Ookla | September 26, 2022

How TRC Jordan Ensures Reliable, Resilient Connectivity with Ookla Data [Case Study]

Jordan’s telecommunications regulatory authority, the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC), is responsible for monitoring quality of service standards and holding operators accountable for providing services, ensuring sustainable growth in the telecoms sector. When Jordan went into a nationwide lockdown in 2020, daily data traffic increased 31% as distance learning and teleworking took over. To ensure both connectivity and economic growth during this time, it was key to maintain the resilience of Jordan’s networks.

TRC uses Ookla data to monitor daily mobile network traffic, understand fixed internet availability, assess operator performance, ensure compliance, remotely monitor coverage and quality issues, and plan for the national rollout of 5G in Jordan.

Situation

As an early adopter of crowdsourced network intelligence, TRC Jordan helped inform the ITU-T efforts to standardize crowdsourcing, Recommendations ITU SG12 E.806 and ITU SG12 E.812. The emergence of the pandemic in 2020 only increased the need for crowdsourced data, as work became remote and it was no longer safe to send network testers into the field. In order to maintain network resilience and service continuity, TRC needed to remotely monitor performance and operator compliance with universal service commitments and national roaming migration agreements — as well as remotely handle consumer complaints about network coverage or quality.

Read the full case study here.

If you’re a regulator in the region, come say hi to us at GITEX (booth Z3-B40) October 10 – 14 to learn more about how you can use crowdsourced data to improve connectivity in your nation. Ookla will also be participating in an ITU Workshop in Jordan on “Telecommunication Service Quality” October 17 — 18.

Ookla retains ownership of this article including all of the intellectual property rights, data, content graphs and analysis. This article may not be quoted, reproduced, distributed or published for any commercial purpose without prior consent. Members of the press and others using the findings in this article for non-commercial purposes are welcome to publicly share and link to report information with attribution to Ookla.

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Sylwia Kechiche | September 19, 2022

MTN Performed Best Among Operator Groups in Sub-Saharan Africa

This article explores mobile performance in select countries across Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). We examine how four operator groups – Airtel, Orange, MTN, and Vodacom – mobile performance compared against each other during Q2 2022 across ten countries. In our previous analysis of the state of the 5G networks South Africa Spearheads 5G in Africa, but the Road is Long and Windy for Others we analyzed mobile performance on modern chipsets during 2021 (full year) across the African continent. We concluded that these are still early days for 5G across the region as challenges remain around affordability and infrastructure. In this article we focus our analysis on these four operator groups which command the majority (62%) of the SSA subscriptions. We also compare mobile performance on modern chipsets across ten countries. Those ten countries account for 59% of the region’s connections, including:

East Africa: Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda;
Southern Africa: Democratic Republic of Congo, South Africa, and Botswana;
West Africa: Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, and Nigeria.

Key messages:

Speedtest Intelligence® data shows that MTN South Africa delivered the fastest median download speeds across analyzed operators, at 65.95 Mbps in Q2 2022. However, Vodacom in Johannesburg was the fastest operator considering speeds across top cities, reaching 81.36 Mbps median download speed in Q2 2022. In South Africa, MTN outperformed Vodacom in terms of median mobile speeds during Q2 2022.
Comparing Airtel and MTN performance across the three countries they operate in, Airtel took the top spot in Nigeria, both in terms of median download and upload speed in Q2 2022, while in Uganda and Rwanda there were no winners. Such was the case in Botswana too, where there was no winner between Mascom and Orange.
In Côte d’Ivoire, MTN took the market lead versus Orange in Q2 2022, whereas in Guinea, the situation was reversed and Orange took the top spot.
Vodacom subsidiary Safaricom won the accolade in Kenya vis a vis Airtel, in Tanzania there was no clear winner as Vodacom won the download speed and Airtel the upload.
In the DRC, which is host to three of the operator groups, there was no winner overall, although Orange was the top player in terms of download speeds.
During Q2 2022, South African network performance has been affected by load shedding, which resulted in consumer reporting not having signal and access to mobile internet according to Downdetector®.

MTN South Africa delivered the fastest median download speed in Q2 2022

Using Speedtest Intelligence® data we compared mobile performance in Q2 2022 on modern chipsets across 21 operators. Our results show that median download speeds ranged between 2.89 Mbps (MTN Guinea) and 65.95 Mbps (MTN South Africa). Median upload speeds varied between 1.55 Mbps (MTN Guinea) and 14.84 Mbps (Airtel Uganda).

We can clearly see the impact that 5G has on overall performance as South African operators came first thanks to having 5G networks in place. MTN South Africa was well ahead of the rest of operators, despite facing challenges with load shedding, with median download speed of 65.95 Mbps, followed by Vodacom South Africa with a median download speed of 48.70 Mbps. If we take 5G out of the equation, Safaricom Kenya was the fastest operator among the analyzed operators.

Vodafone in Johannesburg stole the show

When it comes to mobile speeds in capital cities, it is not surprising that cities that have 5G networks came top of the list. As such, Johannesburg led the pack, with a median download speed of 66.54 Mbps, ahead of Cape Town at 49.22 Mbps. Vodacom got ahead of MTN in Johannesburg and was the fastest operator across 12 cities we analyzed, with a median download speed of 81.36 Mbps in Q2 2022 compared to 73.83 Mbps in Q1 2022. MTN was faster in Cape Town. Taking 5G out of the equation, Orange in Gaborone, the capital city of Botswana, achieved median download speeds of 39.46 Mbps.

MTN got ahead of Orange, Airtel, and Vodacom

Using Speedtest Intelligence data for Q2 2022, we compared mobile performance on modern chipsets and 4G Availability in the countries where Airtel, Orange, Vodacom, and MTN operate.

MTN outperformed Orange in Côte d’Ivoire and Vodacom in South Africa, both in terms of median download and upload speeds. While MTN had better download speed in the Democratic Republic of Congo, in Rwanda MTN performed better than Airtel with regards to median download speed. Orange took the top spot in Guinea, Airtel in Nigeria, and Safaricom in Kenya. In the rest of the countries, the difference in mobile performance was either not statistically significant or there was not a single operator that delivered better performance across both upstream and downstream.

We have included a more detailed analysis below.

Airtel versus MTN

Nigeria: Airtel took the top spot in terms of speed, MTN had better 4G Availability.

As of Q2 2022, MTN Nigeria commanded 38.9% of Nigeria’s mobile users, with its 74.1 million subscribers almost double that of Airtel’s 46.0 million.
Yet when it comes to mobile performance, Airtel Nigeria was ahead of MTN; in Q2 2022, Airtel Nigeria recorded a median download speed of 30.35 Mbps and a median upload speed of 10.28 Mbps, both of which topped those of MTN (26.30 Mbps download and 9.13 Mbps upload).
Those speeds are set to increase as both companies have invested heavily into network infrastructure, with a combined investment of N208.5 billion ($502 million). The investment translates into an increase in 4G Availability as well. In Q2 2022, MTN had 83.8% 4G Availability compared to Airtel’s 77.9%.

Uganda: MTN ahead in download speed, Airtel had better upload.

MTN’s 53.9% market share in Uganda translates to 16.3 million subscribers as of Q2 2022. Meanwhile, Airtel Uganda had a 45.1% market share (13.6 million).
In Q2 2022, MTN Uganda was ahead of Airtel in terms of median download speeds, while Airtel had at least a 33% better median upload speed.
In its recent annual report, Airtel announced that its 4G network was available to 90% of the population of Uganda, effectively providing coverage to the entire country. To aid its capacity, Airtel Uganda is also rolling out fiber, which helps to boost data throughput. For example, in the capital – Kampala – 79% of sites are connected through fiber. In terms of 4G Availability, MTN and Airtel came closely together at 83.1% and 80.7%, respectively.

Rwanda: MTN took the top spot for median download and 4G Availability

MTN Rwanda increased its customer base by 1.7% year-on-year (YoY) to 6.6 million as of Q2 2022, expanding its lead in customer market share by 2.7 pp to 65.6%, Airtel controlled the remainder of the market.
MTN Rwanda performed better than Airtel when it comes to median download speed: MTN had a 33% better median download speed.
MTN Rwanda also had the best 4G Availability order to further increase smartphone penetration in the market and stimulate demand for data services, in June 2022, MTN Rwanda and Bank of Kigali (BK Group) signed an agreement to introduce device financing. This program will enable customers to spread over the cost of smartphones over an extended period of time.

MTN versus Orange

Botswana: Mascom and Orange performed similarly.

Mascom (MTN) is the largest operator in Botswana, with 1.8 million subscribers in Q2 2022 and a 42.2% market share. Orange is the second largest operator, ending Q2 2022 with 1.7 million subscribers and 41.2% market share.
Comparing the operators’ performance, the difference in terms of both median download and upload speeds as well as 4G Availability was not statistically significant and there is no winner.

Côte d’Ivoire: MTN stole the show in terms of performance.

MTN had 38.9% subscriber market share in Côte d’Ivoire as of Q2 2022, which equates to 15.8 million subscribers, Orange ended Q2 2022 with 14.6 million subscribers (36.0% market share).
MTN had faster median download and upload speeds compared to that of Orange, and the gap might widen even more going forward. In December 2021, MTN Côte d’Ivoire started 5G trials at nine locations in Abidjan. This was followed by the Ivoirian government adopting a roadmap for the launch of 5G technology in February this year, with 5G networks expected to go live by 2023.

Guinea: Orange commands the Guinean market.

Market leader, Orange, which switched on its 4G network in 2019, accounted for 60% of mobile connections in Q2 2022 in Guinea, ahead of MTN (30.8%). According to telecom regulator ARPT, in Q4 2021, Orange held a 69.9% market share of mobile Internet traffic, while MTN held 26.9%.
Orange was far ahead in terms of performance during Q2 2022. Part of the reason being that Orange is currently the sole provider of 4G services in the country, with MTN awarded a 4G operating license in February 2022 but it has not launched the services yet.

Vodacom versus Airtel

Kenya: Safaricom won across all metrics.

Safaricom is the largest operator in Kenya by a mile, with 67.1% market share (equivalent to 42.7 million connections) ahead of Airtel 25.9% (16.4 million).
Safaricom also exhibited better network performance during Q2 2022, with a median download speed of 36.25 Mbps and upload of 13.83 Mbps, compared to Airtel (28.58 Mbps download speed and 8.44 Mbps upload).
Safaricom has signed a multi-year contract with satellite provider Intelsat to modernize its network and expand LTE coverage. Safricom is focusing more on 4G rather than pursuing 5G as the cost of 5G handsets is prohibitive and slowing down its 5G expansion. In a bid to increase smartphone usage on its network, Safaricom partnered with Google to allow its customers to pay for 4G-enabled phones in installments. Customers pay as little as KES 20 ($0.34) per day over a nine-month period. The operator’s ultimate target is to upgrade about four million 2G and 3G phones to 4G. Safaricom had also partnered with Vivo to sell 4G phones.
Meanwhile, Safaricom’s top competitor in Kenya, Airtel Kenya, paid $5 million as part of an agreement with the regulator to acquire and operate spectrum from 2015 through 2025. The operator has a remaining balance of $10 million to settle over the next three years, with a cumulative payout of $20 million.

Tanzania: Vodacom did better on download speeds.

Tanzania’s mobile market is served by seven mobile operators, making it one of the most competitive markets in Sub-Saharan Africa. Vodacom ended June 2022 with 15.6 million subscribers, which translated into a 28.8% market share, GSMA Intelligence estimates that Airtel held a 27.4% market share in Q2 2022, equivalent to 14.8 million subscriptions.
Vodacom’s median download speeds were ahead of Airtel’s – 17.08 Mbps versus 12.89 Mbps. Vodacom’s 4G Availability also topped Airtel’s at 87.1%, compared to 77.7%. To further increase its network reach, in May 2022, Vodacom Tanzania signed a deal with the National ICT Broadband Backbone (NICTBB), a national fiber optic cable network. This will allow Vodacom to increase rural connectivity after an initial investment of €5.82 million ($6.22 million) in October 2021. Furthermore, in September 2022, Vodacom launched 5G mobile service in Dar es Salaam with a target to expand to approximately 230 locations in other cities. In time, as more users migrate to 5G smartphones and tariffs this will lead to Vodacom improving its speeds further.

Orange versus Vodacom versus Airtel

Democratic Republic of Congo: Orange was the top player in terms of download speeds.

The Democratic Republic of Congo is the third largest country by population across the SSA and largest by area. It hosts seven mobile operators, including three of the four groups we analyze — Vodacom, MTN, Orange, and Airtel.

In Q2 2022, Vodacom was the largest operator by number of connections with market share of 35.3% and 16.0 million connections, followed by Airtel (12.8 million) and Orange (12.2 million).
Comparing operators’ mobile performance, Orange led in terms of median download speed (29.18 Mbps), ahead of Airtel (11.15 Mbps) and Vodacom (8.00 Mbps). Operators came head to head with regards to 4G Availability.

MTN versus Vodacom

South Africa: MTN outperformed Vodacom in terms of mobile speeds.

Vodacom ended June 2022 with 45.1 million subscriptions equivalent to a 41% market share. MTN is the second largest player with 35.3 million connections, and had a net addition of almost 837,000 in the quarter. MTN noted in their results that: “The overall growth in the base was particularly encouraging given the significant ramp-up in load shedding, which impacts systems and typically constrains new customer acquisitions.”
The South African market might see a consolidation if the proposed acquisition of Telkom by MTN gets the green light. This will change the market dynamics as MTN will become the number one player by number of connections.
In terms of mobile performance, MTN had better median download and upload speeds, while Vodacom led on 4G Availability. We have commented on the state of the 5G market in South Africa in our recent article.

Mobile networks don’t exist in a vacuum

It is important to note that mobile performance is impacted by a number of factors, including underlying infrastructure such as access to fiber backhaul and reliable power supply, spectrum availability as well as end-user devices to name a few. Case in point is the fact that, despite being the regional leaders when it comes to mobile performance, South African operators faced issues related to infrastructure reliability and availability over the past three months. Operating conditions in South Africa were affected by increased incidents of rolling power outages (load shedding) and there are no signs of respite.

We have seen these outages reflected in Downdetector® data, which is the world’s most popular platform for user-reported service status information. During Q2 2022 users reported 46,810 incidents for Vodacom and 34,882 problems for MTN. There were two top issues reported: no signal and no mobile internet: lack of signal accounted for the majority (46%) of Vodacom’s reported outages, followed by inability to access mobile internet (36%). This has been reversed for MTN — majority of issues were related to mobile internet (43%), followed by no signal (40%). Noteworthy is the fact that there were reports of total blackouts: 7% for Vodacom and 5% for MTN.

Vodacom commented in its results call for the quarter ended on June 30, 2022 that they already spent ZAR 1.7 billion ($99.9 million) on batteries and generators to offset the impact of load shedding with further ZAR 500 million ($29.4 million) allocated to battery purchases. Vodacom also continues to optimize site utilization by using IoT.nxt technology to reduce the amount of energy consumption per site but also piloting wind power and solar projects. While its competitor, MTN, stated in its interim results report that it “rolled out a comprehensive network resilience plan including additional batteries, generators and enhanced security features.”

We will continue to monitor mobile networks performance across Africa, looking at how various factors affect it. If you are interested in benchmarking your performance or if you’d like to learn more about internet speeds and performance in other markets around the world visit the Speedtest Global Index™.

About the Author

Sylwia Kechiche

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Sylwia Kechiche | May 23, 2022

5G in Central and Eastern Europe: Poland Still Waits for True 5G While Bulgaria Sprints Ahead

Polski

Key takeaways

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the need for digital transformation, part of the EU-level funding will be available to drive digital transformation.
Spectrum auctions have been delayed across the region. While Slovenia and Croatia have already completed spectrum auctions across all of the 5G pioneer bands, Poland lacks clear timelines and risks being left behind.
Bulgaria leads in 5G median download speeds and 5G Availability. Its capital, Sofia, takes the top spot across the capital cities when it comes to median 5G speed and 5G Availability.
Poland doesn’t fare well compared to other CEE countries. Poland came last in the median 5G download speeds ranking and its 5G speeds were just over double that of 4G. More importantly, though, it also seems that Polish end users don’t see the additional benefits 5G can bring, which depresses demand.
Plus has the fastest median 5G speeds while Play wins 5G Availability. Łódź has the fastest 5G network among major Polish cities.

