costa Rica, Mobile Network Experience Report, December 2023
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A-I
- Alajuela
- Cartago
- Guanacaste
- Heredia
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J-R
- Limon
- Puntarenas
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S-Z
- San Jose
in Alajuela
in Cartago
in Guanacaste
in Heredia
in Limon
in Puntarenas
in San Jose
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