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Case Study

How Three Builds and Maintains the UK’s Fastest 5G Network

“Ookla network intelligence helps us analyze and optimize our 5G network, and our Speedtest Award helps us publicize our position as the Fastest 5G Network in the United Kingdom.” 

Iain Milligan
Chief Network Officer at Three UK

Benefits

  • Prioritized areas with the highest impact on end-users for 5G network improvements
  • Extended 5G to more than a third of the UK population across 370 towns and cities with 2,500 live sites
  • More than tripled median download speed for all network technologies since launching 5G in 2019

 

When the United Kingdom became one of the first markets to launch 5G globally, mobile operators quickly began competing to build the best 5G network. As every mobile operator in the market ramped up investment to expand 5G, Three UK invested over £2 billion as part of a five-year program to deliver the UK’s Fastest 5G Network. These investments included network intelligence  to enable data-driven network improvements. 

Three uses Ookla Speedtest IntelligenceⓇ to find geographic areas for 5G network improvements. As a result of their network investments, Three has won the Speedtest Award™ for Fastest 5G Network for four consecutive award periods including Q3-Q4 2022, Q1–Q2 2022, Q3–Q4 2021, and Q1–Q2 2021.

Situation 

When the United Kingdom auctioned off spectrum licenses in 2021, Three acquired the largest dedicated band of 5G spectrum — 140MHz frequency across several 5G spectrum bands, including a 100 MHz block of contiguous spectrum in the 3.3-3.8 GHz band. To build out a top-performing 5G network — especially with their recent 5G spectrum acquisition — it was important that Three understood where to invest in improvements in order to prioritize network build-outs that would result in the most consumer benefit. 

Solution 

Using Speedtest Intelligence, Three was able to identify areas for 5G network prioritization. In the following example from Manchester, the red dots represent areas with poor 5G performance, highlighting problem areas in the city center that existed in 2020. 

Three was able to analyze their 5G performance in Manchester to pinpoint areas for improvement in the city center. In this way, Three was able to prioritize network build-outs that would improve 5G performance and coverage across the entire country. 

Outcome

Since launching 5G in 2019, Three has extended 5G coverage to more than a third of the UK population across 370 towns and cities, with 2,500 live sites. Three’s median download speed for all network technologies has increased consistently over the past three years. Starting at 16.32 Mbps in 2019 and jumping to 57.72 Mbps in 2022, they’ve more than tripled their median download speed. 

This increase is largely due to their investment in 5G. When comparing 4G and 5G speeds, you can see how 5G technology has increased overall network performance.

After using Ookla network intelligence to help build the UK’s Fastest 5G Network, Three won the Speedtest Award for Fastest 5G Network. 

By licensing the award, Three was able to showcase the superiority of their network on digital marketing campaigns, their website, social media, and on television — backed with verified, unbiased third-party data. Each advertisement features their digital Speedtest Award asset: 

Consumers who saw these ads were significantly more likely to associate Three with having the UK’s Fastest 5G Network. 

Operators can use Ookla’s crowdsourced network intelligence to prioritize network improvements for the biggest impact on consumer experience, and then leverage the Speedtest brand to build consumer awareness. 

Watch the video, “In Conversation with Three UK on Achieving Terabit 5G Speeds.” 

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About Three UK

Three UK is part of the CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd group of companies which has mobile operations in 11 countries. Three launched in 2003 as the UK’s first 3G only network, laying its foundations as the network that was born to be different.

 

Ookla retains ownership of this content, including all of the intellectual property rights, data, images, graphs, and analysis. This content may not be quoted, reproduced, distributed, or published for any commercial purpose without prior consent.

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Case Study

How the OECD Uses Ookla Speedtest® Data to Bridge Rural-Urban Connectivity Divides

“Universal and reliable access to the internet is a necessity now more than ever. In support of national governments’  efforts to help communities overcome digital deserts, the OECD has built a partnership with Ookla for Good™. Their open datasets enable us to assess the progression of broadband development. For the first time, this allowed us to have granular information in rural areas, in a harmonized manner for G20 and OECD countries, where quality data on a global scale is more challenging to source.”

Michelle Marshalian
Economist, Regional and Rural Policy Unit at the OECD

Benefits

  • Utilized Ookla For Good data in multiple OECD published works including reports, presentations, and international policy reviews 
  • Provided insight into the state of connectivity in over 50 countries 
  • Communicated the availability of new resources for policy analysis to national and sub-national government agencies
  • Facilitated local governments’ access to federal resources, supporting communities to reduce digital divides

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) provides analysis and establishes evidence-based standards to inform international policy that solves social and economic challenges, including connectivity. The OECD leverages network performance data from the Ookla for Good™ open data initiative in their evaluation of broadband speeds across territorial levels within countries — including rural and remote regions where consistent global data is often more difficult to source. This collaboration supports efforts to close the rural-urban connectivity divide as governments and policymakers worldwide rely on recommendations set forth by OECD analysis and reporting.

Situation

People depend on reliable connectivity; the internet is crucial for accessing information, services, work opportunities, and education. Despite the increasing necessity for connectivity to participate in society, many rural communities have been left behind when it comes to ensuring fast and reliable internet access, as well as proper resources to support digital literacy skills. While internet traffic has increased over 1,000x throughout the past two decades, these digital deserts are missing the necessary broadband infrastructure to support network traffic.