The EU funds set to stimulate digital transformation

An unprecedented amount of funding available to European Union member states has been approved to mitigate the economic and social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The NextGenerationEU recovery fund totals €750 billion. The vast majority, €672.5 billion, is allocated to the Recovery and Resilience Plans (RRP), distributed between loans (€360 billion) and grants (€312.5 billion). All funds must be spent by 2026.

While not all these funds will drive investment into telecoms, some will have indirect impact such as green technology — see our thoughts on the discussions around Net Zero at MWC 2022. There are six pillars, one of which is digital transformation, which has over 20% of the national RRPs funding allocated. Digital transition projects include investment in R&D, deployment of new digital technologies including expansion of ultrafast broadband and 5G connectivity, and the digital transformation of the economy. The money is there for the taking, it is up to the countries to take advantage of it and funnel it into technology such as 5G to underpin economic growth.

Mid-band is most assigned spectrum across Central and Eastern Europe

We have reflected on the progress across Europe in this article. Now, we turn our attention to Central Eastern European (CEE) countries. According to GSMA Intelligence data, the vast majority of operators across the eight CEE countries — 24 out of 31 — have already launched 5G services.

As per the EC 2016 5G Action Plan, countries across the EU were meant to make low-band spectrum available for use by June 30, 2020, and mid- and high-band spectrums by December 31, 2020. At the EU level, there are three 5G pioneer bands as follows:

Low-band: 700 MHz (703 – 733 MHz and 758 – 788 MHz)
Mid-band: 3.6 GHz (3,400 – 3,800 MHz)
High-band: 26 GHz (at least 1000 MHz within 24,250 – 27,500 MHz)

The delays related to spectrum assignment range from the impact of COVID-19 on schedules to cross-border coordination with non-EU countries to weak demand from the operators’ side. However, most countries included in this analysis have already assigned at least one band for 5G, with a notable exception of Poland.

Poland is yet to carry out a 5G spectrum auction — the planned sale of a C-band spectrum in Poland was postponed multiple times for various reasons. In March 2020, Poland announced the 3.6 GHz spectrum auction to be awarded by June 30, 2020. However, due to the pandemic, Polish authorities suspended all administrative proceedings, and the current holdup is due to legislative issues.

Furthermore, Poland is also exploring a controversial law to establish a state-owned 5G network, which would be operated by a state run operator — Exatel — in the 700 MHz band. The 700 MHz band is problematic because it requires coordination across the eastern borders (Belarus, Russia and Ukraine), which will delay spectrum assignment.

Slovenia and Croatia have forged ahead and become the only two countries that have already completed spectrum auctions across all of the 5G pioneer bands. In April 2021, Slovenia’s Agency for Communications Networks and Services (Akos) concluded the sale of frequencies in the 700 MHz, 1500 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2300 MHz, 3500 MHz and 26 GHz bands. In August 2021, the Croatian Regulatory Agency (Hakom) auctioned frequencies in the 700 MHz, 3600 MHz and 26 GHz bands. Furthermore, Miran Gosta, director of Hakom, recently announced that a new auction is being prepared for the frequencies that are already in use and will expire in 2024 such as 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz and 2600 MHz bands.

Bulgaria leads 5G speeds

The important question is whether delays in spectrum assignments and supporting multiple network generations have affected the operators’ ability to deliver on 5G’s promise of faster speeds. According to Speedtest Intelligence®, the 5G median download speeds across the eight countries range from 73-407 Mbps. Bulgaria is the fastest at 406.97 Mbps, followed by Croatia, Hungary, Romania, Slovenia, and Slovakia. Czechia and Poland are trailing behind, at 112.53 Mbps and 73.12 Mbps, respectively.

Bulgarian operators took an active role in spearheading 5G development. In September 2020, Vivacom launched the first commercial 5G network via Dynamic Spectrum Sharing (DSS) in 1,800 MHz and 2,100 MHz, followed by A1 in Sofia using 3,600 MHz, and Telenor in early June 2021 in the biggest cities in Bulgaria in the 3,600 MHz band.

In April 2021, Vivacom Bulgaria won 100 MHz in the 3.7-3.8 GHz band for BGN4.6 million (€2.35 million) but it had already launched the 5G network before with a temporary license in November 2020. András Pali, Vivacom CTO stated in an interview that the operator plans to invest €120 million in infrastructure in 2021. Vivacom utilizes DSS, combining frequencies in 1.8, 2.1 and 3.6 GHz bands for 5G, so there is no compromise between coverage and speed. A1 Bulgaria, on the other hand, uses a dedicated 100 MHz band. Between the commercial launch in April and October 2021, A1 Bulgaria has seen the number of active users rise by 448% and the traffic generated by them by 771%, in excess of 90 terabytes (TB) in October 2021.

Furthermore, Bulgaria’s recovery and resilience plan assigned 26% of the €6.3 billion budget to digital transition. The plan includes measures to stimulate digital transformation, including significant investments and reforms in digital connectivity to increase the coverage of very high capacity networks in rural and sparsely populated areas and to create a favorable environment for the deployment of 5G networks and digital infrastructure.

A few operators have rolled out 5G networks before having access to a dedicated 5G spectrum holding, instead using their existing spectrum holdings via DSS or temporarily allocated spectrum. Looking at the data for Poland, there is a link between lack of dedicated spectrum and median download speed. 5G speeds in Poland are just double the speeds of 4G, compared to Romania, Slovakia, Hungary, and Slovenia where 5G speeds are over five times faster than 4G. Since operators in Poland deployed 5G utilizing their existing spectral assets — in 2.6 GHz and 2.1 GHz — they are not able to take advantage of the benefits that mid-band spectrum brings to 5G deployments. We have reflected on how mid-band spectrum boosted 5G speeds and coverage in the U.S.

5G Availability skyrocketed in Bulgaria during 2021

Speedtest Intelligence data put Bulgaria first in terms of 5G Availability (the proportion of users of 5G-capable devices who spend a majority of their time on 5G networks) within its regional peers. During 2021, 5G Availability in Bulgaria increased ten-fold, from 3.0% in Q1 2021 to 30.5% as of Q1 2022. This is partially thanks to operators broadening their portfolio of 5G capable devices, e.g. in June 2021, 55% of Telenor’s (now Yettel) smartphones on offer were 5G capable and offering 5G tariffs at no additional cost.

Croatia performed relatively well when it comes to 5G Availability, which increased from 11% in Q1 2021 to 18.5% in Q1 2022.The Croatian operators’ 5G license comes with coverage obligations amounting to 90% of urban areas, 99% of highways and 95% of railways by 2025. Furthermore, the license obligations include 25% rural areas coverage by 2025 and 50% by 2027. According to Hakom, 5G coverage and availability is at 60-70%.

However, five countries still had 5G Availability below 10% in Q1 2022, down from seven in Q1 2021. In Hungary, there is a public initiative in support of 5G uptake in a tune of HUF 5 billion (€13.15 million) to help consumers migrate away from 3G devices to 4G/5G smartphones in face of the upcoming 3G network sunset. On May 9, 2022 the Hungarian telecom regulator — NMHH — began a second phase of its mobile phone subsidy: owners of 2G or 3G devices can claim HUF 20,000 (€52.26) towards a purchase of a new 4G or 5G smartphone.

It isn’t surprising to see that Hungary came first when it comes to 5G smartphone shipments across a number of CEE countries. According to Counterpoint Research, 5G smartphones accounted for 65.1% of total smartphone shipments in Hungary in Q4 2021. In Czechia, Slovakia and Bulgaria, 5G smartphones account for two in five smartphones shipped. In Poland, this is almost one in three. Romania comes last. Although, these figures do not directly translate into direct sales to customers as shipments refer to selling into retail channels and point to an increased appetite for 5G devices. A key driving factor behind this is a growing availability of lower price tiers 5G smartphones. For instance, realme is seeing success with affordable 5G smartphones in Europe.

Sofia comes first in 5G median download speed and 5G Availability

Given that Bulgaria had the fastest 5G and the best 5G Availability among its peers, it isn’t surprising its capital came first as well in the ranking of regional capitals, at 441.93 Mbps median download speed and 30% 5G Availability in Q1 2022. A1 Bulgaria started a test run already at the end of November 2020 in Sofia and Burgas, and they became the first 5G city in the country with an outdoor population coverage of over 90%.

Prague performed well when it comes to 5G Availability. In April 2022, the Prague metro area was fully covered by 5G networks thanks to a cooperation between Czech operators: T-Mobile, Vodafone, O2 and CETIN, and the Prague municipality. All of the Czech operators sunset 3G networks in 2021 to refarm the frequencies for 4G and 5G. The largest operator by number of connections, T-Mobile Czechia had more than 600 5G base stations covering 10.4% of the population in September 2021, and it planned to increase coverage to 25% by the end of the year. T-Mobile uses Ericsson and Huawei for its 5G network, which utilizes the 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, and 700 MHz bands. The smallest operator, Vodafone Czechia, covered 70% of the population with a 5G network reaching 7 million Czechs in May 2022. Vodafone is committed to extending its network reach, at the moment it uses 3.5 GHz for 5G, but shortly it will start using the 700 MHz band as well as the refarmed 3G spectrum.

Poles need more education on the benefits of 5G

When it comes to 5G performance, Poland doesn’t fare well compared to other CEE countries. Poland came last in the median 5G download speeds ranking and its 5G speeds were just over double that of 4G. It is the only country that has not yet awarded 5G spectrum. More importantly, though, it also seems that Polish end users don’t see the additional benefits 5G can bring, which depresses demand.

According to the UKE’s enterprise survey, 78.2% of enterprises in Poland have heard of 5G. Good. However, the majority of enterprises claim that the current mobile parameters are enough to carry out their business activities across three measures: speed (88.6%), reliability (86.7%), and performance (85.9%). Given that the current 5G networks in Poland do not deliver on gigabit speed promises, this isn’t surprising.

From a Polish consumer point of view, 73.8% are familiar with the term 5G. This comes with a downside, though, just over half of respondents (57.4%) believe that 5G poses health risks.

Asked what are the key benefits of 5G networks, almost half of respondents (47.5%) state that 5G will be faster and more efficient than 4G. Less than a third (31%) see 5G networks making people’s lives easier. The third preferred option is 5G’s ability to strengthen and modernize the Polish economy. Still, 18% do not see any positive outlook for using a 5G network. This can partially explain why 5G Availability in Poland is sub-10%.

5G is not only about speeds. 5G is seen as an avenue to bring additional value to the economy and society. According to a study from Ericsson Poland, the Polish economy could gain over €17 billion from 5G implementation by 2040. Considering the lack of a clear timeline for the 5G auction, the risk that Poland will fall further behind its peers is real.

Plus led on 5G download speed in Poland

We compared 5G performance across Polish operators using Speedtest Intelligence. Plus was a clear winner, reaching median download speeds of 167.37 Mbps speeds in Q1 2022, ahead of Orange, T-Mobile, and Play. There isn’t a substantial difference in median upload speeds across the operators.

All of the Polish MNOs rolled out 5G networks tapping into their existing spectrum in a Non Standalone (NSA) mode, which relies on the underlying 4G/LTE technology. The 5G auction is now dependent on ongoing consultations about the National Cybersecurity Law Project, to be discussed by the Polish Parliament. The Law may impact network equipment decisions amongst the players, e.g. Play is using Huawei and Ericsson for base stations.

Polkomtel, trading under the Plus brand, launched the country’s first commercial 5G network in the 2.6 GHz band, utilizing 50 MHz of spectrum in May 2020. Apart from Plus, all other operators deployed 5G using DSS in the 2.1 GHz spectrum band, which can partially explain why they have lower speeds.

Orange Poland, like other countries within Orange Group, will roll out 5G Standalone (5G SA) in partnership with Ericsson. This will enable 5G network slicing and private networks development. In anticipation of the 5G auction, and to stimulate new 5G use cases, the operator launched Orange 5G Lab testing services such as AR, AI utilizing the spectrum allocated by the UKE for testing 5G in the 3.6 GHz band.

Play had the best 5G Availability in Poland

According to Counterpoint Research, smartphone shipments in Poland have almost tripled during 2021, driven by the challenger brands such as realme, OPPO and Xiaomi (including Redmi and POCO). Polish operators also continue to promote the sale of 5G-capable devices. 5G smartphones as a proportion of smartphone sales ranged between 36% for Orange, 40% for T-Mobile, and 45% for Play. Yet, Play has sprinted ahead the pack when it comes to 5G Availability, and T-Mobile is catching up leaving Orange and Plus behind.

This is surprising because the Play’s 5G network doesn’t necessarily have the widest reach. As of year-end 2021, Plus’ 5G network extended to 19 million people, followed by Play with over 13 million, T-Mobile (11 million) and Orange (6.3 million). Translating this into population coverage using 2021 census data (38.18 million people), this equates to 50%, 34%, 29%, and 17% population coverage.

Play, part of the Iliad Group, had the best 5G Availability, likely because of aggressive marketing and discounts combined with a large portfolio of 5G devices and the cheapest tariffs. Recently, Play had secured a PLN 500 million (€107 million) credit facility under the Operational Programme Digital Poland (POPC) from BGK, which will also use to roll out 5G services.

The mobile operators continue to invest in 5G network rollouts. For instance, T-Mobile extended its partnership with Nokia to include the modernization of RAN as well as rollout of 5G services. The operator plans to use 4G and 5G DSS on the lower band and. when available, the 3.5 GHz band for dense urban areas. T-Mobile targets to finish 2022 with 3,500 5G base stations and 30% population coverage. T-Mobile shut down its 3G network in the 2,100 MHz frequency band in October 2021. It has also embarked on the 3G network shutdown, aiming to realize the 900 MHz used for 3G and refarm it to LTE and 5G in 2023.

The spanner in the works to achieve wide 5G availability is the controversy around 5G auctions. In October 2019, the four leading mobile operators (Plus, Orange, Play and T-Mobile), the state-owned telecom operator Exatel and the Polish Development Fund (PFR) signed a memorandum of understanding to build a nationwide infrastructure. This will be owned by the state via a special-purpose entity called Polskie 5G. The Polish regulator has proposed to assign the entire 700 MHz band (2×30 MHz) to this new entity, with a view to first provide connectivity for public protection and disaster relief services, while making it available to all operators. Reserving spectrum for vertical use is not new, we have discussed this in our recent article; the novelty here is the band and amount. The 700 MHz band is key for providing wide coverage and in-building penetration. In our recent webinar, Eric Brands from KPN explained that KPN scores well in 5G Availability, partially because they have access to low band 5G spectrum (700 MHz).

Łódź has the fastest 5G network among major Polish cities

Łódź came top as the fastest city in Poland with 90.25 Mbps in Q1 2022, it is also a hotspot for operators’ innovation. Orange deployed a 5G campus network in the Lodz Special Economic Area where 40 start-ups working in the accelerator will be able to use the infrastructure. Ericsson has provided the infrastructure for the economic area: ten antennas working on the 3.6 GHz and 2,100 MHz bands, covering approx.1,000 square meters.

T-Mobile is testing 5G SA in Łódź to enable new services for both consumer and B2B customers, including VoNR (Voice over New Radio) services on the 5G network. The 5G SA network is utilizing the 2,600 MHz band.

The Polish capital, Warsaw, is just slightly ahead of the rest in terms of 5G Availability.

We’ll be watching 5G performance closely in Poland using Speedtest Intelligence. If you want to learn more about how Speedtest Intelligence can help you benchmark your 5G performance against competitors, please inquire here.

