The best mobile network operators in the world: Opensignal

The latest Opensignal report has revealed the best mobile network operators in the world based on several criteria.
Telecom network for mobile serviceVideo Experience

T-Mobile Netherlands and KPN are the Global Winners for Video Experience, with statistically tied scores of 79.4-79.6 points on a 100 point scale. Vodafone Netherlands is close behind, sharing third place with three other operators.

Norway’s mobile network operators have also performed strongly with all three placing as Global Leaders for Video Experience. Only two Asia Pacific operators are Global Leaders: South Korea’s SK telecom and Singapore’s StarHub.

Games Experience

Users had their best experience playing multiplayer mobile games on LG U+ and SK Telecom’s networks in South Korea. LG U+ and SK Telecom are the Global Winners for Games Experience with identical scores of 88.4 points on a 100 point scale. Their scores were around 29 points higher than the global average of 59.3 points. KT is third with 86.6 points, ahead of two operators from the Netherlands — T-Mobile and KPN — which are tied in fourth place. The three South Korean operators were the only ones in the Excellent (85 or above) category.

Voice App Experience

LG U+, SK telecom, and Czech Republic’s Vodafone have statistically tied for the highest global score for Voice App Experience with scores in the 83.6-84 range. Users had their best experience on these operators’ networks when using over-the-top voice apps such as WhatsApp, Skype and Facebook Messenger.

Download speeds

SK Telecom wins the global Download Speed Experience category as users reported average download speeds of 143 Mbps. SK Telecom’s Download Speed Experience was 4.9 times the global average of 29.4 Mbps. While South Korea’s other operators — LG U+ and KT — are in second place with statistically tied scores around 100 Mbps, no other operator scored above 80 Mbps.

Upload Speed

Users observed the highest average upload speeds of 20.9 Mbps on Danish operator 3’s network, which was 2.4 times the global average of 8.8 Mbps. No other operator breached the 20 Mbps mark, although three Global Leaders had scores above 19 Mbps: Swisscom, LG U+ and SK telecom. 3’s success is due to a massive 62.9 percent increase in its Upload Speed Experience between H2 2020 and H2 2021 — which also makes it a Global Rising Star for Upload Speed Experience.

4G Availability

South Korea’s LG U+ is the Global Winner for 4G Availability with an almost perfect score of 99.8 percent. Japan’s au and India’s Jio are in the next position. The average global 4G Availability across all operators with a 4G network was 86.5 percent.