The mobile networks of the country’s two largest telecom companies have significantly improved since the fourth quarter of 2018, according to independent mobile analytics firm Opensignal.
Opensignal said in a report on users in Mindanao, National Capital Region, North and Central Luzon, South Luzon and the Visayas that overall mobile experience across four metrics significantly improved between fourth quarter of 2018 and third quarter of 2020.
“We are pleased that efforts to upgrade our network are being recognized and reported by independent firms. More importantly, the network improvements are being felt and making an impact on the experience of our customers,” Globe chief technology and information officer Gil Genio said.
Globe saw its scores in video experience improve in three of the five regions. In North and Central Luzon and NCR, Globe’s score increased by 40.6 percent and 30.3 percent, respectively, between fourth quarter of 2018 and third quarter of 2020, while in South Luzon, it rose by 24 percent.
It said that for download speed, Globe users in North and Central Luzon saw a significant improvement of 42.1 percent, while South Luzon and NCR improved by 35.1 percent and 33.8 percent, respectively.
Opensignal said that for 4G availability, or the proportion of time users spent connected to 4G services, it registered improvements in all five regions, with South Luzon at 18.8 percent, North and Central Luzon at 16.2 percent, NCR at 9 percent, Mindanao at 8.1 percent and Visayas at 7.7 percent.
Opensignal said Smart Communications Inc. also made great strides in improving customer experience in NCR, North and Central Luzon, South Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao between the fourth quarter of 2018 and the third quarter of 2020.
It said that in terms of video experience, Smart users “observed significantly larger improvements in absolute terms across four of the five regions.”
The exception was North and Central Luzon, where users of both telcos saw their video experience score improve by 10.3 points. Opensignal also noted that for the third quarter of 2020, Smart users in NCR were the only ones to observe a “very good (65-75)” video experience.
Smart also leads in 4G availability, posting over 80 percent in every region”•a feat achieved by its competitor only in NCR.
“Our Smart users saw some impressive gains between Q4 2018 and Q3 2020, with those in North and Central Luzon and Mindanao seeing their 4G availability scores rise by 41.5 percent and 34.5 percent, respectively,” Opensignal said.
Opensignal said that in terms of download speed experience, Smart remained ahead of its competitor across all regions, particularly in NCR, where it posted significantly better scores.
“In Q4 2018, our Smart users observed the fastest overall download speeds in four out of five regions, with a statistical tie in Mindanao. Smart achieved a clean sweep in Q3 2020, with our users on its network observing the fastest speeds across all five regions,” Opensignal said.