5G w Europie Środkowo-Wschodniej: Polska wciąż czeka na prawdziwe 5G, podczas gdy Bułgaria pędzi do przodu

Kluczowe wnioski

Pandemia COVID-19 podkreśliła potrzebę transformacji cyfrowej, część funduszy unijnych zostanie przeznaczona na jej realizację.
Aukcje pasma zostały opóźnione w całym regionie. Podczas gdy Słowenia i Chorwacja zakończyły już aukcje pasma we wszystkich pionierskich pasmach 5G, Polsce brakuje jasnych harmonogramów i istnieje ryzyko pozostania w tyle.
Bułgaria jest liderem pod względem mediany szybkości pobierania i 5G Availability. Jej stolica, Sofia, zajmuje pierwsze miejsce wśród stolic pod względem mediany prędkości 5G i 5G Availability.
Polska nie wypada dobrze na tle innych krajów Europy Środkowo-Wschodniej. Polska zajęła ostatnie miejsce w rankingu mediany prędkości pobierania 5G, a jej prędkości 5G były nieco ponad dwukrotnie wyższe niż 4G. Co jednak ważniejsze, wydaje się również, że polscy użytkownicy końcowi nie dostrzegają dodatkowych korzyści, jakie może przynieść 5G, co zmniejsza popyt.
Plus ma największą średnią prędkość 5G, a Play wygrywa pod względem 5G Availability. Łódź ma najszybszą sieć 5G wśród największych polskich miast

Fundusze unijne mają stymulować transformację cyfrową

W celu złagodzenia gospodarczych i społecznych skutków pandemii COVID-19 została zatwierdzona bezprecedensowa kwota środków dostępnych dla państw członkowskich Unii Europejskiej. Fundusz naprawczy The NextGenerationEU wynosi 750 mld euro. Zdecydowana większość środków, 672,5 mld euro, jest przeznaczona na Plany odbudowy i zwiększania odporności (ang. Recovery and Resilience Plans, RRP) i podzielona między pożyczki (360 mld euro) i dotacje (312,5 mld euro). Wszystkie środki muszą zostać wydane do 2026 r.

Chociaż nie wszystkie te fundusze będą napędzać inwestycje w telekomunikację, niektóre będą miały pośredni wpływ, np. zielone technologie — zobacz nasze przemyślenia na temat dyskusji na temat Net Zero na MWC 2022. Istnieje sześć filarów, z których jednym jest transformacja cyfrowa, która ma ponad 20% przydzielonego finansowania krajowych programów RRP. Projekty transformacji cyfrowej obejmują inwestycje w badania i rozwój, wdrażanie nowych technologii cyfrowych, w tym rozwój ultraszybkiej łączności szerokopasmowej i łączności 5G oraz cyfrową transformację gospodarki. Pieniądze są dostępne. To od krajów zależy, czy je wykorzystają i przekierują je do technologii, takich jak 5G, aby wesprzeć wzrost gospodarczy.

Średnie pasmo to najczęściej przydzielane pasmo w Europie Środkowo-Wschodniej

W tym artykule zastanowiliśmy się nad postępami w Europie. Teraz zwracamy uwagę na kraje Europy Środkowo-Wschodniej (CEE). Według danych GSMA Intelligence zdecydowana większość operatorów w ośmiu krajach Europy Środkowo-Wschodniej — 24 z 31 — uruchomiła już usługi 5G.

Zgodnie z planem działania KE na rzecz 5G z 2016 r., kraje w całej UE miały udostępnić do 30 czerwca 2020 r. pasmo niskich częstotliwości, a do 31 grudnia 2020 r. pasmo średnich i wysokich częstotliwości. Na poziomie UE istnieją trzy pionierskie pasma 5G, które przedstawiają się następująco:

– Dolne pasmo: 700 MHz (703 – 733 MHz i 758 – 788 MHz)

– Średnie pasmo: 3,6 GHz (3400 – 3800 MHz)

– Wysokie pasmo: 26 GHz (co najmniej 1000 MHz w zakresie 24 250 – 27 500 MHz)

Opóźnienia związane z przydziałem pasma wahają się od wpływu COVID-19 na harmonogramy, przez transgraniczną koordynację z krajami spoza UE, po słaby popyt ze strony operatorów. Jednak większość krajów uwzględnionych w tej analizie przypisała już co najmniej jedno pasmo dla 5G, z godnym uwagi wyjątkiem Polski.

Polska ma jeszcze przeprowadzić aukcję pasma 5G — planowana sprzedaż pasma C w Polsce była wielokrotnie przekładana z różnych powodów. W marcu 2020 r. Polska ogłosiła, że aukcja pasma 3,6 GHz zostanie rozstrzygnięta do 30 czerwca 2020 r. Jednak w związku z pandemią polskie władze zawiesiły wszelkie postępowania administracyjne, a obecne wstrzymanie spowodowane jest kwestiami legislacyjnymi.

Co więcej, Polska bada również kontrowersyjne prawo dotyczące utworzenia państwowej sieci 5G, która byłaby obsługiwana przez państwowego operatora — Exatel — w paśmie 700 MHz. Pasmo 700 MHz jest problematyczne, ponieważ wymaga koordynacji przez granice wschodnie (Białoruś, Rosja i Ukraina), co opóźni przydział pasma.

Słowenia i Chorwacja posunęły się naprzód i stały się jedynymi krajami, które zakończyły już aukcje pasma we wszystkich pionierskich pasmach 5G. W kwietniu 2021 r. słoweńska Agencja ds. Sieci i Usług Komunikacyjnych (AKOS) sfinalizowała sprzedaż częstotliwości w pasmach 700 MHz, 1500 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2300 MHz, 3500 MHz i 26 GHz. W sierpniu 2021 r. Chorwacki Urząd Regulacji Branży Sieciowej (HAKOM) sprzedał na aukcji częstotliwości z pasm 700 MHz, 3600 MHz i 26 GHz. Co więcej, Miran Gosta, dyrektor HAKOM-u, ogłosił niedawno, że przygotowywana jest nowa aukcja na częstotliwości, które są już w użyciu i wygasną w 2024 roku, takie jak pasma 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz i 2600 MHz.

Bułgaria liderem prędkości 5G

Ważnym pytaniem jest, czy opóźnienia w przydziałach częstotliwości i obsługa wielu generacji sieci wpłynęły na zdolność operatorów do spełnienia obietnicy 5G dotyczącej większych prędkości. Według Speedtest Intelligence®, mediana prędkości pobierania 5G w ośmiu krajach waha się w granicach 73-407 Mb/s. Bułgaria jest najszybsza z 406,97 Mb/s, za nią plasują się Chorwacja, Węgry, Rumunia, Słowenia i Słowacja. Czechy i Polska pozostają w tyle, z prędkością odpowiednio 112,53 Mb/s i 73,12 Mb/s.

Bułgarscy operatorzy brali aktywny udział w inicjowaniu rozwoju 5G. We wrześniu 2020 roku Vivacom uruchomił pierwszą komercyjną sieć 5G za pośrednictwem Dynamic Spectrum Sharing (DSS) w 1800 MHz i 2100 MHz, następnie A1 w Sofii z wykorzystaniem 3600 MHz, a Telenor na początku czerwca 2021 w największych miastach Bułgarii w paśmie 3 600 MHz.

W kwietniu 2021 r. firma Vivacom Bulgaria zdobyła 100 MHz w paśmie 3,7-3,8 GHz za 4,6 mln BGN (2,35 mln euro), ale już wcześniej uruchomiła sieć 5G z tymczasową licencją w listopadzie 2020 r. András Pali, dyrektor ds. technicznych Vivacom w wywiadzie oznajmił, że operator planuje zainwestować 120 milionów euro w infrastrukturę w 2021 roku. Vivacom wykorzystuje DSS, łącząc częstotliwości w pasmach 1,8, 2,1 i 3,6 GHz dla 5G, więc nie ma kompromisu między zasięgiem a prędkością. Z kolei A1 Bulgaria korzysta z dedykowanego pasma 100 MHz. Między komercyjnym uruchomieniem w kwietniu a październikiem 2021 r. liczba aktywnych użytkowników A1 Bulgaria wzrosła o 448%, a generowany przez nich ruch o 771%, przekraczając 90 terabajtów (TB) w październiku 2021 r.

Ponadto w planie naprawy i zwiększenia odporności Bułgarii, 26% z budżetu wynoszącego 6,3 mld euro przeznaczono na transformację cyfrową. Plan obejmuje środki stymulujące transformację cyfrową, w tym znaczne inwestycje i reformy łączności cyfrowej w celu zwiększenia zasięgu sieci o bardzo dużej przepustowości na obszarach wiejskich i słabo zaludnionych oraz stworzenia sprzyjającego środowiska dla wdrażania sieci 5G i infrastruktury cyfrowej.

Kilku operatorów wdrożyło sieci 5G przed uzyskaniem dostępu do dedykowanego pakietu pasm 5G, zamiast tego wykorzystując swoje istniejące zasoby pasma za pośrednictwem DSS lub tymczasowo przydzielonego pasma. Patrząc na dane dla Polski, istnieje związek między brakiem dedykowanego pasma a medianą prędkości pobierania. Prędkości 5G w Polsce są dwukrotnie wyższe niż prędkości 4G w porównaniu z Rumunią, Słowacją, Węgrami i Słowenią, gdzie prędkości 5G są ponad pięć razy szybsze niż 4G. Ponieważ operatorzy w Polsce wdrożyli 5G, wykorzystując swoje istniejące zasoby pasmowe — w 2,6 GHz i 2,1 GHz — nie są w stanie wykorzystać korzyści, jakie dla wdrożeń 5G niesie ze sobą średnie pasmo. Zastanowiliśmy się, w jaki sposób pasmo średnie zwiększyło prędkości i zasięg 5G w USA.

5G Availability wzrosła w Bułgarii w 2021 r.

Dane Speedtest Intelligence stawiają Bułgarię na pierwszym miejscu pod względem 5G Availability (odsetek użytkowników urządzeń obsługujących 5G, którzy spędzają większość czasu w sieciach 5G) wśród swoich regionalnych partnerów. W 2021 r. 5G Availability w Bułgarii wzrosła dziesięciokrotnie, z 3% w I kwartale 2021 r. do 30,5% w I kwartale 2022 r. Jest to częściowo zasługą operatorów poszerzających portfolio urządzeń obsługujących 5G, m.in. w czerwcu 2021 r. 55% oferowanych przez Telenor (obecnie Yettel) smartfonów obsługiwało 5G i oferowało taryfy 5G bez dodatkowych kosztów.

Chorwacja radziła sobie stosunkowo dobrze, jeśli chodzi o 5G Availability, która wzrosła z 11% w I kwartale 2021 r. do 18,5% w I kwartale 2022 r. Licencja 5G chorwackich operatorów obejmuje zobowiązania dotyczące zasięgu wynoszące 90% obszarów miejskich, 99% autostrad i 95 % kolei do 2025 r. Ponadto obowiązki licencyjne obejmują 25% zasięgu obszarów wiejskich do 2025 r. i 50% do 2027 r. Według Hakom zasięg i 5G Availability wynosi 60-70%.

Jednak pięć krajów nadal miało 5G Availability poniżej 10% w I kwartale 2022 r., w porównaniu z siedmioma w I kwartale 2021 r. Na Węgrzech istnieje publiczna inicjatywa wsparcia upowszechnienia 5G na kwotę 5 mld HUF (13,15 mln EUR), konsumentom w migracji z urządzeń 3G na smartfony 4G/5G w obliczu zbliżającego się zaniku sieci 3G. 9 maja 2022 r. węgierski regulator telekomunikacyjny — NMHH — rozpoczął drugą fazę dotacji na telefony komórkowe: właściciele urządzeń 2G lub 3G mogą ubiegać się o 20 000 HUF (52,26 EUR) na zakup nowego smartfona 4G lub 5G.

Nie jest zaskoczeniem, że Węgry zajęły pierwsze miejsce, jeśli chodzi o dostawy smartfonów 5G w wielu krajach Europy Środkowo-Wschodniej. Według Counterpoint Research smartfony 5G stanowiły 65,1% wszystkich dostaw smartfonów na Węgrzech w IV kwartale 2021 r. W Czechach, Słowacji i Bułgarii smartfony 5G stanowią dwa na pięć sprzedanych smartfonów. W Polsce to prawie co trzeci. Rumunia jest ostatnia. Chociaż liczby te nie przekładają się bezpośrednio na sprzedaż bezpośrednią do klientów, ponieważ dostawy odnoszą się do sprzedaży w kanałach detalicznych i wskazują na zwiększony apetyt na urządzenia 5G. Kluczowym czynnikiem jest rosnąca dostępność smartfonów 5G z niższej półki cenowej. Na przykład firma realme odnosi sukcesy dzięki przystępnym cenowo smartfonom 5G w Europie.

Sofia zajmuje pierwsze miejsce pod względem mediany prędkości pobierania i 5G Availability

Nie dziwi więc fakt, że stolica Bułgarii zajęła również pierwsze miejsce w rankingu stolic regionalnych, z medianą prędkości pobierania 441,93 Mb/s i 30% dostępnością 5G w I kwartale 2022 r. A1 Bulgaria rozpoczęła testy już pod koniec listopada 2020 r. w Sofii i Burgas, które stały się pierwszymi miastami 5G w kraju z zasięgiem ponad 90% populacji na zewnątrz.

Praga spisała się dobrze, jeśli chodzi o 5G Availability. W kwietniu 2022 r. obszar praskiego metra został w pełni pokryty sieciami 5G dzięki współpracy czeskich operatorów: T-Mobile, Vodafone, O2 i CETIN oraz władzami samorządowymi Pragi. Wszyscy czescy operatorzy zrezygnowali z sieci 3G w 2021 r., aby zmienić częstotliwości na 4G i 5G. Największy operator pod względem liczby połączeń, T-Mobile Czechy, miał we wrześniu 2021 r. ponad 600 stacji bazowych 5G obejmujących 10,4% populacji, a do końca roku planował zwiększyć zasięg do 25%. T-Mobile używa Ericssona i Huawei do swojej sieci 5G, która wykorzystuje pasma 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz i 700 MHz. Najmniejszy operator, Vodafone Czechia, objął 70% populacji siecią 5G docierającą do 7 milionów Czechów w maju 2022 roku. Vodafone jest zdeterminowany do poszerzenia zasięgu swojej sieci, w tej chwili używa 3,5 GHz dla 5G, ale wkrótce zacznie używać pasmo 700 MHz oraz refarmowane pasmo 3G.

Polacy potrzebują więcej edukacji na temat korzyści 5G

Jeśli chodzi o prędkość 5G, Polska nie wypada najlepiej na tle innych krajów Europy Środkowo-Wschodniej. Polska zajęła ostatnie miejsce w rankingu mediany prędkości pobierania 5G, a jej prędkości 5G były nieco ponad dwukrotnie wyższe niż 4G. To jedyny kraj, który nie przyznał jeszcze pasma 5G. Co jednak ważniejsze, wydaje się również, że polscy użytkownicy końcowi nie widzą dodatkowych korzyści, jakie może przynieść 5G, co zmniejsza popyt.

Według badania przedsiębiorstw UKE, 78,2% przedsiębiorstw w Polsce słyszało o 5G. To dobry wynik. Jednak większość przedsiębiorstw twierdzi, że obecne parametry mobilne są wystarczające do prowadzenia działalności biznesowej w trzech miarach: szybkości (88,6%), niezawodności (86,7%) i wydajności (85,9%). Biorąc pod uwagę, że obecne sieci 5G w Polsce nie spełniają obietnic dotyczących szybkości gigabitowej, nie jest to zaskakujące.

Z punktu widzenia polskiego konsumenta termin 5G zna 73,8%. Ma to jednak wadę, ponieważ nieco ponad połowa respondentów (57,4%) uważa, że 5G stanowi zagrożenie dla zdrowia.

Na pytanie, jakie są kluczowe zalety sieci 5G, prawie połowa respondentów (47,5%) twierdzi, że 5G będzie szybsze i wydajniejsze niż 4G. Mniej niż jedna trzecia (31%) widzi, że sieci 5G ułatwiają ludziom życie. Trzecią preferowaną opcją jest zdolność 5G do wzmocnienia i modernizacji polskiej gospodarki. Jednak 18% nie widzi pozytywnych perspektyw korzystania z sieci 5G. To może częściowo tłumaczyć, dlaczego 5G Availability w Polsce wynosi poniżej 10%.

W 5G nie chodzi tylko o szybkość. 5G jest postrzegane jako sposób na wniesienie dodatkowej wartości do gospodarki i społeczeństwa. Według badania przeprowadzonego przez Ericsson Polska, polska gospodarka może zyskać ponad 17 miliardów euro na wdrożeniu 5G do 2040 roku. Biorąc pod uwagę brak jasnego harmonogramu aukcji 5G, ryzyko, że Polska będzie dalej odstawać od swoich konkurentów jest realne.

