MobiNEX Archives

Executive Summary

In response to customers’ growing usage of mobile data and applications, in April 2016 STL Partners developed MobiNEX: The Mobile Network Experience Index, which ranks mobile network operators by key measures relating to customer experience. To do this, we benchmark mobile operators’ network speed and reliability, allowing individual operators to see how they are performing in relation to the competition in an objective and quantitative manner.

Operators are assigned an individual MobiNEX score out of 100 based on their performance across four measures that STL Partners believes to be core drivers of customer app experience: download speed, average latency, error rate and latency consistency (the proportion of app requests that take longer than 500ms to fulfil).

Our partner Apteligent has provided us with the raw data for three out of the four measures, based on billions of requests made from tens of thousands of applications used by hundreds of millions of users in H1 2016. While our April report focused on the top three or four operators in just seven Western markets, this report covers 80 operators drawn from 25 markets spread across the globe in the first six months of this year.

The top ten operators were from Japan, France, the UK and Canada:

Softbank JP scores highest on the MobiNEX for H1 2016, with high scores across all measures and a total score of 85 out of 100.
Close behind are Bouygues FR (80) and Free FR (79), which came first and second respectively in the Q4 2015 rankings. Both achieve high scores for error rate, latency consistency and average latency, but are slightly let down by download speed.
The top six is completed by NTT DoCoMo JP (78), Orange FR (75) and au (KDDI) JP (71).
Slightly behind are Vodafone UK (65), EE UK (64), SFR FR (63), O2 UK (62) and Rogers CA (62). Except in the case of Rogers, who score similarly on all measures, these operators are let down by substantially worse download speeds.

The bottom ten operators all score a total of 16 or lower out of 100, suggesting a materially worse customer app experience.

Trailing the pack with scores of 1 or 2 across all four measures were Etisalat EG (4), Vodafone EG (4), Smart PH (5) and Globe PH (5).
Beeline RU (11) and Malaysian operators U Mobile MY (9) and Digi MY (9) also fare poorly, but benefit from slightly higher latency consistency scores. Slightly better overall, but still achieving minimum scores of 1 for download speed and average latency, are Maxis MY (14) and MTN ZA (12).

Overall, the extreme difference between the top and bottom of the table highlights a vast inequality in network quality customer experience across the planet. Customer app experience depends to a large degree on where one lives. However, our analysis shows that while economic prosperity does in general lead to a more advanced mobile experience as you might expect, it does not guarantee it. Norway, Sweden, Singapore and the US market are examples of high income countries with lower MobiNEX scores than might be expected against the global picture. STL Partners will do further analysis to uncover more on the drivers of differentiation between markets and players within them.

MobiNEX H1 2016 – included markets

MobiNEX H1 2016 – operator scores

Source: Apteligent, OpenSignal, STL Partners analysis

About MobiNEX
Changes for H1 2016
MobiNEX H1 2016: results
The winners: top ten operators
The losers: bottom ten operators
The surprises: operators where you wouldn’t expect them
MobiNEX by market
MobiNEX H1 2016: segmentation
MobiNEX H1 2016: Raw data
Error rate
Latency consistency
Download speed
Average latency
Appendix 1: Methodology and source data
Latency, latency consistency and error rate: Apteligent
Download speed: OpenSignal
Converting raw data into MobiNEX scores
Setting the benchmarks
Why measure customer experience through app performance?
Appendix 2: Country profiles
Country profile: Australia
Country profile: Brazil
Country profile: Canada
Country profile: China
Country profile: Colombia
Country profile: Egypt
Country profile: France
Country profile: Germany
Country profile: Italy
Country profile: Japan
Country profile: Malaysia
Country profile: Mexico
Country profile: New Zealand
Country profile: Norway
Country profile: Philippines
Country profile: Russia
Country profile: Saudi Arabia
Country profile: Singapore
Country profile: South Africa
Country profile: Spain
Country profile: United Arab Emirates
Country profile: United Kingdom
Country profile: United States
Country profile: Vietnam

Figure 1: MobiNEX scoring breakdown, benchmarks and raw data used
Figure 2: MobiNEX H1 2016 – included markets
Figure 3: MobiNEX H1 2016 – operator scores breakdown (top half)
Figure 4: MobiNEX H1 2016 – operator scores breakdown (bottom half)
Figure 5: MobiNEX H1 2016 – average scores by country
Figure 6: MobiNEX segmentation dimensions
Figure 7: MobiNEX segmentation – network speed vs reliability
Figure 8: MobiNEX segmentation – network speed vs reliability – average by market
Figure 9: MobiNEX vs GDP per capita – H1 2016
Figure 10: MobiNEX vs smartphone penetration – H1 2016
Figure 11: Error rate per 10,000 requests, H1 2016 – average by country
Figure 12: Error rate per 10,000 requests, H1 2016 (top half)
Figure 13: Error rate per 10,000 requests, H1 2016 (bottom half)
Figure 14: Requests with total roundtrip latency > 500ms (%), H1 2016 – average by country
Figure 15: Requests with total roundtrip latency > 500ms (%), H1 2016 (top half)
Figure 16: Requests with total roundtrip latency > 500ms (%), H1 2016 (bottom half)
Figure 17: Average weighted download speed (Mbps), H1 2016 – average by country
Figure 18: Average weighted download speed (Mbps), H1 2016 (top half)
Figure 19: Average weighted download speed (Mbps), H1 2016 (bottom half)
Figure 20: Average total roundtrip latency (ms), H1 2016 – average by country
Figure 21: Average total roundtrip latency (ms), H1 2016 (top half)
Figure 22: Average total roundtrip latency (ms), H1 2016 (bottom half)
Figure 23: Benchmarks and raw data used