G20, a forum for international economic cooperation comprising 19 countries and the European Union, had set forth agreements emphasizing the need to improve digital infrastructure in order to ensure universal and affordable access to the internet for all by 2025. Recognizing its role in informing actionable policy for governments worldwide, the OECD set out to study fixed and mobile network accessibility in rural areas. The OECD needed a way to measure the extent of digital divides between urban and rural areas within G20 countries. This data would play an important role in understanding user experience and benchmarking performance of the existing fixed and mobile networks.

Solution

The OECD leveraged Ookla For Good open datasets to uncover geographical inequality in internet access and to offer actionable recommendations for policy makers to drive broadband development. They published a report titled “Bridging Digital Divides in G20 Countries” using Ookla’s Global Fixed and Mobile Network Performance Maps and other data sources. In the report, the OECD assessed the differences in both fixed and mobile download speeds experienced by users in cities, towns, and rural areas within the G20 countries. The data revealed that rural areas were underserved, experiencing overall poorer network performance. In the below chart, you can see the gap between urban and rural areas is significant in most countries.

 

The OECD found that fixed download speeds in rural areas were 31% below the national average. In contrast, fixed download speeds in cities were 21% above the national average, highlighting the rural-urban connectivity divide. This 52% point difference highlighted the disparities within countries in the quality and performance of broadband connections.

Outcome

The report surfaced critical measurements of the disparities in network performance between urban and rural areas. Along with identifying the gaps in download speeds experienced by users, the OECD further revealed that limited connectivity and lower fixed broadband speeds may be linked to the lower share of individuals with digital skills in rural areas. The OECD found that addressing the issues of connectivity and digital literacy is paramount to strengthening the economic and social revitalization of these areas. The report concluded with detailed policy mechanisms that have proven to progress connectivity, emphasizing the importance of fostering competition among network providers, promoting investment, and easing infrastructure-related regulations to streamline the deployment process. There was particular consideration on policies and regulatory measures that encourage broadband development and deployment in rural areas to bridge the connectivity divide.

The OECD continues to collaborate with Ookla as a data partner, utilizing Ookla for Good open datasets in order to evaluate internet accessibility worldwide, and reporting these findings to inform policy decisions that aid local and regional development.

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About the OECD

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is a multi-disciplinary inter-governmental organization of 38 member countries. Its core mission is to help governments work together towards a stronger, cleaner, fairer global economy.

Ookla retains ownership of this content, including all of the intellectual property rights, data, images, graphs, and analysis. This content may not be quoted, reproduced, distributed, or published for any commercial purpose without prior consent.

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Case Study

How the State of Vermont Gets an Accurate View of Mobile Network Coverage and Quality with Ookla Solutions

  • Identified areas of poor coverage with crowdsourced data to more efficiently plan drive test routes
  • Tested mobile networks across more than 6,500 miles of state roadways to understand how operators are performing
  • Identified specific areas with poor service on certain operator networks to submit for the FCC challenge process, which helps determine funding prioritization

When driving along major federal and state-funded roadways, Vermont state residents consistently experience poor cell service and dropped calls. Drivers are unable to call 911 in an emergency with such poor coverage — and in many instances, no coverage — even along many of the state’s federally funded highways. The lack of reliable mobile network coverage has become not only a common complaint from residents, but a real public safety concern. 

The State of Vermont Department of Public Service (PSD) used Ookla Cell AnalyticsTM to identify areas of poor network coverage with crowdsourced data and Ookla Wind® to perform drive testing in those locations to get detailed coverage and performance metrics along state roadways.

Situation

The FCC coverage maps are based on operator-provided information, and they show that coverage is sufficient in Vermont. Operators’ claims of sufficient coverage have made it difficult for the state to receive the funding needed to address known mobile service issues. On the FCC Maps, you can see that both Verizon and AT&T show that their LTE Voice coverage for making phone calls spans across the entire state. 

Since these maps are so influential in funding decision processes, Vermont needed a way to prove that the on-the-ground experience of residents does not match up with FCC coverage maps. For PSD, identifying areas that lack service has been a critical step toward the expansion and improvement of mobile wireless service around the state. 

Solution

PSD used crowdsourced data drawn from millions of real-world network measurements in Cell Analytics to identify problem areas and determine drive test routes. Cell Analytics data helped them plan the most efficient and cost-effective way to drive test the state, focusing on the areas that needed it most. Below is an example of Cell Analytics data for the Montpelier area which indicates very weak signal strength (in red) along the roadways north of the capital city. 

After the routes had been determined, PSD used Ookla Wind, a mobile handset-based testing and monitoring solution, to perform the drive test. From July to September 2022, Vermont Agency of Transportation employees drove more than 6,500 miles of state roadway. Since Wind is the only drive-test solution that leverages Ookla’s industry-standard Speedtest® and the global Speedtest Server Network™, they were able to capture network performance data that accurately reflects user experience. Agency of Transportation employees set out on their routes with Wind handsets that were equipped to continuously conduct internet tests and voice calls for six networks: AT&T, FirstNet, T-Mobile, US Cellular, Verizon, and VTel Wireless. 