Plus prowadzi w prędkości pobierania 5G w Polsce

Porównaliśmy prędkość 5G u polskich operatorów za pomocą Speedtest Intelligence. Operator Plus był wyraźnym zwycięzcą, osiągając medianę prędkości pobierania 167,37 Mb/s w I kwartale 2022 r., wyprzedzając Orange, T-Mobile i Play. Nie odnotowano znaczącej różnicy w medianie prędkości wysyłania u operatorów.

Wszyscy polscy operatorzy sieci komórkowych uruchomili sieci 5G, wykorzystując istniejące częstotliwości w trybie Non Standalone (NSA), który opiera się na bazowej technologii 4G/LTE. Aukcja 5G jest obecnie uzależniona od trwających konsultacji dotyczących projektu ustawy o krajowym systemie cyberbezpieczeństwa, który ma być przedmiotem obrad polskiego parlamentu. Ustawa może wpłynąć na decyzje dotyczące sprzętu sieciowego wśród graczy, np. Play używa Huawei i Ericsson dla stacji bazowych.

Polkomtel, działający pod marką Plus, w maju 2020 roku uruchomił pierwszą w kraju komercyjną sieć 5G w paśmie 2,6 GHz, wykorzystującą pasmo 50 MHz. Oprócz Plusa, wszyscy pozostali operatorzy wdrożyli 5G z wykorzystaniem DSS w paśmie 2,1 GHz, co może częściowo wyjaśniać, dlaczego mają niższe prędkości.

Orange Polska, podobnie jak inne kraje Grupy Orange, wdroży 5G Standalone (5G SA) we współpracy z firmą Ericsson. Umożliwi to “krojenie sieci” (ang. network slicing) 5G i rozwój sieci prywatnych. W oczekiwaniu na aukcję 5G oraz w celu stymulowania nowych zastosowań 5G, operator uruchomił usługi testowe Orange 5G Lab, takie jak AR, AI wykorzystujące pasmo przydzielone przez UKE do testowania 5G w paśmie 3,6 GHz.

Play miał najlepszą 5G Availability w Polsce

Według Counterpoint Research, w 2021 r. dostawy smartfonów w Polsce prawie się potroiły, napędzane przez konkurencyjne marki, takie jak realme, OPPO i Xiaomi (w tym Redmi i POCO). Polscy operatorzy również w dalszym ciągu promują sprzedaż urządzeń obsługujących 5G. Smartfony 5G jako udział w sprzedaży smartfonów wahały się od 36% dla Orange, 40% dla T-Mobile oraz 45% dla Play. Jednak Play wyprzedził konkurencję, jeśli chodzi o 5G Availability, a T-Mobile nadrabia zaległości, pozostawiając w tyle Orange i Plus.

Jest to o tyle zaskakujące, że sieć 5G Play niekoniecznie ma największy zasięg. Na koniec 2021 r. sieć 5G Plusa powiększyła się do 19 mln osób, następny był Play z ponad 13 mln, T-Mobile (11 mln) i Orange (6,3 mln). Przekładając to na pokrycie populacji przy użyciu danych ze spisu powszechnego z 2021 r. (38,18 mln osób), oznacza to pokrycie populacji 50%, 34%, 29% i 17%.

Play, część Grupy Iliad, miał najlepszą 5G Availability, prawdopodobnie ze względu na agresywny marketing i rabaty w połączeniu z dużym portfolio urządzeń 5G i najtańszymi taryfami. Niedawno Play pozyskał z BGK kredyt w wysokości 500 mln zł (107 mln euro) w ramach Programu Operacyjnego Polska Cyfrowa (POPC), który posłuży również do uruchomienia usług 5G.

Operatorzy komórkowi nadal inwestują w rozwój sieci 5G. Na przykład T-Mobile rozszerzył swoją współpracę z Nokią o modernizację sieci RAN, a także wdrożenie usług 5G. Operator planuje wykorzystanie 4G i 5G DSS w dolnym paśmie oraz gdy będzie to możliwe, w paśmie 3,5 GHz na gęstych obszarach miejskich. T-Mobile planuje zakończyć 2022 rok z 3500 stacjami bazowymi 5G i 30% pokryciem populacji. T-Mobile wyłączył swoją sieć 3G w paśmie częstotliwości 2100 MHz w październiku 2021 roku. Rozpoczął również zamykanie sieci 3G, mając na celu wykorzystanie 900 MHz dla 3G i zmianę jej na LTE i 5G w 2023 roku.

Przeszkodą w osiągnięciu szerokiej dostępności 5G są kontrowersje wokół aukcji 5G. W październiku 2019 r. czterej czołowi operatorzy komórkowi (Plus, Orange, Play i T-Mobile), państwowy operator telekomunikacyjny Exatel oraz Polski Fundusz Rozwoju (PFR) podpisali porozumienie w sprawie budowy ogólnopolskiej infrastruktury. Będzie on własnością państwa za pośrednictwem jednostki specjalnego przeznaczenia – Polskie 5G. Polski regulator zaproponował przydzielenie temu nowemu podmiotowi całego pasma 700 MHz (2×30 MHz), z myślą o zapewnieniu w pierwszej kolejności łączności dla służb porządkowych i ratowniczych, a jednocześnie udostępnienie go wszystkim operatorom. Zarezerwowanie pasma do użytku pionowego nie jest niczym nowym, omówiliśmy to w naszym ostatnim artykule; nowością jest tu pasmo i ilość. Pasmo 700 MHz ma kluczowe znaczenie dla zapewnienia szerokiego zasięgu i penetracji wewnątrz budynków. W naszym ostatnim webinarze Eric Brands z KPN wyjaśnił, że KPN osiąga dobre wyniki w zakresie 5G Availability, częściowo dlatego, że ma dostęp do niskiego pasma 5G (700 MHz).

Łódź ma najszybszą sieć 5G wśród największych polskich miast

Łódź zajęła pierwsze miejsce jako najszybsze miasto w Polsce z prędkością 90,25 Mb/s w I kwartale 2022 r., jest także hotspotem dla innowacji operatorów. Orange wdrożył kampusową sieć 5G na terenie Łódzkiej Specjalnej Strefy Ekonomicznej, gdzie 40 start-upów pracujących w akceleratorze będzie mogło korzystać z infrastruktury. Ericsson dostarczył infrastrukturę dla obszaru gospodarczego: dziesięć anten pracujących w pasmach 3,6 GHz i 2100 MHz, obejmujących około 1000 m2.

T-Mobile testuje 5G SA w Łodzi, aby umożliwić nowe usługi zarówno klientom indywidualnym, jak i klientom B2B, w tym usługi VoNR (Voice over New Radio) w sieci 5G. Sieć 5G SA wykorzystuje pasmo 2600 MHz.

Stolica Polski, Warszawa, nieznacznie wyprzedza resztę pod względem 5G Availability.

Będziemy uważnie obserwować prędkość 5G w Polsce za pomocą Speedtest Intelligence. Jeśli chcesz dowiedzieć się więcej o tym, jak Speedtest Intelligence może pomóc Ci porównać prędkość 5G z konkurencją, zapytaj tutaj.

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Sylwia Kechiche

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Sylwia Kechiche | May 11, 2022

5G Drives French Digital Transformation

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Key takeaways

The French government has put a lot of emphasis and effort in promoting industrial transformation, and 5G is an important factor. Dedicated spectrum available for private mobile networks has already been allocated in France and the government is providing funding to target startups and drive innovation. During Q1 2022, Orange dominated the competition as France’s fastest 5G provider by achieving a median 5G download speed of 366.42 Mbps. SFR followed at 247.32 Mbps.
In terms of 5G Availability, Free France led the market with 26.0%, ahead of the country’s average of 15.7%. Free is the only operator that deployed 5G using the 700 MHz spectrum band, which contributes towards its higher 5G Availability.
Bordeaux has the fastest median 5G download speed.

The need for 5G networks densification

France is leading the way in terms of 5G network deployment across Europe. According to the latest 5G Observatory, published by the telecom regulator, the Electronic Communications, Postal and Print Media Distribution Regulatory Authority (ARCEP), the number of mobile base stations providing commercial 5G services in France equated to around 22,000 sites at the end of 2021. Free had the most 5G sites (13,470, primarily in the 700 MHz band), followed by Bouygues Telecom (6,730), SFR (4,984) and Orange (3,035) (these numbers cannot be added up across operators and frequency bands as the same site can broadcast across multiple frequency bands).

Based on the French population as of 2020, this would equate to over 3,000 people per 5G base station, placing it behind South Korea, China, and Japan but just ahead of the EU average, according to the EU 5G Observatory’s International Scoreboard.

French mobile operators are providing 5G services through the 700 MHz, 2.1 GHz and 3.5 GHz spectrum bands. The final stages of the French 5G mid-band spectrum auction ended on October 1, 2020, with 310 MHz of spectrum awarded in the 3.4-3.8 GHz band. Orange paid €854 million for a total of 90 MHz; SFR €728 million for 80 MHz, and Bouygues Telecom and Free Mobile (Iliad) €602 million each for 70 MHz. Shortly after, in November 2020, all mobile operators were granted an authorization to use these frequencies. The operators can also use the 700 MHz frequency band, which was awarded by ARCEP in 2015, and in the future 26 GHz, yet to be allocated.

Free remains the only French operator to deploy 5G on 700 MHz spectrum. As of December 31, 2021, its 5G footprint included 13,479 sites already operational out of 18,929 permits secured for this frequency band. In addition, Free had 2,384 sites utilizing the 3.5 MHz frequency band. The remaining operators use 2.1 GHz and 3.5 GHz spectrum for 5G (see chart for more details).

The roll out of commercial 5G networks started in mid-November 2020, in a Non-Standalone (NSA) mode. It is noteworthy that 5G licenses come with coverage obligations outlined below, which stimulate the operators 5G network rollouts:

Doubling down on enterprise digitalization

The French government is an avid supporter of industrial digital transformation. The “France 2030” programme earmarked €800 million to accelerate digital transformation of industries by leveraging cloud, 5G, and Artificial Intelligence (AI). Of which, €400 million was assigned to support startups and innovative businesses in developing their offerings and €400 million to help to transform industrial sites. The government also launched an acceleration strategy for 5G and future telecommunications network technologies to capture 5G opportunities and position France at the forefront of new digital uses. The objective is to create 20,000 new jobs by 2025, support the growth of the French 5G market, as well as innovative French SMEs and overall ecosystem in the country and externally.

International collaboration is high on an agenda too, including a Franco-German partnership on private 5G networks. To strengthen the 5G private network ecosystem, France and Germany commited a total of €17.7 million in support of four projects on 5G applications: 5G-OPERA, 5G4BP, 5GB4BP, and 5G FORUM. Another cross-country collaboration, this time involving France, Germany, and Luxembourg, is the EU-funded 5GCroCo (Cross-Border Control) project. The objective is to trial 5G technologies in the cross-border corridor to validate the use of 5G-networks and equipment from multiple car manufacturers.

Supporting enterprises is an important part of the overall digital transformation strategy. As such, the industrial verticals are already utilizing frequencies in the 2.6 GHz and 26 GHz spectrum band, with a particular focus on private 4G/ 5G networks.

Recently, the French government announced a set of new measures aimed at accelerating the development of industrial 5G use cases, following on from a report and recommendations published by the president of the Mission 5G Industrielle, Philippe Herbert. Mr. Herbert identified seven reasons why 5G in the French industrial sector is lagging behind other European countries, including poor access to relevant spectrum, availability of equipment and services, and lack of maturity of the 5G ecosystems.

To aid that, the government together with ARCEP, is encouraging the industrial companies to apply for a trial spectrum in 3.8 – 4.0 GHz band. Businesses from across a range of verticals including manufacturing, logistics, health and energy (amongst others), will be able to use a 100 MHz spectrum block for three years to trial different applications, while benefiting from a “mature and varied ecosystem of terminals and equipment” thanks to being in a close proximity to the mid-band spectrum band.

In addition, operators’ 5G licenses stipulate that they have to activate 5G functions such as slicing and “differentiated services” by 2023 at the latest, so as to cover the needs of industries, e.g. health and automotive.

French operators are testing 5G use across multiple industries including in the factory setting. For instance, Orange is looking at 5G applications across a number of “factory of the future” projects. In November 2021, ArcelorMittal France, Orange Business Services, and Ericsson announced the launch of an industrial 5G network: 5G Steel. 5G Steel will provide indoor and outdoor coverage, high data throughput for connected devices, low latency for autonomous vehicles, data security, and network slicing to tailor services to each business process and requirement. Another operator, Bouygues Telecom teamed up with its sister company Bouygues Construction to test where 5G can aid with digitization of the construction industry, one of the use cases is using 5G as a technology powering the data transmission between a crane and a remote control cabin on the ground.

Sustainability is high on French operators’ agenda

As we discussed in 5G Comes of Age: Five Predictions for 2022, reducing the environmental impact of 5G is top of the agenda. To that end, ARCEP published a study in January 2022 looking into different energy consumption scenarios in order to assess the impact of 5G networks. It has revealed that 5G network rollouts initially increased energy consumption. However, there are expected efficiency gains in the most densely populated areas starting from 2023, by 2028 total energy savings will be up to ten times the 2002 consumption levels when compared to a 4G-only network densification. In more sparsely populated areas with lower traffic density, the efficiency gains will be lower.

All of the French operators are committed to sustainable energy. For instance, Bouygues Telecom became the first operator in France to use renewable produced hydrogen to power one of its cell sites thanks to a collaboration with its sister company, Bouygues Energies and Services and PowiDian, a French startup. The operator has set a 100% target of its electricity consumption being sourced from renewable power (wind and hydroelectrics).

Another mobile operator, SFR, has also committed to renewable energy by partnering with French supplier EkWateur to supply part of telecom sites with 100% renewable energy. The operator has also committed to supply part of its 5G sites with renewable energy in partnership with TotalEnergies. In a 2021 statement, it indicated that since July 2021, more than 160 5G sites have been powered by renewable energy such as hydroelectric dams, windmills, or solar panels.

France leads amongst its regional peers for median download speeds

5G Performance in France vs. Other European Countries

Using Speedtest Intelligence®, we compared 5G in France against that of its peers. These measurements are based on 5G-capable devices using Speedtest Intelligence® on both iOS and Android. In the Q1 2022, France topped our list with the fastest median 5G download speed (207.58 Mbps), ahead of Switzerland (173.51 Mbps), the U.K. (166.37 Mbps). Germany (153.51 Mbps), the Netherlands (153.06 Mbps), Italy (123.69 Mbps), and Spain (122.61 Mbps) followed. Interestingly, despite all of the French operators launching 5G service in December 2020 — relatively late compared to other analyzed countries — they achieved top median download speeds due to substantial network investments. However, this has not yet translated into a large customer pool. The number of 5G subscribers has reached almost 3 million as of Q4 2021 — equivalent to 4% of total subscriptions (excluding M2M) and almost double the Q2 2021 level of 1.6 million.

Orange steams ahead for median 5G download speed

5G Performance Among Top Providers in France

Orange had the fastest median 5G download speed among top operators, achieving 366.42 Mbps during Q1 2022, far ahead of SFR (247.32 Mbps), Bouygues Telecom (151.58 Mbps), and Free (150.11 Mbps). Orange deployed 5G in nearly 900 municipalities at the end of 2021, which translates to 38% coverage of metropolitan population. The operator has the most 5G bandwidth (90 MHz) in the 3.5 GHz spectrum band, and has primarily chosen to deploy 5G in this spectrum band: it had 2,698 active sites in the 3.5 GHz band compared to 471 in 2.1 GHz at year-end 2021.