Executive Summary

In response to customers’ growing usage of mobile data and applications, STL Partners has developed MobiNEX: The Mobile Network Customer Experience Index, which benchmarks mobile operators’ network speed and reliability by measuring the consumer app experience, and allows individual players to see how they are performing in relation to competition in an objective and quantitative manner.

We assign operators an individual MobiNEX score based on their performance across four measures that are core drivers of customer app experience: download speed; average latency; error rate; latency consistency (the percentage of app requests that take longer than 500ms to fulfil). Apteligent has provided us with the raw data for three out of four of the measures based on billions of requests made from tens of thousands of applications used by hundreds of millions of users in Q4 2015. We plan to expand the index to cover other operators and to track performance over time with twice-yearly updates.

Encouragingly, MobiNEX scores are positively correlated with customer satisfaction in the UK and the US suggesting that a better mobile app experience contributes to customer satisfaction.

The top five performers across twenty-seven operators in seven countries in Europe and North America (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, UK, US) were all from France and the UK suggesting a high degree of competition in these markets as operators strive to improve relative to peers:

Bouygues Telecom in France scores highest on the MobiNEX for Q4 2015 with consistently high scores across all four measures and a total score of 76 out of 100.

It is closely followed by two other French operators. Free, the late entrant to the market, which started operations in 2012, scores 73. Orange, the former national incumbent, is slightly let down by the number of app errors experienced by users but achieves a healthy overall score of 70.

The top five is completed by two UK operators: EE (65) and O2 (61) with similar scores to the three French operators for everything except download speed which was substantially worse.

The bottom five operators have scores suggesting a materially worse customer app experience and we suggest that management focuses on improvements across all four measures to strengthen their customer relationships and competitive position. This applies particularly to:

E-Plus in Germany (now part of Telefónica’s O2 network but identified separately by Apteligent).

Wind in Italy, which is particularly let down by latency consistency and download speed.

Telefónica’s Movistar, the Spanish market share leader.

Sprint in the US with middle-ranking average latency and latency consistency but, like other US operators, poor scores on error rate and download speed.

3 Italy, principally a result of its low latency consistency score.

Surprisingly, given the extensive deployment of 4G networks there, the US operators perform poorly and are providing an underwhelming customer app experience:

The best-performing US operator, T-Mobile, scores only 45 – a full 31 points below Bouygues Telecom and 4 points below the median operator.

All the US operators perform very poorly on error rate and, although 74% of app requests in the US were made on LTE in Q4 2015, no US player scores highly on download speed.

MobiNEX scores – Q4 2015

Source: Apteligent, OpenSignal, STL Partners analysis

MobiNEX vs Customer Satisfaction

Source: ACSI, NCSI-UK, STL Partners

Introduction
Mobile app performance is dependent on more than network speed
App performance as a measure of customer experience
MobiNEX: The Mobile Network Experience Index
Methodology and key terms
MobiNEX Q4 2015 Results: Top 5, bottom 5, surprises
MobiNEX is correlated with customer satisfaction
Segmenting operators by network customer experience
Error rate
Quantitative analysis
Key findings
Latency consistency: Requests with latency over 500ms
Quantitative analysis
Key findings
Download speed
Quantitative analysis
Key findings
Average latency
Quantitative analysis
Key findings
Appendix: Source data and methodology
STL Partners and Telco 2.0: Change the Game
About Apteligent

MobiNEX scores – Q4 2015
MobiNEX vs Customer Satisfaction
Figure 1: MobiNEX – scoring methodology
Figure 2: MobiNEX scores – Q4 2015
Figure 3: Customer Satisfaction vs MobiNEX, 2015
Figure 4: MobiNEX operator segmentation – network speed vs network reliability
Figure 5: MobiNEX operator segmentation – with total scores
Figure 6: Major Western markets – error rate per 10,000 requests
Figure 7: Major Western markets – average error rate per 10,000 requests
Figure 8: Major Western operators – percentage of requests with total roundtrip latency greater than 500ms
Figure 9: Major Western markets – average percentage of requests with total roundtrip latency greater than 500ms
Figure 10: Major Western operators – average weighted download speed across 3G and 4G networks (Mbps)
Figure 11: Major European markets – average weighted download speed (Mbps)
Figure 12: Major Western markets – percentage of requests made on 3G and LTE
Figure 13: Download speed vs Percentage of LTE requests
Figure 14: Major Western operators – average total roundtrip latency (ms)
Figure 15: Major Western markets – average total roundtrip latency (ms)
Figure 16: MobiNEX benchmarks

Tag: MobiNEX

MobiNEX: The Mobile Network Experience Index, H1 2016

Executive Summary

MobiNEX: The Mobile Network Experience Index, Q4 2015

Executive Summary

Sample Reports