Wind provided instant analytics that allowed PSD to quickly compile coverage maps and performance reports for all the operators. The example below shows the drive-test results for the Montpelier area of Vermont. Just as Vermont had observed from the crowdsourced intelligence in Cell Analytics, the drive-test results showed many failed calls along the roadways north of Montpelier. 

Outcome 

The State of Vermont was able to efficiently drive test key routes to understand where network improvements were needed. The results of the drive test were published to the PSD website, and made accessible to the public through an interactive map. 

Vermont’s work with Ookla has attracted a lot of media attention and has shed light on the mobile coverage issues across the state. It has spurred action among community members who are emailing their local legislators with the results of the drive test to demonstrate their wireless service issues. 

FCC chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel has encouraged PSD to submit the data as part of the FCC challenge process and Vermont plans to do so. Vermont governor Phil Scott has proposed $10 million in funding for the construction of up to 20 new cell tours in the highest priority areas of the state. The drive-test results will inform municipal planning and where to prioritize funding if it is secured.

Ookla’s industry-leading Cell Analytics platform and Wind drive-test solution provide results that state and local governments can rely on to identify areas that lack coverage. With these insights, they can make the most informed, data-driven decisions on planning, funding prioritization, and relationships with mobile network operators.

 

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About The Vermont Department of Public Service

The Vermont Department of Public Service (Department) is an agency within the executive branch of Vermont state government. Its charge is to represent the public interest in matters regarding energy, telecommunications, water and wastewater. The Department provides long range planning for the state’s telecommunications needs through the Vermont Telecommunications Plan

Ookla retains ownership of this content, including all of the intellectual property rights, data, images, graphs, and analysis. This content may not be quoted, reproduced, distributed, or published for any commercial purpose without prior consent.

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Case Study

How Digicel Samoa Attracted 20% More Subscribers with Brand Campaigns Backed by Ookla®

“As the provider of the fastest network in Samoa, we wanted to raise consumer awareness of our superior network performance. Backing our campaigns with validation from Ookla led to greater customer loyalty and engagement.”

Harpreet Bhullar
Chief Operations Officer at Digicel Samoa

Benefits

  • Increased net new subscriber adds by 20%
  • Reduced subscriber churn by 1.5% month-over-month
  • Increased monthly data usage per subscriber by 15%

Digicel provides telecommunications services to the island of Samoa, where there are just over 200,000 residents and two leading mobile operators. In a winner-takes-all market, it’s vital to capture the trust and loyalty of your subscribers. When the competing operator started offering less expensive plan options, Digicel needed to retain subscribers by showcasing their superior network performance to both existing and prospective customers. 

As part of their mission to be the very best in delivering digital services, experiences, and connectivity, Digicel has been continuously improving their network performance. As a result of these efforts they were awarded the Speedtest Award™ for Fastest Mobile Network Operator during Q1–Q2 2022. Digicel licensed this Speedtest Award for use in their brand campaigns to help promote their superior network and build consumer trust. 

Situation

For an operator to win consumer trust, it’s important to be able to back claims about your network with verified third-party data. Digicel wanted Samoan consumers to know they could expect the best performance on their network — and for their brand and marketing campaigns to be verified by a source that consumers recognize and trust.

Digicel leveraged independent, verified third-party data from Ookla® to back their claims and inform customers they have the fastest network in the market — and to attract subscribers from their rival operator.

Solution

Digicel Samoa licensed the Speedtest Award for Fastest Mobile Network Operator during Q1–Q2 2022. To win this award, Digicel achieved a Speed ScoreTM of 25.34, based on real-world network performance results measured by consumers using Speedtest®. By licensing Speedtest Awards, operators have the right to make definitive, verified claims about the superiority of their network in a given market.

Digicel Samoa launched a brand campaign showcasing their Speedtest Award, including digital advertising, social media advertising, and out-of-home advertising at retail outlets.

Digicel’s campaigns drew parallels between peak physical performance and network performance. The sports selected had meaning as well: fire dancing and paddling are popular sports in the Pacific Island countries and are rooted in Samoan history as sports practiced by warriors. With the broadest consumer recognition in the test and measurement industry, the Speedtest brand reinforced these claims and informed consumers that Digicel’s marketing was based on real-world network performance tests.

By publicizing the superiority of their network, Digicel reminded existing customers that they were experiencing the fastest mobile network in the country, and attracted new subscribers looking for better network performance. 

Outcome

Through their campaign, Digicel increased brand awareness and customer engagement across the island of Samoa, attracting new subscribers and seeing increased data usage by existing subscribers. By backing their ads with the Speedtest brand, Digicel leveraged the consumer trust that comes with Ookla’s decades of experience measuring and reporting on the state of global networks. 

As a result of the campaign, Digicel increased net subscriber adds by 20% and reduced monthly customer churn by 1.5%. Their customers have also taken advantage of the superior speeds Digicel offers, utilizing 15% more data per month.

Operators across the globe capture real benefits — including increased market share, reduced customer churn, better loyalty and engagement, and improved brand perception — by backing marketing campaigns with Ookla’s validated third-party data.