Orange’s approach to 5G rollouts has been to deploy it “where it is useful for its customers,” in the busiest places where there is a risk of 4G saturation in the short to medium term. The operator has also recently announced its plans to decommission 2G by 2025 and 3G by the end of 2028 to achieve cost savings by being able to retire legacy networks. Additional benefit is the ability to refarm its 900 MHz spectrum, currently assigned to 2G and 3G. Orange is also a strong supporter of Open RAN, it was one of the five leading telco groups: Deutsche Telekom (DT), Orange, Telefonica, Telecom Italia (TIM), and Vodafone Group, that published a joint report to highlight the urgency of collaboration on Open RAN in November 2021. Also in November 2021, Orange opened its first research lab in France dedicated to Open RAN, Orange’s CTO Michael Trabbia commented that the launch fits into the group’s ambition to deploy exclusively Open RAN equipment across Europe from 2025 onwards.

France is middle of the road when it comes to 5G Availability

5G Availability France vs. Other European Countries

The country ranking shifts when it comes to 5G Availability — the percentage of users on 5G-capable devices that spend most of the time with access to 5G networks. France comes in bang in the middle amongst the analyzed countries for this metric. In Q1 2022, the Netherlands had the highest 5G Availability at 34.7%, Switzerland came in at 33.2%, Spain at 15.9%, France 15.7%, the U.K. at 14.0%, Germany at 9.1%, and 9.0% for Italy.

Free leads on 5G Availability

5G Availability for Top Providers in France

Free had the highest 5G Availability among French operators at 26.0% in Q1 2022, ahead of Bouygues Telecom (18.3%), SFR (11.8%), and Orange (10.8%). Free remains the only operator that deployed 5G on 700 MHz spectrum, which helps to explain why it ranked better on 5G Availability as low band spectrum propagates further. According to the spectrum agency ANFR, the operator’s 5G footprint included 14,568 sites on air as of April 1, out of 19,289 permits it has secured for this frequency band. Currently, Free’s 5G network coverage extends to 81% of the population and is present in 9,652 municipalities. Free repeated its market entry strategy by pricing 5G services at the price of 4G, just the same when it initially entered the French market and offered 4G for the price of 3G.

Orange 5G Consistency stood at just over 90%

5G Consistency Score Among Top Providers in France

Consistency Score™ measures what percentage of a provider’s samples equals or exceeds both a download and upload threshold. Current thresholds for mobile 5G is 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload. Across France, 5G Consistency stood at 84% as of Q1 2022. Orange earned the top spot as France’s most consistent 5G mobile operator with a Consistency Score of 90.6% during Q1 2022, ahead of Free (83.7%), SFR (83.2%) and Bouygues Telecom (77.5%).

Bordeaux has the fastest 5G

5G Performance and 5G Availability Across France's Largest Cities

Bordeaux was the clear winner for 5G speeds across French cities, with a median 5G download speed of 333.46 Mbps during Q1 2022, a 44% year-over-year increase for all operators combined. Orange’s 5G network in Bordeaux reached a median download speed of 456.69 Mbps, just ahead of SFR at 445.07 Mbps. The 5G launch in Bordeaux was slightly delayed till February 2021, as the city was asking the government for a moratorium on 5G technology and a postponement of the frequency allocation to no avail. Yet, the operators waited until the installation of the autonomous exposure measurement sensors, from which data is reported into the Wave Observatory.

In terms of 5G Availability, there is no clean winner across the five largest French cities.

5G in France is rapidly expanding and we’ll be following the market closely

Mobile operators are actively expanding 5G networks and the 5G adoption in France is growing, stimulated by the strong government support. We’ll be watching 5G performance closely in France using Speedtest Intelligence. If you want to learn more about how Speedtest Intelligence can help you benchmark your 5G performance against competitors, please inquire here.

La 5G est le moteur de la transformation La 5G est le moteur de la transformation numérique française

Principaux points à retenir

Le gouvernement français a mis beaucoup l’accent et à mis en place les efforts pour promouvoir la transformation industrielle, et la 5G est un facteur important. Le spectre dédié disponible pour les réseaux mobiles privés a déjà été attribué en France et le gouvernement fournit des fonds pour cibler les startups et stimuler l’innovation.Au cours du premier trimestre 2022, Orange a dominé la concurrence en tant que fournisseur 5G le plus rapide de France en atteignant une vitesse de téléchargement 5G médiane de 366,42 Mbps. SFR suivait avec 247,32 Mbps.
En termes de Disponibilité 5G, Free France est en tête du marché avec 26,0%, devant la moyenne du pays de 15,7%. Free est le seul opérateur à avoir déployé la 5G en utilisant la bande de fréquences 700 MHz, ce qui contribue à sa plus grande Disponibilité 5G.
Bordeaux a le débit médian de téléchargement 5G le plus rapide

La nécessité de densifier les réseaux 5G

La France est en tête en termes de déploiement de réseaux 5G à travers l’Europe. Selon le dernier Observatoire de la 5G, publié par le régulateur des télécoms, l’Autorité de régulation des communications électroniques, des postes et de la distribution de la presse écrite (ARCEP), le nombre de stations de base mobiles fournissant des services 5G commerciaux en France équivaut à environ 22 000 sites à la fin de 2021. Free comptait le plus grand nombre de sites 5G (13 470, principalement avec la bande 700 MHz), suivi de Bouygues Telecom (6 730), SFR (4 984) et Orange (3 035) (ces chiffres ne peuvent pas être additionnés entre les opérateurs et les bandes de fréquences, car un même site peut diffuser sur plusieurs bandes de fréquences).

Sur la base de la population française en 2020, cela équivaudrait à plus de 3 000 personnes par station de base 5G, ce qui la place derrière la Corée du Sud, la Chine et le Japon, mais juste devant la moyenne de l’UE, selon le tableau de bord international de l’Observatoire européen de la 5G.

Nombre de personnes par station de base 5G

Les opérateurs mobiles français fournissent des services 5G par le biais des bandes de fréquences 700 MHz, 2,1 GHz et 3,5 GHz. Les étapes finales de la vente aux enchères de spectre 5G à mi-bande en France se sont terminées le 1er octobre 2020, avec 310 MHz de spectre attribués dans la bande 3,4-3,8 GHz. Orange a payé 854 millions d’euros pour un total de 90 MHz ; SFR 728 millions d’euros pour 80 MHz, et Bouygues Telecom et Free Mobile (Iliad) 602 millions d’euros chacun pour 70 MHz. Peu de temps après, en novembre 2020, tous les opérateurs mobiles ont obtenu une autorisation d’utiliser ces fréquences. Les opérateurs peuvent également utiliser la bande de fréquences 700 MHz, attribuée par l’ARCEP en 2015, et dans le futur les 26 GHz, encore à attribuer.

Free reste le seul opérateur français à déployer la 5G sur le spectre 700 MHz. Au 31 décembre 2021, son empreinte 5G comprenait 13 479 sites déjà opérationnels sur les 18 929 autorisations obtenues pour cette bande de fréquences. En outre, Free disposait de 2 384 sites utilisant la bande de fréquences de 3,5 MHz. Les autres opérateurs utilisent des fréquences de 2,1 GHz et 3,5 GHz pour la 5G (voir le graphique pour plus de détails).

Nombre de sites 5G commerciaux en France

Le déploiement des réseaux 5G commerciaux a commencé à la mi-novembre 2020, en mode non-standard (NSA). Il convient de noter que les licences 5G sont assorties d’obligations de couverture décrites ci-dessous, qui stimulent les déploiements de réseaux 5G des opérateurs:

Doubler la numérisation des entreprises

Le gouvernement français est un fervent partisan de la transformation numérique industrielle. Le programme “France 2030” a affecté 800 millions d’euros pour accélérer la transformation numérique des industries en s’appuyant sur le cloud, la 5G et l’intelligence artificielle (IA). Dont 400 millions d’euros ont été affectés à l’accompagnement des startups et des entreprises innovantes dans le développement de leurs offres et 400 millions d’euros pour aider à la transformation des sites industriels. Le gouvernement a également lancé une stratégie d’accélération pour la 5G et les futures technologies de réseaux de télécommunications pour saisir les opportunités de la 5G et positionner la France à l’avant-garde des nouveaux usages numériques. L’objectif est de créer 20 000 nouveaux emplois d’ici 2025, de soutenir la croissance du marché français de la 5G, ainsi que les PME françaises innovantes et l’écosystème global dans le pays et à l’extérieur.

La collaboration internationale figure également en bonne place à l’ordre du jour, notamment un partenariat franco-allemand sur les réseaux privés 5G. Pour renforcer l’écosystème des réseaux privés 5G, la France et l’Allemagne ont engagé un total de 17,7 millions d’euros pour soutenir quatre projets sur les applications 5G : 5G-OPERA, 5G4BP, 5GB4BP et 5G FORUM. Une autre collaboration transnationale, impliquant cette fois la France, l’Allemagne et le Luxembourg, est le projet 5GCroCo (Cross-Border Control) financé par l’UE. L’objectif est de tester les technologies 5G dans le corridor transfrontalier afin de valider l’utilisation des réseaux et équipements 5G de plusieurs constructeurs automobiles.

Le soutien aux entreprises est un élément important de la stratégie globale de transformation numérique. À ce titre, les verticales industrielles utilisent déjà des fréquences dans la bande de fréquences de 2,6 GHz et 26 GHz, avec un accent particulier sur les réseaux 4G/ 5G privés.

Récemment, le gouvernement français a annoncé un ensemble de nouvelles mesures visant à accélérer le développement des cas d’utilisation industriels de la 5G, dans le prolongement d’un rapport et de recommandations publiés par le président de la Mission 5G Industrielle, Philippe Herbert. M. Herbert a identifié sept raisons pour lesquelles la 5G dans le secteur industriel français est à la traîne par rapport aux autres pays européens, notamment le faible accès au spectre pertinent, la disponibilité des équipements et des services, et le manque de maturité des écosystèmes 5G.

Pour y parvenir, le gouvernement, en collaboration avec l’ARCEP, encourage les entreprises industrielles à demander un spectre d’essai dans la bande 3,8 – 4,0 GHz. Les entreprises de divers secteurs verticaux tels que la fabrication, la logistique, la santé et l’énergie (entre autres), pourront utiliser un bloc de spectre de 100 MHz pendant trois ans pour tester différentes applications, tout en bénéficiant d’un « écosystème mature et varié de terminaux et d’équipements » grâce à la proximité de la bande de fréquences intermédiaire.

En outre, les licences 5G des opérateurs stipulent qu’ils doivent activer les fonctions 5G telles que le découpage en tranches et les « services différenciés » au plus tard en 2023, afin de couvrir les besoins des industries, par exemple la santé et l’automobile.

Les opérateurs français testent l’utilisation de la 5G dans de nombreuses industries, y compris dans le cadre d’une usine. Par exemple, Orange étudie les applications 5G à travers un certain nombre de projets d‘ « usine du futur » . En novembre 2021, ArcelorMittal France, Orange Business Services et Ericsson ont annoncé le lancement d’un réseau 5G industriel : 5G Steel. La 5G Steel offrira une couverture intérieure et extérieure, un débit de données élevé pour les appareils connectés, une faible latence pour les véhicules autonomes, la sécurité des données et le découpage du réseau pour adapter les services à chaque processus et exigence de l’entreprise. Un autre opérateur, Bouygues Telecom, s’est associé à sa société sœur Bouygues Construction pour tester comment la 5G peut contribuer à la numérisation du secteur de la construction. L’un des cas d’utilisation est l’utilisation de la 5G comme technologie permettant la transmission de données entre une grue et une cabine de contrôle à distance au sol.

Le développement durable est une priorité pour les opérateurs français

Comme nous l’avons abordé dans 5G Comes of Age : Cinq prédictions pour 2022, la réduction de l’impact environnemental de la 5G est en tête des priorités. À cette fin, l’ARCEP a publié une étude en janvier 2022 examinant différents scénarios de consommation d’énergie afin d’évaluer l’impact des réseaux 5G. Elle a révélé que les déploiements de réseaux 5G ont initialement augmenté la consommation d’énergie. Cependant, des gains d’efficacité sont attendus dans les zones les plus densément peuplées à partir de 2023, d’ici 2028, les économies d’énergie totales seront jusqu’à dix fois supérieures aux niveaux de consommation de 2002 par rapport à une densification du réseau uniquement en 4G. Dans les zones plus faiblement peuplées où la densité du trafic est plus faible, les gains d’efficacité seront plus faibles.

Tous les opérateurs français sont engagés dans l’énergie durable. Par exemple, Bouygues Telecom est devenu le premier opérateur en France à utiliser de l’hydrogène produit à partir de sources renouvelables pour alimenter l’un de ses sites cellulaires grâce à une collaboration avec sa société sœur, Bouygues Energies et Services, et PowiDian, une startup française. L’opérateur a fixé un objectif de 100% de sa consommation d’électricité provenant d’énergies renouvelables (éolienne et hydroélectrique).

Un autre opérateur mobile, SFR, s’est également engagé en faveur des énergies renouvelables en s’associant au fournisseur français EkWateur pour alimenter une partie des sites télécoms en énergie 100% renouvelable. L’opérateur s’est également engagé à fournir une partie de ses sites 5G en énergie renouvelable en partenariat avec TotalEnergies. Dans un communiqué de 2021, il a indiqué que depuis juillet 2021, plus de 160 sites 5G ont été alimentés par des énergies renouvelables telles que des barrages hydroélectriques, des éoliennes ou des panneaux solaires.

La France est en tête de ses pairs régionaux pour les vitesses de téléchargement médianes.

Performances de la 5G en France par rapport aux autres pays européens

En utilisant Speedtest Intelligence®, nous avons comparé la 5G en France à celle de ses pairs. Ces mesures sont basées sur des appareils compatibles 5G utilisant Speedtest Intelligence® sur iOS et Android. Au T1 2022, la France est en tête de notre liste avec la vitesse de téléchargement 5G médiane la plus rapide (207,58 Mbps), devant la Suisse (173,51 Mbps), le Royaume-Uni (166,37 Mbps). Suivent l’Allemagne (153,51 Mbps), les Pays-Bas (153,06 Mbps), l’Italie (123,69 Mbps) et l’Espagne (122,61 Mbps). Il est intéressant de noter que, bien que tous les opérateurs français aient lancé le service 5G en décembre 2020 – relativement tard par rapport aux autres pays analysés – ils ont atteint les vitesses de téléchargement médianes les plus élevées grâce à des investissements substantiels dans les réseaux. Cependant, cela ne s’est pas encore traduit par un grand nombre de clients. Le nombre d’abonnés 5G a atteint près de 3 millions au quatrième trimestre 2021 – ce qui équivaut à 4 % du total des abonnements (hors M2M) et représente presque le double du niveau du deuxième trimestre 2021, soit 1,6 million.

Orange va de l’avant pour une vitesse de téléchargement 5G médiane

Les performances de la 5G parmi les meilleurs fournisseurs en France

Orange a enregistré la vitesse de téléchargement 5G médiane la plus rapide parmi les principaux opérateurs, atteignant 366,42 Mbps au cours du premier trimestre 2022, loin devant SFR (247,32 Mbps), Bouygues Telecom (151,58 Mbps) et Free (150,11 Mbps). Orange a déployé la 5G dans près de 900 communes à fin 2021, ce qui se traduit par une couverture de 38% de la population métropolitaine. L’opérateur dispose de la plus grande bande passante 5G (90 MHz) dans la bande de fréquences 3,5 GHz et a principalement choisi de déployer la 5G dans cette bande de fréquences : il comptait 2 698 sites actifs dans la bande 3,5 GHz contre 471 dans la bande 2,1 GHz à fin 2021.

L’approche d’Orange en matière de déploiement de la 5G a été de la déployer “là où elle est utile pour ses clients”, dans les endroits les plus fréquentés où il y a un risque de saturation de la 4G à court ou moyen terme. L’opérateur a également annoncé récemment son intention de mettre hors service la 2G d’ici à 2025 et la 3G d’ici à la fin de 2028, afin de réaliser des économies en étant en mesure de retirer les réseaux hérités. La possibilité de réaffecter son spectre de 900 MHz, actuellement attribué à la 2G et à la 3G, constitue un avantage supplémentaire. Orange est également un fervent partisan de l’Open RAN, qui était l’un des cinq principaux groupes de télécoms : Deutsche Telekom (DT), Orange, Telefonica, Telecom Italia (TIM) et Vodafone Group. Ils ont publié un rapport commun pour souligner l’urgence d’une collaboration sur l’Open RAN en novembre 2021. Toujours en novembre 2021, Orange a ouvert son premier laboratoire de recherche en France dédié à l’Open RAN. Michael Trabbia, directeur technique d’Orange, a déclaré que ce lancement s’inscrivait dans l’ambition du groupe de déployer exclusivement des équipements Open RAN en Europe à partir de 2025.

