LONDON — Mobile analytics company Opensignal today released its latest mobile network experience report for the Canadian market, and Telus came out on top across all categories, except voice apps where it scored a draw with Rogers.
In terms of wireless download speeds, Canada scored high compared to other countries, achieving an average download speed of 55.4 Mbps, ranked second behind South Korea’s average speed of 58.7 Mbps. The third-ranked country was Netherlands with an average download speed of 49.5 Mbps. The average download speed for Canada includes regional operators such as Freedom Wireless, Videotron and SaskTel, which have slower download speeds than the big three national carriers.
“Opensignal recorded big download speeds for users on all three of Canada’s major operators but Telus once again won this category by scoring a whopping 75 Mbps in download speed. Bell Mobility saw a download speed experience score of 69.6 Mbps while Rogers meanwhile crossed the 50 Mbps download barrier with a score of 51.2 Mbps,” reads the report.
“When we look at Download Speed Experience by technology type, Telus maintains its lead in 4G download speed with a score of 80.5 Mbps. Bell Mobility’s 4G speeds are slightly lower at 76.3 Mbps. However, both Telus and Bell Mobility are significantly faster than Rogers with a score of 57.5 Mbps,” reads the Opensignal report.
The report was based on analysis of more than 626 million measurements taken from more than 219,000 devices between October 1 and December 29, 2019.
For the first time, Opensignal’s report included a voice app experience award, which assessed the perceived quality of voice calls on communication apps such as WhatsApp, Skype or Facebook Messenger.
“In Opensignal’s inaugural Voice App Experience analysis all three operators in Canada achieved a Good ranking (80-87) with scores of 80 and above on a scale of 0-100. This means many users on their network were satisfied with the voice app experience but some users might have experienced minor quality problems such as background noise, clicking or other distortion,” reads the report.
“In terms of a winner, there was a tie. Telus secured a score of 81.2 and Rogers achieved a score of 80.9.” Bell Mobility scored 80.6.
Looking at 4G availability, all three major wireless operators in Canada have now surpassed the 90% mark in availability. “Just six months ago Telus became the first Canadian operator to surpass the elusive 90% mark in 4G availability. Now all three Canadian operators have achieved that goal. Telus, once again, was the winner in the 4G availability category by providing a 4G signal to our users 92.7% of the time. Bell Mobility was second with a 4G availability score of 92.1% followed by Rogers with a score of 91.2%,” says the report.
When it comes to delivering a decent video experience, Canada was ranked 22nd overall with scores in the very good category, according to Opensignal’s 2019 Mobile Video Experience report in November 2019. However, “both Telus and Bell Mobility have now moved into the excellent category. Telus scored 77 up from 69.8 in our August report and Bell Mobility achieved a score of 75.6 up from 68.6 in our last report. Rogers also saw notable improvement with a score of 70.2, which puts it in the Very Good category,” reads the report.
In its regional analysis, Opensignal compared 10 of Canada’s largest cities and found speeds varied within some urban centres. “For example, in Calgary, our Telus users saw blazing-fast average download speeds of 112.5 Mbps. However, in that same city, Freedom Mobile users experienced average download speeds of just 30.6 Mbps. Ottawa was another city with wide speed variables. Our Telus users saw average download speeds of 81.8 Mbps and our Freedom Mobile users saw download speeds of just 8.1 Mbps,” reads the report.
Opensignal’s study recorded some impressive Video Experience scores in most of the cities. “In Quebec, Montreal and Vancouver, there were three operators with excellent video experience ratings. In Toronto, Edmonton, Ottawa, Kitchener, Hamilton, Toronto and Winnipeg there were two operators with excellent video experience ratings, which is our highest possible score. In most cases the remaining major operators earned very good ratings. Freedom Mobile earned very good ratings in Hamilton, Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver and Toronto. And Videotron earned excellent ratings in Montreal and Quebec,” says the report.
Please click here to see the full report.