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About Digicel

Digicel is a mobile telecommunications operator which started operations in 2001. It has a presence in 33 countries across the Caribbean, Central America and Pacific Islands, serving more than 8 million customers.

Ookla retains ownership of this content, including all of the intellectual property rights, data, images, graphs, and analysis. This content may not be quoted, reproduced, distributed, or published for any commercial purpose without prior consent.

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Case Study

How TRC Jordan Ensures Reliable, Resilient Connectivity with Ookla Data

“TRC Jordan is committed to the development of accessible, reliable broadband and mobile internet access. Ookla data helps us assess the performance, quality, and coverage of mobile networks so that we can hold operators accountable for their networks, promote competition, inform policy decisions, and allocate funding appropriately — resulting in faster, more accessible networks for our constituents.”

Zeid AlKadi
Director of Licensees and Consumer Affairs, Telecommunications Regulatory Commission - Jordan

Benefits

  • Improved nationwide mobile network speeds under increased demand during the pandemic
  • Rapidly and remotely resolved a larger amount of consumer complaints than ever before
  • Gained unprecedented insight into operatorsʼ spectrum utilization and commitments post-allocation

Download the full PDF of this case study in Arabic.

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.

Solution

TRC applied remote monitoring, performance evaluation, and operator compliance — and empowered their team with network intelligence to help resolve consumer complaints. TRC uses Ookla’s Speedtest Intelligence® and Cell Analytics™ to identify needed network improvements, understand operators’ spectrum utilization post-allocation, and resolve complaints.

Maintaining network resiliency during the pandemic

On March 16, 2020, after Jordan’s nationwide lockdown went into effect, TRC rolled out a temporary free spectrum allocation for operators in order to improve connectivity. TRC used Cell Analytics to validate that operators were using the spectrum (as well as to ensure that operators gave the spectrum back at the conclusion of the temporary allocation in June 2022). TRC also analyzed the spectrum utilization over the 24-month period to see how operators deployed specific network technologies (such as LTE) in key areas. 

Using Speedtest Intelligence, TRC was able to see how speeds were improved in Jordan as a result of the free spectrum allocation. From March 2020 to May 2020, the median national mobile download speed nearly doubled, and Jordan’s Speedtest Global Index ranking jumped 25 spots. 

Using crowdsourced data — as opposed to traditional time-consuming data collection methods such as walk testing — allowed TRC to safely and remotely oversee all coverage and quality issues during the lockdown. Using Cell Analytics, TRC was able to remotely resolve 97% of consumer complaints about network coverage and quality. Crowdsourced coverage analysis also helped reveal a digital divide related to coverage and capacity issues, so TRC could better prioritize coverage enhancements for underserved locations, such as remote quarantine areas in the North Dead Sea and the Al Omari Cross Border. 

Validating operator commitments

The spread of Covid-19 made it unsafe to send probes into the field to validate operator commitments, so TRC leveraged crowdsourced network intelligence to maintain 24/7 operator performance monitoring. With Cell Analytics, operator commitments such as site optimization, base station buildups, technology additions, and spectrum commitments could all be validated remotely. TRC remotely validated site buildup commitments and coverage indicators as per the Universal Service Commitment — as well as monitor service availability and identify areas with poor coverage as per the National Roaming Migration Agreement. 

Gaining visibility into indoor mobile performance, fixed internet availability, and operator interconnection points

Looking at the full connectivity landscape in Jordan, TRC leveraged Ookla data to understand other key indicators of consumer connectivity, including:

  • Availability of fixed-line internet, using latency and throughput to discern technology type for Fiber to the Home (FTTH) and ADSL
  • Visibility into indoor consumer network experience, which is impossible to measure via controlled testing
  • Ability to discover cross-border connection points and match operator network flow with what was initially submitted during licensing — to understand and improve points of operator interconnection 

Outcome

By integrating crowdsourced data into its daily operations, TRC saw both cost and time savings from the traditional benchmarking methods used previously. Virtual benchmarking has allowed for continuous data collection of higher sample counts — at a lower cost and with no hardware maintenance issues.

As a result, Jordan’s speeds have improved significantly year over year. As you can see in the charts below, the median download speed nearly doubled on both fixed and mobile from March 2020 to March 2022. 

For several months, Jordan has been in the top 50 fastest nations for fixed speeds on the Speedtest Global Index. The work that TRC has done with Ookla to improve nationwide connectivity has helped Jordan achieve global recognition for its innovative approaches using crowdsourced data to provide superior connectivity to constituents. 

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About TRC Jordan

The Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC) is responsible for regulating the telecommunications, information technology, and postal sectors in Jordan. TRC’s mission is to monitor the application of service quality standards and their provision at appropriate prices in a manner that achieves sustainable growth.

Ookla retains ownership of this content, including all of the intellectual property rights, data, images, graphs, and analysis. This content may not be quoted, reproduced, distributed, or published for any commercial purpose without prior consent.

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Case Study

How the Acadiana Planning Commission Won $30M in Broadband Funding by Using Speedtest® Data to Challenge FCC Maps

Q: Why was Acadiana’s grant submission chosen? 

 

A: “It’s definitely the strategic vision that the team has put together in the application process, coordination, all the different organizations and institutions here, along with the private sector intersection — but it is also an acknowledgment of the need.”