La France se situe à mi-chemin en matière de disponibilité de la 5G

Disponibilité de la 5G en France et dans les autres pays européens

Le classement des pays change lorsqu’il s’agit de la disponibilité de la 5G – le pourcentage d’utilisateurs d’appareils compatibles avec la 5G qui passent la plupart du temps avec un accès aux réseaux 5G. La France arrive en plein milieu des pays analysés pour cette métrique. Au premier trimestre 2022, les Pays-Bas avaient la plus grande disponibilité de la 5G (34,7%), la Suisse (33,2%), l’Espagne (15,9%), la France (15,7%), le Royaume-Uni (14,0%), l’Allemagne (9,1%) et l’Italie (9,0%).

Des pistes gratuites sur la disponibilité de la 5G

Disponibilité de la 5G pour les principaux fournisseurs en France

Free avait la plus grande disponibilité de la 5G parmi les opérateurs français, à 26,0% au T1 2022, devant Bouygues Telecom (18,3%), SFR (11,8%) et Orange (10,8%). Free reste le seul opérateur à avoir déployé la 5G sur le spectre 700 MHz, ce qui permet d’expliquer pourquoi il s’est mieux classé sur la Disponibilité 5G alors que le spectre bas débit se propage davantage. Selon l’agence du spectre ANFR, l’empreinte 5G de l’opérateur comprenait 14 568 sites en ondes au 1er avril, sur les 19 289 autorisations qu’il a obtenues pour cette bande de fréquences. Actuellement, la couverture du réseau 5G de Free s’étend à 81% de la population et est présente dans 9 652 communes. Free a réitéré sa stratégie d’entrée sur le marché en tarifant les services 5G au prix de la 4G, à l’instar de son entrée initiale sur le marché français où il proposait la 4G au prix de la 3G.

La cohérence 5G d’Orange s’est établie à un peu plus de 90%.

Score de cohérence 5G parmi les principaux fournisseurs en France

Consistency Score™ mesure quel pourcentage des échantillons d’un fournisseur est égal ou supérieur à un seuil de téléchargement et de chargement. Les seuils actuels pour la 5G mobile sont de 25 Mbps en téléchargement et de 3 Mbps en upload. Dans toute la France, la cohérence 5G s’est établie à 84% au premier trimestre 2022. Orange a obtenu la première place en tant qu’opérateur mobile 5G le plus constant en France avec un score de cohérence de 90,6 % au premier trimestre 2022, devant Free (83,7%), SFR (83,2%) et Bouygues Telecom (77,5%).

Bordeaux dispose de la 5G la plus rapide

Performance et disponibilité de la 5G dans les plus grandes villes de France

Bordeaux a été le grand gagnant pour les vitesses 5G dans toutes les villes françaises, avec une vitesse de téléchargement 5G médiane de 333,46 Mbps au cours du T1 2022, soit une augmentation de 44 % d’une année sur l’autre pour tous les opérateurs combinés. Le réseau 5G d’Orange à Bordeaux a atteint une vitesse de téléchargement médiane de 456,69 Mbps, juste devant SFR à 445,07 Mbps. Le lancement de la 5G à Bordeaux a été légèrement retardé jusqu’en février 2021, car la ville demandait en vain au gouvernement un moratoire sur la technologie 5G et un report de l’attribution des fréquences. Pourtant, les opérateurs ont attendu l’installation des capteurs autonomes de mesure d’exposition, dont les données sont reportées dans l’Observatoire des ondes.

En termes de disponibilité de la 5G, il n’y a pas de vainqueur incontesté dans les cinq plus grandes villes françaises.

La 5G en France est en pleine expansion et nous suivrons le marché de près.

Les opérateurs mobiles étendent activement les réseaux 5G et l’adoption de la 5G en France est en pleine croissance, stimulée par le fort soutien du gouvernement. Nous suivrons de près les performances de la 5G en France grâce à Speedtest Intelligence. Si vous souhaitez en savoir plus sur la façon dont Speedtest Intelligence peut vous aider à comparer vos performances 5G à celles de vos concurrents, veuillez vous renseigner ici.

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Sylwia Kechiche

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Ookla | April 6, 2022

How CHT Monitors Taiwan’s Largest Live Events with Ookla Wind® [Case Study]

Taiwan is home to some of the most spectacular end-of-year celebrations in Asia, and local government entities planned several massive celebrations in different cities and regions of Taiwan to ring in New Year’s Eve 2022. With crowds of hundreds of thousands in attendance across six different venues, network congestion was a potential issue that could disrupt the festive experience and leave many frustrated with their operator’s mobile performance. It wasn’t enough for local operators to simply understand network conditions prior to the events, they also needed to monitor performance in real-time to proactively mitigate any congestion issues.

As the largest telecommunications company in Taiwan, ChungHwa Telecom (CHT) understood the stakes. CHT’s mission includes delivering fast, reliable network performance — which is especially critical during popular events where attendees want to upload their photos and videos to social media. CHT wanted to have testing and monitoring solutions in place to analyze performance at the events and act on any capacity-related performance issues in real-time.

The need for better live event monitoring

Traditional drive and walk testing solutions rely on the uploading and post-processing of massive log files — which just won’t work when meeting the immediate demands a large live event places on a network. While testing the venues beforehand can provide network insights, these tests only represent a snapshot in time during more typical usage conditions.

CHT couldn’t expect their network to perform the same way during a live event with hundreds of thousands of people in a single location all simultaneously texting and uploading photos and videos of the live music, fireworks, and celebrations. To deliver a superior network experience would take real-time data collection, processing, and visualization.

Read the full case study to learn more about how Wind helps with live event monitoring.

About the Author

Ookla

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Sylwia Kechiche | March 30, 2022

5G in The U.K.: Calls for Consolidation Grow

Key Takeaways

Operator Three UK led the U.K. market for 5G performance with a median download speed of 258.80 Mbps in Q3-Q4 2021.
EE led on 5G Availability at 19.3% during Q3-Q4 2021, but this remains low at a market level.
Like other European markets, the requirement to remove network equipment from Chinese vendors has negatively impacted the speed of 5G deployments in the U.K.
Based on the number of people per 5G base station, the U.K. lags behind other 5G pioneer markets, indicating a change in deployment is required.
U.K. regulator Ofcom has highlighted the need to drive greater mobile network capacity to meet future demand, with the release of mmWave spectrum and further network densification key levers. However, attention is likely to turn once again to market consolidation to help accelerate network densification — an area where Ofcom has felt the need to clarify its position.

5G network investment accelerating

The United Kingdom (U.K.) was among the first markets to launch 5G globally, with EE launching the 5G in May 2019. Since then, despite U.K. operators ramping up 5G investment, the market has been on par with many other European markets in terms of 5G performance, but the U.K. still lags behind 5G pioneers like South Korea and China as we saw in Q1-Q2 2021.

According to the Ofcom’s Connected Nations 2021 report, 5G network investment in the U.K. is accelerating, hitting £330 million in 2020 — an increase of over £150 million (88%) vs. 2019. Dense urban areas are mostly supported by high capacity C-band spectrum (awarded in 2018 and in 2021), increasingly augmented by hotspot deployments in suburban areas and around main transport corridors. The number of mobile base stations providing 5G services more than doubled last year — from 3,000 sites in 2020 to over 6,500 sites in 2021. Based on the U.K.’s population as of 2020, this would equate to over 10,000 people per 5G base station, placing it well behind South Korea, China, the EU average, and even the U.S. according to the EU 5G Observatory’s International Scoreboard.

In order to reduce costs and optimize network deployment, the U.K.’s mobile network operators already deploy and run a portion of their radio access network (RAN) via network sharing agreements. Mobile Broadband Network Limited (MBNL), is a 50-50 joint venture between EE and Three UK, to manage the design and operation of their shared network. Additionally, Cornerstone Telecommunications Infrastructure Limited (CTIL) is a 50-50 joint venture between O2 and Vodafone that owns and oversees the operators’ passive tower infrastructure.

O2 and Vodafone announced in 2019 that they would share 5G- active equipment, such as radio antennas, in order to reduce the time to launch and cost effectively deploy 5G. This excludes around 2,700 sites in densely populated areas (in over 20 cities) where the operators will maintain separate active RAN components to give them greater autonomy and enable more flexibility to meet customer requirements. In January 2021, Vodafone transferred its 50% share to Vantage Towers.

Ofcom highlights need for greater network capacity

A recent discussion paper by U.K. regulator Ofcom illuminated its future approach to mobile markets, and while it shied away from further regulation, it did highlight the need to plan for more network capacity to meet future demand. Additionally, Ofcom’s discussion paper highlighted releasing further spectrum, looking to technological advances to improve spectral efficiency, and the need for further network densification. However, the challenge for operators lies in supporting the level of network investment required given the current mobile market structure in the U.K..

There is a clear desire for further mobile network consolidation in the U.K. and elsewhere in Europe, with recent examples including the agreed joint venture between MasMovil and Orange in Spain, and Iliad’s recent bid for Vodafone Italy. The last time the U.K. market saw mobile consolidation was in 2010 with the merger of T-Mobile and Orange to form EE. Since then, subsequent attempts to drive further mobile consolidation — Three UK’s planned merger with O2 in 2016 — have been blocked by Ofcom and the European Commission. During Three UK’s recent 2021 results announcement, Robert Finnegan, Three UK’s Chief Executive Officer, warned that despite achieving positive results, “the U.K. market with four operators continues to remain dysfunctional and requires a structural change to improve the overall quality of infrastructure that U.K. customers should expect.”

Ofcom’s latest discussion paper alludes to a potential softening in its stance on mobile mergers, indicating that it would be “informed by the specific circumstances of that particular merger, taking into account how markets are evolving.” Given the strong move towards convergence, such as BT’s acquisition of EE and the more recent O2 and Virgin Media merger, further market consolidation cannot be ruled out.

Freeing up further spectrum for 5G use remains a priority

Since early 5G deployments, all four operators in the U.K. have been utilizing mid-band spectrum for 5G, which is considered a spectrum “sweet spot” that offers both fast speeds and broad geographic coverage. In April 2021, every operator boosted their spectrum holdings across the 700 MHz and 3.6-3.8 GHz spectrum bands. O2, for example, has started using low-band spectrum for 5G, and has recently committed to invest at least £10 billion in the U.K., delivering 5G to over 2,000 sites across the country in 2021. The operator’s 5G coverage currently extends to 300 towns and cities and is set to reach 50% of the U.K.’s population with its 5G services in 2023.

Operators have been also re-farming their legacy 2G and 3G spectrum for 5G and utilizing dynamic spectrum sharing (DSS) to facilitate dynamic use of 4G and 5G in the same bands. In December 2021, the government also announced the goal of switching off 2G and 3G networks by 2033 to free up spectrum for 5G. Ofcom’s recently published discussion paper on mobile networks and spectrum, identifies a large amount of mobile spectrum in the mmWave frequencies, which if allocated, will help boost network capacity. The regulator will consult on proposals to enable mmWave band in Q1 2022/23.

On the road to 5G standalone networks

5G is currently rolled out in a non-standalone (NSA) mode in the U.K., meaning that it still relies on the 4G LTE core network. We expect all operators to upgrade to 5G standalone (SA) in time, with 5G core networks and 5G RAN, especially as additional 5G capabilities proliferate such as ultra-low latency communication (URLC) and virtual network functions such as network slicing which will enable new 5G use cases. Operators in the U.K. are already trialing 5G SA: in June 2021 Vodafone launched a commercial pilot of 5G SA in London, Manchester, and Cardiff, which built on an earlier trial carried out with Coventry University in the summer of 2020. In March 2022, Vodafone and Ericsson completed the U.K.’s first 5G SA network slicing trial. It was a lab demonstration of 5G network slicing with on-demand quality of service control for virtual reality use case in a retail store. The slice guaranteed a download speed of 260 Mbps and latency of 12 milliseconds. It isn’t clear when Vodafone plans to commercially launch 5G SA but Vodafone Germany became the first operator to launch 5G SA in Europe last year.

The recent 5G SA collaboration between EE, the BBC, and Ericsson, “The Green Planet AR Experience,” showcased the unique capabilities of 5G SA and edge computing. Additionally, EE plans to extend 5G coverage to 90% of the U.K. geographical area by 2028, which will be facilitated by the migration to a cloud-based core and the launch of 5G SA by 2023. EE is also planning to sell 5G SA in a way that will resonate with the customers and bring “technology to them in a really human way”. This is a move away from EE advertising the benefits of 5G as being able to get a real-time close shave with a robotic arm. However, Marc Allera, CEO of BT Consumer (EE’s parent company), does not rule out metaverse as a possible proposition blending entertainment, sports broadcasting, gaming, and e-commerce.

Security worries pave the road to Open RAN

Huawei kit needs to be removed from a number of European countries, including the U.K. In July 2020, in response to U.S. sanctions against Huawei, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport (DCMS) announced that it overturned its earlier decision to exclude Huawei’s access from core and sensitive networks and, instead, completely remove Huawei’s kit from the U.K.’s 5G networks by the end of 2027. The government further pushed Open RAN expectations in December 2021 by setting a goal of having 35% of its telecom network traffic carried over Open RAN by 2030. This target is an aspirational one, rather than a hard mandated quota and is apparently supported by all mobile operators. It does come with a £250 million funding to support and accelerate the development of open and interoperable RAN, which is significantly less than €2 billion the German government has specifically dedicated for Open RAN as part of €50 billion Package for the Future.

In January 2022, Vodafone switched on the U.K.’s first 5G Open RAN site in Bath, Somerset, which is the first of 2,500 planned sites and marks the beginning of the first scaled Open RAN project in Europe. EE’s parent company, BT Group, is more skeptical about the technology, with Neil McRae, MD of Architecture and Strategy and chief architect at BT Group, reminding the MWC 2022 audiences that there are different paths operators can take to drive down costs and improve performance. Nonetheless, BT is trialing Open RAN in Hull to see how the technology can improve the customer experience of EE’s 5G network. We have discussed the current progress on Open RAN across Europe in our latest article 5G in Europe: Reflecting on the Progress So Far and Mapping the Future and reflected on the discussions on this topic at MWC 2022 here.

U.K. compared to its European peers

In our recent post “5G in Europe: Reflecting on the Progress So Far and Mapping the Future”, we looked at how different European countries stacked up against each other and international peers. Using Speedtest Intelligence®, we compared 5G in the U.K. against its peers’ 5G performance.France (190.17 Mbps) and Switzerland (188.27 Mbps) topped our list with the fastest median 5G download speeds during the second half of 2021, followed by the U.K. (176.22 Mbps), Ireland (162.46 Mbps), Germany (155.87 Mbps), and Netherlands (142.55 Mbps). Interestingly, despite all of the French operators launching 5G service in December 2020, relatively late compared to other analyzed countries, they achieved top median download speeds due to substantial network investments.

Switzerland, however, had the fastest median upload speed over 5G at 35.51 Mbps during Q3-Q4 2021, followed by the Netherlands (31.29 Mbps), Germany (25.80 Mbps), Ireland (21.20 Mbps), France (15.19 Mbps), and the U.K. (14.79 Mbps).

The Netherlands had the highest 5G Availability among the U.K’s peers

The ranking shifts when it comes to 5G Availability — the percentage of users on 5G-capable devices that spend most of the time with access to 5G networks. The Netherlands had the highest 5G Availability at 45.3%, followed by Switzerland (32.2%), the U.K. (12.4%), Ireland (11.7%), and France (11.5%).

The telecom regulator Ofcom in its Connected Nations report stated that the uptake of 5G-enabled handsets across the U.K. increased from 800,000 in 2020 to over six million in September 2021, accounting for around 10% of all devices. This is still far behind South Korea, which was the first country to commercialize 5G in 2019 and where the number of smartphone users on the 5G network reached roughly 20.2 million in November 2021, equivalent to 28% of mobile subscriptions.