Don Graves
United States Deputy Secretary of Commerce

Benefits

  • Identified census blocks where FCC Broadband Maps were inaccurate
  • Successfully challenged data in 900 census blocks
  • Won $30M in funding through the Broadband Infrastructure Program

The Acadiana region of Louisiana — made up of the Parish governments of Acadia Parish, Evangeline Parish, and St. Landry Parish — has historically lacked equitable access to high-speed internet connectivity. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, about 50% of households in the parishes lack access to the internet. The Acadiana Planning Commission (APC), responsible for the region’s economic and community development, wanted to provide better educational and economic opportunities by improving broadband access.

The APC applied for funding through the NTIA Broadband Infrastructure Program, which has made $288 million in funding available to help close the digital divide in the United States. There were over 230 applicants, and only 13 grants were awarded. 

Vice President Kamala Harris and Deputy Secretary of Commerce Don Graves visited Louisiana in March of 2022 to announce that the APC had been awarded a $30 million grant to fund high-speed internet in 11 rural Acadiana communities.

Situation 

With $288 million in federal funding on the table to help close the digital divide, the Acadiana Planning Commission knew that the residents of the region would benefit greatly from funding allocation to help improve broadband access. 

Federal funding allocation decisions are based on FCC Form 477 broadband mapping data. FCC Form 477 requires broadband providers to self-report the census blocks where they offer internet speeds greater than 200 kbps download or upload to at least one location. The problem with this is that even if only one location receives service, the entire census block is considered “served”. This information can be misleading because the provider may not be able to offer those speeds or be able to offer them everywhere in the entire census block. The APC needed a way to determine which census blocks were unserved or underserved, in order to challenge FCC data and submit a winning grant application. 

Solution

The Acadiana Planning Commission overlaid Ookla® Speedtest data with FCC data to find out where the real-world network experience of residents was significantly worse than the broadband availability shown in FCC maps, which rely on data reported by internet service providers (ISPs) about their own network performance.

Using only the Acadia parish as an example below, FCC data showed that the entire parish was served with speeds between 25-50 Mbps, however Speedtest data revealed that many locations were actually underserved (represented by the red dots on the map).

Based on these findings, the APC challenged approximately 1000 census blocks across six parishes that comprise the Acadiana region and was successful in 900 of those challenges. Speedtest data helped APC demonstrate that FCC data was inaccurate, and many residents in those 900 blocks did not have access to broadband.

Outcome 

The federal government acknowledged APC’s efforts by awarding them a $30 million grant to deploy last-mile fiber broadband in rural underserved areas of Louisiana. 

The APC will work with DBA Allen Communications and LUSFiber to build off existing infrastructure and expand fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) service to households in unserved census blocks. The project aims to connect 22,196 unserved households, 3,723 unserved businesses, and 46 unserved community institutions with broadband. The project will cover 100% of unserved households in its service area of the Acadia, Evangeline, and St. Landry Parishes. 

The success of this grant brings Louisiana one step closer to eliminating the digital divide. Ookla empowers local government agencies to understand real-world network conditions and equips them with the data they need to challenge FCC data and secure funding.

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About the Acadiana Planning Commission

The Acadiana Planning Commission serves the public sector in the planning and implementation of Economic, Community & Transportation Development throughout the region known as Acadiana, including the Louisiana Parishes of Acadia, Evangeline, and St. Landry.

Ookla retains ownership of this content, including all of the intellectual property rights, data, images, graphs, and analysis. This content may not be quoted, reproduced, distributed, or published for any commercial purpose without prior consent.

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Case Study

How CHT Monitors Taiwan’s Largest Live Events with Ookla Wind®

Benefits

  • Monitor live events with real-time testing and analytics to ensure fast, reliable network performance
  • Track RF conditions throughout the events to mitigate any performance issues and set benchmarking standards
  • Conduct faster, more affordable testing and measurement during live events

Download the full PDF of this case study in Chinese.

Taiwan is home to some of the most spectacular end-of-year celebrations in Asia. To ring in New Year’s Eve 2022, local government entities planned several massive celebrations in different cities and regions of Taiwan. 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. For local operators, it wasn’t enough to simply understand network conditions prior to the events – they 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. In preparation, 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.

Situation

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, they 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.

Solution

To get that necessary live data stream, CHT leveraged Ookla Wind, a handset-based testing solution that delivers wireless intelligence on demand, as one of their tools to monitor network performance during the event. Using Wind for the first time, CHT collected data in two phases for function validation and testing purposes. With multiple testers in the field across all six event venues, each carrying devices for Taiwan’s top mobile operators, they could rapidly assess their own RF conditions and benchmark key network metrics.

Three days prior to New Year’s Eve, CHT sent Ookla Wind scout testers into the field to collect network performance data for the first testing phase. This initial testing gave CHT a baseline of typical, everyday performance and a view into whether they needed to solve any major network issues or make additional optimizations before the events.

Wind is the only drive and walk test platform that features a native Speedtest® integration that tests throughput using the Speedtest Server Network™, a global network of more than 16,000 high-performance servers in over 190 countries. By testing to local network servers, CHT was able to get a more accurate view of typical network performance prior to the event, as well as reliable throughput testing on-site during the busy celebration.

On the day of the New Year’s Eve celebrations, Ookla Wind scout testers divided into nine teams to survey the six event centers with 27 handset-based testing units for the second testing phase. Ookla Wind immediately processed the data and delivered the insights in real-time to a remote control center, where both RF engineers and CHT executives monitored performance. Wind reporting includes a live-streaming KPI dashboard with visualizations that show an instant picture of network conditions and benchmarking views. With outdated legacy testing methods, this data would have taken days to process.

CHT collected a wide array of mobile network performance KPIs, including signal strength, signal quality, signal-to-noise ratio, and download and upload speeds, which gave clear insights into the attendee user experience, compared to other operators.

Outcome

If any problems had arisen, the CHT team would have had the information needed to immediately respond to any network issues related to capacity demand. Real-time analytics means that operators can make network adjustments while testers are still in the field — which is critical at busy, high-profile events like national celebrations.

Fortunately, CHT was prepared with pre-event testing, and their 5G network handled the increased demand without any need for live optimizations. In past celebrations, LTE connections left the crowds with a poor user experience, but CHT, the winner of the Speedtest Award™ for Fastest 5G Mobile Network in Q1-Q2 2021 and Q3-Q4 2021, Best Coverage in Q1-Q2 2021, and Fastest Mobile Network in Q3-Q4, ensured that the crowds did not face any issues during the event. With live testing from Wind, CHT had the metrics it needed to support customers’ connectivity needs in even the toughest network environments.

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About ChungHwa Telecom

Chunghwa Telecom is the largest integrated telecommunication service provider in Taiwan, with offerings in domestic and international fixed communication, mobile communication, broadband, and internet services. In addition to these traditional services, they also provide information and communication technology services to enterprise customers with big data, information security, cloud computing, and IDC capabilities, and are expanding businesses into innovative technology services, such as IoT and AI.

Ookla retains ownership of this content, including all of the intellectual property rights, data, images, graphs, and analysis. This content may not be quoted, reproduced, distributed, or published for any commercial purpose without prior consent.

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Case Study

How Virgin Media O2 Improves Customer Network Experience with Downdetector Connect™

“[Downdetector Connect] has made a tremendous impact on our customer satisfaction scores. We’re fixing and improving the things that matter most to our customers, faster. We are giving them crucial information at the right time — so that they don’t even need to pick up the phone to tell us something’s wrong.”

Matias Quintanilla
Head of Customer Monitoring at Virgin Media O2

Matias Quintanilla, Head of Customer Monitoring at Virgin Media O2, shares how Downdetector Connect™ (formally known as Spatialbuzz) helps prioritize network improvements:

Evolving network technology now makes it easier for operators to deliver lightning-fast network speeds and broad coverage. So how do the world’s leading mobile network operators differentiate their services in highly competitive markets?

Virgin Media O2 has transformed their business by connecting data from digital customer interactions to the Service Operations Center (SOC). By partnering with Ookla, the global leader in network intelligence, and adopting the Downdetector ConnectTM platform for customer-driven network improvement, VMO2 empowers their customers with self-serve digital tools— and provides proactive, transparent communication to customers. As a result, the operator has emerged as a leader in the U.K. for customer network satisfaction.

Network prioritization driven by customer data

Every mobile network operator must manage ongoing service disruptions. Most prioritise network fixes based on traditional network alarms or escalations from the call centre. However, leading-edge operators like VMO2 know that network improvements should be prioritized based on the volume and severity of impacted customers.

Downdetector Connect provides consumers with a simple interface to check their network status and receive network updates. It connects this subjective network feedback with device radio measurements, and delivers the data to the teams who need it most: the Network Operations Centre (NOC) and SOC. By putting customer experience at the heart of their network operations, VMO2 delivers network improvements where they matter most to customers.

Happier customers on a better network

To the customer experiencing a disruption, clear and proactive communication means the difference between a happy customer and a dissatisfied customer. Since adopting Downdetector Connect, VMO2 has seen vast improvements in Net Promoter ScoreTM (NPS). Customers report a high level of satisfaction with the increased transparency of VMO2’s messaging. By communicating that they’re working on the network — often before a customer even realizes there might be an issue — VMO2 delivers both a superior network experience and a superior digital customer experience.

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About Virgin Media O2

Virgin Media O2 combines the UK’s largest and most reliable mobile network with a broadband network offering the fastest widely-available broadband speeds. VMO2 is a customer-first organisation that brings a range of connectivity services together in one place with a clear mission: to upgrade the UK. VMO2 is a corporate brand of the 50:50 joint venture between Liberty Global and Telefónica SA. 

Ookla retains ownership of this content, including all of the intellectual property rights, data, images, graphs, and analysis. This content may not be quoted, reproduced, distributed, or published for any commercial purpose without prior consent.

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Case Study

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

“At Batelco, we are evolving how traditional telcos operate. We center our operations around providing superior service to customers — which is enhanced by using crowdsourced data. Ookla Cell Analytics helps us identify areas with lower performance or coverage, understand the issue and take action to ensure that our customers receive the best possible service.”

Mr. Rashid Mohamed
General Manager Networks, Batelco

Download the full PDF of this case study in Arabic.