According to Counterpoint Research, the U.K. is the leader in Western Europe in terms of 5G penetration of smartphone sales. In Q4 2021, 83% of smartphones sold in the U.K. were 5G enabled, compared to the regional average of 73%. In time, this will translate into a larger install base of 5G devices and share of overall subscriptions.

Three UK was the fastest 5G operator in the U.K.

Three UK had the fastest median 5G download speed among top operators, achieving 258.80 Mbps during Q3-Q4 2021, far ahead of Vodafone (170.39 Mbps), EE (166.87 Mbps), and O2 (139.61 Mbps). Median 5G upload speeds across all operators were very similar with Vodafone at 17.86 Mbps, EE at 15.89 Mbps, Three UK at 13.94 Mbps, and O2 at 11.47 Mbps during Q3-Q4 2021. Three UK benefited from having the largest, dedicated 5G spectrum — 140MHz frequency across several 5G spectrum bands, including 100 MH block of continuous spectrum in the 3.3-3.8 GHz band. Three UK’s 5G coverage extended to more than a third of the U.K. population across 370 towns and cities with 2,500 live sites. The operator launched fixed wireless access (FWA) 5G services in August 2019, followed by mobile 5G services in February 2020, which were built upon the 5G-ready, cloud-native core network provided by Nokia in July 2019. Three UK has invested over £2 billion to transform its network and IT infrastructure, as part of a five-year program.

EE leads on 5G Availability

EE had the highest 5G Availability at 19.3% during Q3-Q4 2021, ahead of Three UK (14.4%), Vodafone (9.8%), and O2 (7.8%). In a bid to extend its 4G LTE network coverage, EE has deployed small cells to boost capacity in high-demand areas. Soon, the operator will begin trials to extend the use of small cells to 5G networks by upgrading Nokia’s AirScale portfolio.

5G in the U.K. is rapidly expanding and we’ll be following the market closely

Mobile operators are actively expanding 5G networks and the 5G adoption in the U.K. is growing, stimulated by greater smartphone availability and operators’ innovative services. We’ll be watching 5G performance closely in the U.K. using Speedtest Intelligence. If you want to learn more about how Speedtest Intelligence can help you benchmark your 5G performance against competitors, please inquire here.

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Sylwia Kechiche

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Sylwia Kechiche | March 23, 2022

Ireland Puts 5G in the Fast Lane

The Irish government has recently launched a new national digital strategy, “Harnessing Digital – The Digital Ireland Framework,” to drive and enable digital transformation of the Irish economy and society. The government committed to enhance digital infrastructure by making connectivity available to everyone, including bringing 5G to all populated areas by 2030. We analyzed Speedtest Intelligence® data from Q3-Q4 2021 to see how Irish 5G speeds compared to those of Ireland’s regional peers and examined how Irish operators’ 5G networks performed across the country and against each other.

Ireland has already awarded mid-band 5G spectrum

Ireland was one of the first countries to assign spectrum in the 3.4 GHz – 4.2 GHz band, C-band spectrum, which is considered a sweet spot for 5G as it strikes a good balance between capacity and coverage. In June 2017, the Irish regulator, ComReg, granted new 3.6 GHz licenses to five operators for a total of €78m, consisting of €60.5m in upfront fees and around €17.7m in spectrum usage fees. The following companies purchased a total of 350 MHz of TDD spectrum, which has been assigned at a regional basis:

Vodafone Ireland received 85 MHz in rural regions and 105 MHz in the cities. The operator launched 5G services across five Irish cities in August 2019.
Eir Ireland obtained 80MHz in the rural regions and 85 MHz in the cities, and went live with 5G in December 2019.
Three Ireland was the only operator to receive a nationwide spectrum — 100 MHz nationally — and switched on its 5G network in September 2020.
Imagine Communications Ireland (Imagine), a fixed wireless operator, won 60 MHz in each of Ireland’s rural provinces. This will offer fixed wireless broadband to homes that are outside of the high speed broadband coverage and within the National Broadband Plan intervention area.
Airspan Spectrum Holdings (Airspan), a new entrant to the Irish market focused on smart utilities, transportation, and public safety, obtained 25 MHz in rural regions and 60 MHz in cities. It has since been rebranded to Dense Air Limited.

Provisional spectrum assignment in the 700 MHz band

A decision has been made at the European level to allow operators to use the 694-790 MHz frequency band (the 700 MHz frequency band) across Europe. In Ireland, RTÉ has been utilizing this band to broadcast national digital terrestrial television (DTT) but that license expired in March 2020. In order to free up the 700 MHz spectrum bands, services had to vacate these frequencies.

New regulation under the Wireless Telegraphy Act introduced in April 2020, allowed for the temporary assignment of licenses in the 700 MHz band to “help alleviate congestion on the telecommunications networks during the exceptional and extraordinary situation raised by the Covid-19 situation.” Initially, awarded for the period of three months, the temporary licenses have been extended to an indeterminate date when a spectrum auction will take place. Awarding a permanent 700 MHz license is critical, as low-band spectrum has very good propagation characteristics, which enable a wider geographic coverage footprint. This will be key to achieving the goal of covering populated areas with 5G by 2030.

Ireland 5G performance compared to its European peers

In our recent post “5G in Europe: Reflecting on the Progress So Far and Mapping the Future”, we looked at how different European countries stacked up versus each other and international peers. Here we compare 5G in Ireland against its peers’ 5G. During the second half of 2021, France (190.17 Mbps) and Switzerland (188.27 Mbps) topped our list with the fastest median 5G download speed, followed by the United Kingdom (176.22 Mbps), Ireland (162.46 Mbps), Germany (155.87 Mbps), and Netherlands (142.55 Mbps). Interestingly, despite all of the French operators launching 5G service in December 2020, relatively late compared to other analyzed countries, they achieved top median download speeds due to substantial network investments.

The Irish regulator, ComReg published the number of mobile 5G subscribers for the first time in Q3 2021. 5G mobile voice and mobile broadband (MBB) subscriptions increased 31.4% quarter over quarter from 298,479 in Q3 2021 to 392,082 in Q4 2021, accounting for 3.9% and 5.0% of subscriptions at the same time. However, operators are still looking for ways to stimulate market adoption. For instance, in order to increase 5G market adoption, eir has announced that as of November 1, 2021, 5G was enabled on all market mobile plans at no additional cost.

Cork had the fastest 5G download and upload speeds in Ireland

Cork was the clear winner for 5G speeds across Irish cities, with a median 5G download speed of 339.98 Mbps during Q3-Q4 2021, a 14% year-over-year increase for all operators combined. Cork also had a median 5G upload speed of 32.82 Mbps. Three Ireland’s 5G network in Cork reached a median download speed of 508.96 Mbps. Cork was ahead of the rest of the cities, which partially can be explained by being home to pharmaceutical and IT companies such as Apple, Amazon, and IBM. Cork also benefited from connectivity with the EXA Express undersea cable.

Three Ireland was the fastest 5G operator in Ireland

Despite being the last operator to jump on the 5G bandwagon in September 2020, Three Ireland has raced to the top in terms of median 5G download speed — achieving 238.70 Mbps in the Q3-Q4 2021, a 20% year-over-year increase. The median 5G upload speeds across all operators were very similar at 19.89 Mbps (Vodafone) and 22.35 Mbps for 3, and 22.24 Mbps for eir during Q3-Q4 2021. However, 3 Ireland has been hard at work with Ericsson to transform its Radio Access Network (RAN), rebuilding over 1,000 deployments. 3 Ireland also has the advantage of being able to use some of its excess capacity in the 1.8 GHz band to deploy 5G in rural villages and towns, a strategy that can take advantage of favorable propagation relative to 3.6 GHz.

Ericsson has been the partner of choice for Three, not only in terms of network roll out but also in terms of looking for new ways to monetize 5G. As such, in May 2021, Three Ireland joined Ericsson’s global Startup 5G program as the first communication provider. The goal of the program is to leverage 5G as a platform for innovation and thus stimulate 5G commercialization and monetization by introducing operators to startups in the area of immersive learning, augmented reality (AR), and virtual reality (VR) among other emerging technologies.

In July 2021, Ericsson and Three Ireland extended their collaboration to the field of Industry 4.0. They launched a strategic partnership with Glanbia Ireland to install an indoor 5G network to increase manufacturing efficiency of the Glanbia’s cheese plant in Ballyragget, County Kilkenny. However, this isn’t the first 5G private network in Ireland. In March 2021, Vodafone in partnership with Irish Manufacturing Research (IMR) rolled out a private 5G Standalone (SA) network utilizing Ericsson’s equipment. IMR, a not-for-profit manufacturing and energy research organization, plans to test smart manufacturing 5G use cases such as automated production lines, predictive maintenance, mobile robots, cobots, and AR and VR. These demonstrations of 5G capabilities in the manufacturing context are important to showcase the value digital transformation can bring to the sector by deploying private networks and creating bespoke use cases that enable greater latency and security.

eir tops the charts for 5G Availability

The picture is slightly different when it comes to 5G Availability — the percentage of users on 5G-capable devices that spend most of the time with access to 5G networks. 5G Availability across Ireland was 11.7% in Q3-Q4 2021. eir is a clear winner with 26.6%, ahead of 3 (8.2%) and Vodafone (6.4%).

eir’s €1 billion national investment programme includes roll outs for fiber broadband and 5G networks, as well as the expansion of 4G LTE networks. The operator has expanded the 5G Availability of its 5G NSA (Non-Standalone) network by using spectrum in the 1800 MHz and 3.5 GHz. In October 2021, eir announced that its 5G network was available to more than 70% of the Irish population (across 336 towns and cities), and increased this to 430 towns and cities during Q4 2021.

Vodafone, has also expanded 5G to its prepaid customer base and introduced a 5G broadband option in 2021, utilizing Dynamic Spectrum Sharing (DSS) in the 2.1 GHz band in partnership with Ericsson.

The Irish Government looks to 5G to help it to realize its digital transformation ambitions, and to position Ireland as a prime destination for international businesses. While it’s still early days in terms of 5G adoption in the market, the Irish mobile operators are actively expanding 5G network speeds and coverage. Learn more about how Speedtest Intelligence can help you benchmark your 5G performance against competitors.

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Sylwia Kechiche

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Mark Giles | March 14, 2022

Hong Kong & Macau: Migration to Faster Fiber Services Driving Performance Gains

讀中文

Operators in Hong Kong and Macau are continuing to drive migration of their customer bases from legacy fixed-line technologies to faster fiber and cable connections. Both markets are heavily saturated and connection growth remains low, with Hong Kong adding an additional 50,000 broadband subscribers to reach 2.92 million in total in the 10 months ended October 2021, while Macau saw fixed broadband subscribers grow by 4,000 to reach 206,000 during 2021.

The regulators in both markets provide detailed broadband subscription statistics. In Hong Kong, the Office of the Communications Authority (OFCA) tracks broadband adoption by advertised speed and technology mix. It recorded 85.4% of broadband subscribers on packages with a maximum download speed equal to or greater than 100 Mbps, and 80.3% fiber to the home/building (FTTH/B) as of October 2021. Of these, over half subscribe to broadband packages offering speeds of at least 1 Gbps. In Macau, the Macau Post and Telecommunications (CTT) tracks broadband adoption by technology, with 97.8% of Macau broadband subscribers using fiber at the end of 2021.

Global city ranking leaves room for improvement

We used Ookla® Speedtest Intelligence® data to rank the broadband performance of select cities globally. Across all cities with a minimum of 10,000 samples in Q4 2021, Hong Kong ranked 20 on median Wi-Fi download speeds with 184.80 Mbps, while Macau ranked 74 with a download speed of 129.90 Mbps. Despite strong download performance, median Wi-Fi upload speeds in Hong Kong lagged behind download performance, at 125.70 Mbps, while Macau recorded a more symmetrical median upload speed of 105.70 Mbps. Greater penetration of fiber in broadband access networks provides operators with the ability to offer more symmetrical upload and download speeds.

hong kong and macau performance versus other major global cities

Hong Kong: China Mobile Hong Kong leads on download performance

We examined fixed Wi-Fi performance in Hong Kong, excluding any 5G fixed-wireless internet connections from the analysis. Operators in Hong Kong offer a range of broadband packages based on network speeds, e.g. HGC offers subscriptions with download speeds ranging from 6 Mbps to 2.2 Gbps. Availability of higher speed subscription tiers depends on the operator’s footprint and whether fiber connectivity is to the premises (FTTP) or to the building (FTTB), with some buildings utilizing copper as part of the last mile. Migrating Hong Kong’s remaining FTTP connections (19.3% of total) to FTTH (61.0% of total) would help boost median speeds. China Mobile Hong Kong (CMHK) has gone one step further in a bid to boost home fiber speeds, launching a fiber to the room (FTTR) service in September 2021, which deploys optical cables within a house/apartment.

Hong Kong Fixed Wi-Fi Operator Performance

Our examination of fixed broadband Wi-Fi performance in Hong Kong shows CMHK, which obtained in excess of 3% of overall samples to be considered in this analysis in Q3 2021, in first place in Q4 2021, with a median download speed of 251.73 Mbps, followed by Netvigator with 216.06 Mbps. While operators continue to market broadband based primarily on download speeds, upload speeds continue to grow in importance given the increased prevalence of remote working and growth in demand for services such as video calling and online gaming. Netvigator led the market based on median upload speeds in Q4 2021, recording 174.72 Mbps, followed by CMHK and HKBN. Looking at the distribution of Wi-Fi samples between 5 GHz, which offers higher capacity than lower frequency bands, Netvigator and HKBN led the market based on percentage of 5 GHz samples, with 75.3% and 74.1% respectively.

Hong Kong: 5Ghz Share of Fixed Wi-Fi Operator Samples

Macau: CTM outstrips MTEL on overall performance

Macau lags Hong Kong on fixed Wi-Fi performance for both median download and upload speeds, despite the regulator CTT reporting widespread adoption of fiber in the market. Operators MTEL and CTM offer a range of fiber broadband plans for residential users, segmented by download speed. As of February 2022, MTEL offers packages ranging from 25 Mbps to 600 Mbps, while CTM offers a wider range of speeds, from 50 Mbps to its headline speed of 10 Gbps, introduced in September 2020.

Macau Fixed Wi-Fi Operator Performance

Speedtest Intelligence performance data for Macau during 2021 aligns with CTM’s focus on providing higher broadband speed tiers in the market. CTM maintained a significant performance gap over MTEL, recording a median download speed of 131.80 Mbps in Q4 2021, compared to MTEL with 72.26 Mbps. Upload performance between the two operators shows a similar picture, with CTM recording a median speed of 107.39 Mbps in Q4 2021, over double that of MTEL which recorded 52.26 Mbps. Looking at the distribution of Wi-Fi samples between 5 GHz and other bands, MTEL recorded a greater proportion of samples using 5 GHz than CTM.

Macau: 5 Ghz Share of Fixed Wi-Fi Operator Samples

In order to maintain or improve their position among top-performing cities globally, operators in Hong Kong and Macau need to drive greater availability of higher-speed broadband services, while encouraging existing customers to upgrade to faster speeds. For Hong Kong in particular, improving the penetration of routers which support 5 GHz Wi-Fi could help those operators which currently lag the market on overall performance. We’ll continue monitoring how fixed broadband performs across major cities like Hong Kong and Macau. If you want to learn more about Speedtest Intelligence, please inquire here.

香港和澳門：轉移到更快速的光纖服務將有助提升性能

香港及澳門的營辦商正在不斷向客戶進行推廣，希望他們轉用更快速的光纖及電纜網絡接駁，以取代傳統固網技術。但這兩個市場都已經嚴重飽和，網絡接駁增長仍然很低；2021 年的前10 個月內，香港增加了 50,000 名寬頻用戶，總數達到 292 萬；而澳門的固網寬頻用戶在 2021 年增加了4,000個，總數達到 206,000個。

兩個市場的監管機構均提供了詳細的寬頻訂閱統計數據。香港的通訊事務管理局（OFCA）透過營辦商宣傳的網速及技術追蹤寬頻用量：截至 2021 年 10 月，85.4% 的寬頻用戶使用最大下載速度等於或大於 100 Mbps 的服務計劃，80.3% 的寬頻用戶使用「光纖到戶」（FTTH）／「光纖到樓」（FTTB），其中超過一半人訂閱網速至少為 1 Gbps 的服務計劃。澳門郵電（CTT）則透過技術來追蹤寬頻用量：截至 2021 年底，97.8% 的澳門寬頻用戶使用光纖。

全球城市排名顯示仍有進步空間

我們使用 Ookla® Speedtest Intelligence®的數據，對全球選定城市的寬頻性能進行排名。在 2021 年第四季，在至少 10,000 個樣本的城市當中，香港的 Wi-Fi 下載速度中位數為 184.80 Mbps，排名第 20；而澳門以 129.90 Mbps 的下載速度排名第 74 位。但儘管香港的下載性能強勁，其Wi-Fi 上載速度中位數只有125.70 Mbps，仍然落後於下載速度；而澳門的上載速度中位數為105.70 Mbps，與下載速度中位數比較接近。如果光纖技術可以更滲透網絡市場，營辦商將能夠提供更接近的上載及下載速度。

hong kong and macau performance versus other major global cities

香港：中國移動香港的下載表現領先

我們測試了香港的固網 Wi-Fi 性能，但並不包括任何 5G 固網無線互聯網接駁。香港營辦商提供大量不同網速的寬頻計劃，例如HGC環電提供下載速度由6 Mbps至 2.2 Gbps的寬頻計劃。寬頻速度取決於營辦商的網絡覆蓋範圍，以及是使用「光纖到樓」（FTTP/FTTB）技術，而某些大廈在最後一英里會使用銅線接入。將香港剩餘的 FTTP接駁（佔總數的 19.3%）轉移為到 FTTH接駁（佔總數的 61.0%）將有助提升速度中位數。中國移動香港（CMHK）在2021年9月推出了FTTR (Fiber to the Room)技術，實現光纖接入房屋／單位內部，令家居光纖寬頻的網速又向前邁進了一步。

Hong Kong Fixed Wi-Fi Operator Performance

我們對香港固網寬頻 Wi-Fi 性能的測試顯示，中國移動香港在2021年第三季才開始成為Top Providers（獲得超過3%的總體樣本），因此在2021年第三季前無數據顯示。在 2021 年第四季度，中國移動香港以 251.73 Mbps 的下載速度中位數位居第一，而網上行則以216.06 Mbps排名第二。雖然營辦商繼續主要以下載速度來推銷其寬頻計劃，但鑑於遠程工作的日益普及，以及視像通話及網上遊戲等服務的需求增加，上載速度的重要性亦不斷上升。根據 2021 年第四季的上載速度中位數資料，網上行以174.72 Mbps領先市場，其次是中國移動香港及香港寬頻。根據5 GHz（比低頻段擁有更廣的覆蓋範圍與更強的穿透能力） Wi-Fi熱點分佈的樣本，網上行及香港寬頻以 5 GHz 樣本百分比領先市場，分別為 75.3% 和 74.1%。

Hong Kong: 5Ghz Share of Fixed Wi-Fi Operator Samples

澳門：澳門電訊的整體表現比MTel 電信更出色

儘管監管機構澳門郵電的報告顯示該市場廣泛採用光纖技術，但其固網 Wi-Fi 的下上載速度均落後於香港。營辦商MTel 電信有限公司及澳門電訊為住宅用戶提供一系列不同下載速度的光纖寬頻計劃。2022 年 2 月，MTel 電信有限公司提供下載速度由25 Mbps 至 600 Mbps的寬頻計劃，而澳門電訊則提供50 Mbps至10 Gbps（於2020年9月推出的主打）的寬頻計劃，速度範圍更廣泛。

Macau Fixed Wi-Fi Operator Performance

Speedtest Intelligence 的2021年澳門網路連接速度表現數據反映了澳門電訊致力於向市場提供更快速的寬頻服務。在2021 年第四季，澳門電訊的下載速度中位數為131.80 Mbps，其性能遠超只有72.26 Mbps的MTel 電信；而兩者的上載速度中位數差距亦很大，澳門電訊的上載速度中位數為107.39 Mbps，比只有52.26 Mbps 的 MTel 電信快兩倍。如比較5 GHz及其他頻段Wi-Fi熱點分佈的樣本，MTel 電信5 GHz Wi-Fi熱點分佈的樣本百分比較澳門電訊高。

Macau: 5 Ghz Share of Fixed Wi-Fi Operator Samples

如要保持或提高在全球表現最好城市中的排名，港澳兩地的營辦商需要提供更高的高速寬頻服務可及性，同時鼓勵現有客戶升級到更快速的寬頻計劃。特別是香港，如果支援 5 GHz Wi-Fi的設備可以更滲透市場，便可以幫助那些目前在整體性能方面落後於市場的營辦商。我們將繼續監測固網寬頻在香港和澳門等主要城市的表現。如果您想了解更多有關Speedtest Intelligence的資訊，請到此處查詢。

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Mark Giles

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Sylwia Kechiche | March 9, 2022

Ookla at MWC: the Analyst Take

Two years after its cancellation in 2020, Mobile World Congress (MWC) Barcelona returned to its original timeslot. The war in Ukraine cast a shadow over the event, with many speakers condemning the ongoing military action and calling for peace. Despite this, the show must be deemed a success, with in excess of 60,000 attendees, pointing to strong desire from industry players to meet, do business, and talk about the future of the industry. MWC 2022’s overall theme was “Connectivity Unleashed”, and looked to showcase how mobile connectivity is transforming industries and wider society.

Our recent article, 5G Come of Age: Five Predictions for 2022, outlined our view on the major trends which would drive industry debate at MWC. A number of these were front and center of the show, including a major focus across the ecosystem on reducing the environmental impact of 5G, and on network deployment models (including private networks). The surprise was that there was little to no discussion of 6G, with much of the network technology debate centered on improvements to 5G. However, the mantle of longer-term technology “hot topic” has clearly shifted from 6G to the Metaverse. While still an emerging topic, there was clear excitement at the emergence of a true B2C use case for high-capacity, low-latency 5G networks.

All in all, it was great to be back. By convening players from across the industry, MWC helps drive industry debate more than any other telecom conference, while allowing those who follow the industry closely the opportunity to test viewpoints and assumptions, and also to take stock. We’ve summarized our key takeaways below.

The race to Net Zero

Telecoms was one of the first industries to commit to Net Zero carbon emissions by 2050. Not surprisingly, it was a clear discussion topic and there were many sustainability related propositions on display. In fact, energy-efficiency KPIs are built into 5G and future 6G standards under IMT-2020 specifications. Asian operators that have already seen large 5G network build ups have shared their perspective on how decarbonisation efforts are not limited to network equipment, operations and data centers but also include office buildings. KT mentioned that it has decreased total power consumption 13%-23% from its 5G network radio units, achieving financial savings of 6.8 billion won (US$5.6 million) and removing 26,000 tonnes of CO2.

Allison Kirkby, president and CEO of Telia shared how IoT can uncover sustainability and how going one step further and creating a circular economy can have further benefits. Telia’s data mapping project, which utilizes collated and anonymized data proved to be an effective tool to monitor the pandemic and can also be used to design efficient transport routes, therefore reducing emissions.

Network equipment vendors also came with products that address sustainability goals. Nokia introduced its Liquid Cooling AirScale portfolio that reduced the energy required to cool a base station; while Ericsson announced seven new RAN products and solutions reducing power consumption by 25%.

Open-RAN makes inroads

Open-RAN’s poster child, Rakuten Mobile, has discussed how its desire to “democratize wireless connectivity” led it down the Open-RAN path. Rakuten has announced that its subsidiary Rakuten Symphony and Cisco are joining focus and signing Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for a joint go to market offer combining Cisco mobile routing switching and automation portfolio and Rakuten’s Open-RAN, orchestration and full suite of Symworld application. It has also announced the acquisition of U.S.-based cloud native networking specialist Robin.io, an “application store for kubernetes.”

There is, for sure, a lot of excitement about Open-RAN especially in Europe and we have discussed the current status of Open-RAN in our latest research. However, while Open-RAN is a great example of industry collaboration, there are still challenges that need to be addressed, such as integration and security, as pointed out by Fujitsu’s SVP, Greg Manganello. Open-RAN is also not the only way ahead, Neil McRae, MD of Architecture and Strategy and chief architect at BT Group, reminded the audiences that there are different paths operators can take to drive down costs and improve performance.

Metaverse: Excitement but challenges aplenty

MWC has always been a forward-looking conference, but this year’s event was a little different. Instead of looking ahead to the next generation of network tech (6G), it was the Metaverse which permeated headlines, show media and many company booths. Examples at the booths we visited ranged from re-badged VR experiences (akin to those demoed at previous MWCs) to examples of volumetric video. Really these served to highlight that the concept of Metaverse is still in its early days. What’s refreshing for the industry is that with the Metaverse we are moving from what was hitherto a product push of new technology (5G/AR/VR etc), to an emerging set of use cases (both consumer and enterprise) which will then drive discussion of their technology requirements.

On Monday, February 27, Meta released a statement from its CEO Mark Zuckerberg, that “creating a true sense of presence in virtual worlds delivered to smart glasses and VR headsets will require massive advances in connectivity, bigger than any of the step changes we’ve seen before.” Some of these requirements will be met by continued advances in 5G, but will also inevitably feed into how 6G networks are framed. For network operators however, a familiar issue looms large — that of the business model to support the level of network investment Meta is calling for. Only a few weeks before MWC began, the CEOs of Europe’s largest operator groups (Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telefonica, and Vodafone) released a statement calling the current situation unsustainable, and that “as things stand, network operators are in no position to negotiate fair terms with these giant platforms due to their strong market positions, asymmetric bargaining power and the lack of a level regulatory playing field.”

While it’s early days, it will be interesting to see how the concept of the Metaverse shapes 5G and future network technology, but also more importantly how the industry solves this perennial business model dilemma.

Growing interest in private 5G networks

As 5G use cases came to the fore, so did the private 5G networks. A range of operators and vendors showcased their private networks offering at the show. Orange, Vodafone, Telstra, Verizon, and AT&T were just some of the telcos who were showcasing and discussing private 5G pointing to the importance of private networks as a way to address enterprises’ needs. Vendors made a slew of announcements and partnerships. Qualcomm and Microsoft partnered up to deliver an End to End (E2E) private 5G solution consisting of Qualcomm’s 5G hardware with Azure Private MEC. Cisco announced its Private 5G as-a-Service that combines 5G, IoT, and Wi-Fi under one umbrella and introduces Open-RAN via a collaboration with JMA and Airspan. HPE combined a private 5G network with its Aruba WiFi networks promoted as “5G in a box.”

New devices announced despite chip shortages

MWC used to be very much a smartphone show. It is so much more now, with a range of connected devices from large (think cars) to small (sensors) on the show. Device OEMs Qualcomm, Oppo, Samsung, and others, had a few announcements such as Oppo’s Air Glass wearables, Nokia’s C-series, and Lenovo’s new ThinkPad x13. However, the connectivity that permeates every aspect of society heavily relies on chipsets. Most blame the COVID-19 pandemic for the disruption of the supply chains and the resultant chipset shortages, but Qualcomm president and CEO Cristiano Amon believes that this was unavoidable due to a growing number of connected devices. In his keynote speech, he welcomed the state involvement in the shape of the European Chips Act but also the Chips for America act as a way to increase the Western world manufacturing capacity. Qualcomm is still experiencing “more demand than supply” but it foresees this to lessen towards the end of the year.

Please get in touch if you’d like to speak to us about any of these industry trends.

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Sylwia Kechiche

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Ookla | February 14, 2022

How Batelco Uses Crowdsourced Network Intelligence to Continuously Improve Bahrain’s Top-Rated Mobile Network [Case Study]

With digital transformation at the forefront of national policy and real estate development booming, Bahrain’s mobile operators have needed to expand their networks for fast, reliable connectivity throughout the Kingdom. To continue to provide the best network performance and coverage, Bahrain-based mobile operator Batelco determined that existing methods for evaluating and validating network performance would need to be modernized in order to scale with the nation’s developments.

Batelco’s mission is to serve and inspire customers by building, operating and investing in digital services, forefront technology, and connectivity. To that end, Batelco uses Ookla Cell Analytics™ to gain insights on customer network experience, indoor and outdoor RF conditions, and where to prioritize network investments.

Situation

Traditional methods for evaluating network performance and customer experience — such as on-site visits, customer surveys, and walk tests — can be time-consuming and costly. Furthermore, it simply isn’t possible to walk-test certain locations, such as private homes and businesses. As Bahrain’s demand for high-speed mobile coverage increased, it became clear that Batelco needed a scalable, data-driven method to determine where to invest in network improvements — and to identify areas where low-cost network optimizations would immediately improve the customer network experience.

Read the full case study

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Ookla

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Improving Campus Wi-Fi Connectivity

Ookla Joins Ericsson's Leading Telecommunications Open RApp System

How TRC Jordan Ensures Reliable, Resilient Connectivity with Ookla Data [Case Study]

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Situation

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Ookla

MTN Performed Best Among Operator Groups in Sub-Saharan Africa

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Key messages:

MTN South Africa delivered the fastest median download speed in Q2 2022

Vodafone in Johannesburg stole the show

MTN got ahead of Orange, Airtel, and Vodacom

Airtel versus MTN

MTN versus Orange

Vodacom versus Airtel

Orange versus Vodacom versus Airtel

MTN versus Vodacom

Mobile networks don’t exist in a vacuum

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Sylwia Kechiche

5G in Central and Eastern Europe: Poland Still Waits for True 5G While Bulgaria Sprints Ahead

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Key takeaways

The EU funds set to stimulate digital transformation

Mid-band is most assigned spectrum across Central and Eastern Europe

Bulgaria leads 5G speeds

5G Availability skyrocketed in Bulgaria during 2021

Sofia comes first in 5G median download speed and 5G Availability

Poles need more education on the benefits of 5G

Plus led on 5G download speed in Poland

Play had the best 5G Availability in Poland

Łódź has the fastest 5G network among major Polish cities

5G w Europie Środkowo-Wschodniej: Polska wciąż czeka na prawdziwe 5G, podczas gdy Bułgaria pędzi do przodu

Kluczowe wnioski

Fundusze unijne mają stymulować transformację cyfrową

Średnie pasmo to najczęściej przydzielane pasmo w Europie Środkowo-Wschodniej

Bułgaria liderem prędkości 5G

5G Availability wzrosła w Bułgarii w 2021 r.

Sofia zajmuje pierwsze miejsce pod względem mediany prędkości pobierania i 5G Availability

Polacy potrzebują więcej edukacji na temat korzyści 5G

Plus prowadzi w prędkości pobierania 5G w Polsce

Play miał najlepszą 5G Availability w Polsce

Łódź ma najszybszą sieć 5G wśród największych polskich miast

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Sylwia Kechiche

5G Drives French Digital Transformation

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Key takeaways

The need for 5G networks densification

Doubling down on enterprise digitalization

Sustainability is high on French operators’ agenda

France leads amongst its regional peers for median download speeds

Orange steams ahead for median 5G download speed

France is middle of the road when it comes to 5G Availability

Free leads on 5G Availability

Orange 5G Consistency stood at just over 90%

Bordeaux has the fastest 5G

5G in France is rapidly expanding and we’ll be following the market closely

La 5G est le moteur de la transformation La 5G est le moteur de la transformation numérique française

Principaux points à retenir

La nécessité de densifier les réseaux 5G

Doubler la numérisation des entreprises

Le développement durable est une priorité pour les opérateurs français

La France est en tête de ses pairs régionaux pour les vitesses de téléchargement médianes.

Orange va de l’avant pour une vitesse de téléchargement 5G médiane

La France se situe à mi-chemin en matière de disponibilité de la 5G

Des pistes gratuites sur la disponibilité de la 5G

La cohérence 5G d’Orange s’est établie à un peu plus de 90%.

Bordeaux dispose de la 5G la plus rapide

La 5G en France est en pleine expansion et nous suivrons le marché de près.

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Sylwia Kechiche

How CHT Monitors Taiwan’s Largest Live Events with Ookla Wind® [Case Study]

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Hong Kong & Macau: Migration to Faster Fiber Services Driving Performance Gains