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 AnalyticsTM 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.

Solution

Metrics in Cell Analytics such as signal level, signal quality, user density, most frequent band, most frequent cell and network throughput measurements helped Batelco see exact signal levels in a specific location. This helped their team identify coverage gaps throughout their areas of interest, which is much harder to do when relying on drive and walk testing alone. Batelco then used this data to apply cost-effective solutions throughout the Kingdom by tackling the right problems in the fastest possible manner. For example, Batelco discovered areas with high user density but poor RF conditions, then subsequently worked to build a new cell site or adjust existing site parameters to enhance coverage in high-priority areas. The Batelco team was also able to utilize this crowdsourced measure of demand to prioritize high-density areas to introduce 5G.

Analyzing in-building network performance and coverage

Indoor coverage is incredibly important in Bahrain where there are, on average, 10 or more devices per household. Because indoor service issues can sometimes be limited to specific floor groups in tall buildings, it is especially important to have insight into RF conditions by building height and intelligence about indoor vs. outdoor network performance. Batelco used Cell Analytics 3D maps to determine the altitudes at which users experience poor network quality or throughput. As a result of these improvements, we can see in the image below that throughout 2020, even the highest floors of the tallest buildings in the capital city of Manama experienced good to excellent signal strength on the Batelco network.

 

Providing mobile coverage for the first time on Jarada Island

Jarada Island, a cay located 32 kilometers east of Manama in the Arabian Gulf, is a popular tourist boating destination, famous for scuba diving spots. For many years, the island and surrounding areas have lacked mobile coverage from any operator, posing a safety hazard for visitors.

Jarada Island is indicated by the blue pin on the right side in the above images. In Q4 2019 there was no mobile coverage along the coast or anywhere in the open water near Jarada island. Over the following 12 months, Batelco improved the range and quality of their radio coverage to become the first mobile provider offering coverage both en route across the sea and on the island itself. The team used Cell Analytics to validate their coverage on the Island and continue to monitor their network performance there.

Making customer voices heard through crowdsourced data

Batelco has been working to put their customers first by using surveys, questionnaires, comments and social media to listen to customer concerns and pain points. For the customers who don’t call or use digital service channels when they experience a network issue, crowdsourced data provides Batelco with a view into their real-world network experience. With this data, Batelco was able to address problems that customers often do not even see, such as packet loss and re-transmissions. Using real-world measurements of network quality, availability and performance has helped Batelco improve network coverage in areas with low availability or throughput — before a customer ever needs to complain.

Outcome

Batelco’s mission includes investing in forefront technology to best serve their customers. By choosing Cell Analytics, Batelco was able to fulfill a key aspect of their mission — and provide a better network experience to their customers. Batelco saved both time and budget by using crowdsourced data and insights from Cell Analytics to prioritize network improvements. As a result of their customer-centric network improvements, Batelco won the Speedtest AwardTM for Bahrain’s Top-Rated Mobile Network Operator during Q3-Q4 2020. To win this award, Batelco achieved a rating of 4.0 stars in Speedtest Consumer Sentiment surveys

Batelco also scored the Widest 5G Coverage in Bahrain per Bahrain’s TRA Annual benchmarking exercise for the year 2020. All of these accolades were achieved through focusing network improvements and optimization efforts on providing superior service to their customers.

Batelco’s network improvements strongly influenced Bahrain’s overall national ranking on the Speedtest Global IndexTM, which improved by 30 places in the list of fastest countries on mobile in 2020. The improvements continued throughout 2021 as well. As Batelco’s mean download speed increased, Bahrain’s Global Index Ranking also increased.

Batelco’s mean download speed continued to increase throughout 2021, which consistently lifted Bahrain’s national average download speed.

Bahrain ended 2021 ranked as the 18th fastest nation in the world, heavily impacted by Batelco’s mean download speed of 158.03 Mbps in December 2021.

Batelco’s continuous improvement of their customer experience has cemented their position in this competitive market and Bahrain’s position in the global landscape for network speed.

 

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About Batelco

Batelco is Bahrain’s leading provider of innovative digital services and connectivity. Batelco’s mission is to serve and inspire customers by building, operating and investing in digital services, forefront technology and connectivity.

Ookla retains ownership of this content, including all of the intellectual property rights, data, images, graphs, and analysis. This content may not be quoted, reproduced, distributed, or published for any commercial purpose without prior consent.

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Case Study

How CST Makes Evidence-Based, Data-Driven Spectrum Policy Decisions Supported by Ookla Analysis

“Collaboration and engagement with our domestic and international partners is at the heart of our spectrum strategy. We greatly value our partnership with Ookla, and Ookla data has been an important component of our decision-making process. Their data and consultation responses provided insight that has helped shape our spectrum policy to take advantage of the absolute maximum device and network capabilities that can be supported at this time and throughout the duration covered by our Spectrum Outlook.”

Mohammad AlJanoobi
General Manager of Radio Spectrum Planning

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s (KSA) Vision 2030 program has laid out national goals to create a thriving digital economy in the coming decade. High-speed, widely accessible mobile networks are central to that digital transformation. KSA’s telecommunications regulator, the Communications, Space & Technology Commission (CST), enables the nation’s communications infrastructure while assuring that services meet specific standards of accessibility, performance, fairness, and value. CST has developed a three-year spectrum roadmap to establish the country as a world leader in radio communication — while supporting soaring consumer data consumption and future wireless technologies that will fuel economic growth.

While developing its ambitious spectrum outlook, CST conducted extensive trials and technical analysis, leveraging data from Ookla® and other sources. As a result of this spectrum outlook, its collaborative regulation with other national stakeholders and other key policies and initiatives, CST was recently designated as a fifth-generation (G5) regulator by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) — the highest level of regulatory maturity.

Situation

CST has a strategic vision to embrace digitalization as a central anchor for the country, connecting its constituents to economic opportunities and reshaping the national approach to connectivity. In previous years, Saudi Arabia’s spectrum was split evenly between three operators. However, to enable technologies like 5G, satellite broadband, and Wi-Fi 6e, a progressive spectrum policy was needed to meet the growing demand for wireless proliferation.

In advance of its upcoming spectrum auction, CST needed data to inform the development of its spectrum strategy, including intelligence on similar spectrum policies in other global markets. CST committed to a new, evidence-based approach to spectrum assignment drawing from technology trials and consultations with network operators, device and chipset manufacturers, infrastructure providers, end users, and network data providers, including Ookla. Most notably, CST needed data to expand its analysis of spectrum usage, performance of various bands and existing network infrastructure to see where investments had been made within certain bands (e.g., extra capacity in specific bands in urban areas and coverage of rural areas using adequate bands).

Solution

As part of its global outreach, CST engaged with Ookla to access data and insights on network performance, quality, and availability throughout the country. Backed by data and insights from Speedtest Intelligence® and Cell Analytics™, Ookla’s team provided consultation on CST’s spectrum outlook, including an analysis of spectrum policy in other global markets and in-depth quarterly analysis of network metrics in Saudi Arabia.

To make the most informed policy decisions possible, it was crucial for CST to understand which bands and network technologies Saudi Arabian operators were using, the performance of each band and technology by operator, and regional trends in network performance, quality, and coverage. Ookla’s custom regulatory reports provided a comprehensive analysis of the state of mobile networks in KSA, as well as detailed analysis of device performance, distribution of popular devices, frequency band performance, and network availability and coverage by technology type.

CST used this information to ensure that every decision in their roadmap could take advantage of the maximum capabilities of the latest generation of chipsets and devices, while also factoring in anticipated future capabilities.

Outcome

In advance of making more than 23 GHz of spectrum available for both innovation and commercial use, CST has laid out the most ambitious spectrum release plan in ITU Region 1 (Europe, Middle East, and Africa).

Utilizing intelligence on operator and device performance by band and network technology, CST has allocated the 600 MHz and 3.8-4 GHz bands for mobile use in 2021. CST has also made the entire 5.925-7.125 GHz and 57-71 GHz bands license-exempt, which will enable advancements in Wi-Fi, IoT, and wireless machine-to-machine (M2M) communication applications. Looking beyond terrestrial applications, CST will also allow secondary mobile use of the 28 GHz band, while fully protecting satellite use of the band in 2022.

With the implementation of the CST’s spectrum outlook, Saudi Arabia will have one of the most advanced and well-balanced spectrum policies in the world:

  • For mobile use, 1446 MHz allocated in the Sub-6 GHz frequency range in 2021 and +1500 MHz by 2022
  • +6.7 GHz allocated for mobile use in the Sub-30 GHz frequency range by 2022
  • +2000 MHz of license-exempt spectrum accessible to technologies such as Wi-Fi
  • 14 GHz of license-exempt spectrum accessible to WiGig (which allows Wi-Fi devices to access uncongested frequency bands with wide channels to transmit data efficiently at multi-gigabit per second speeds)

With the addition of the 3800-4000 MHz band to the existing 3400-3800 MHz in the C-band, operators will be able to add massive capacity to their networks and maximize the country’s existing network infrastructure, as well as the latest 5G-capable devices. Specifically, recent mobile chipsets capable of FDD+TDD NR carrier aggregation will allow the country to smoothly transition to standalone 5G — allowing network operators to deploy an ideal mix of 5G coverage and capacity. Having multiple contiguous TDD NR carriers will also allow operators to sustain the growth in capacity and speed as mobile chipsets evolve to support the aggregation of a larger number of NR carriers.

Because every mobile network operator must use its spectrum to the extent that CST has deemed acceptable for the bands it assigned, the regulator was able to create a deferred cost structure based on existing and future investments. This allows operators to invest in near-term upgrades to bring higher speeds and better connectivity to more residents.

Download the PDF of this case study here. Read the CST Spectrum Outlook for Commercial and Innovative Use 2021-2023 here. If you are a regulator looking to make more data-driven, evidence-based policy decisions, inquire here.

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About CST

The Communications, Space & Technology Commission (CST) is the official regulatory body for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. CST aims to enable an innovative communications infrastructure, while ensuring that services provided within the Kingdom meet the accessibility, performance, fairness and value standards.

Ookla retains ownership of this content, including all of the intellectual property rights, data, images, graphs, and analysis. This content may not be quoted, reproduced, distributed, or published for any commercial purpose without prior consent.