Telstra tops major telcos in mobile service download speeds
A REPORT on the state of Australia’s mobile networks has provided some good news for data-hungry Telstra customers.
TELSTRA has topped the list of Australia’s major mobile service providers in terms of download speeds.
The company has been plagued with network outages and technical issues in recent months that have left affected customers more than a little frustrated. But the latest data analysing Australia’s mobile networks has given the company reason to smile.
OpenSignal, a company that specialises in wireless coverage mapping, released its report on the state of the country’s mobile networks Wednesday. The report gathered data on the 3G and 4G networks of Telstra, Optus and Vodafone from more than 15 million tests conducted on the handsets of 7900 OpenSignal users.
From the beginning of February to the end of April, OpenSignal users operated a mobile app which constantly ran in the background at low power, noting changes in network conditions and performing dozens of individual tests.
“This gives us an incredibly rich dataset that allows us to build up a complete picture of network experience,” the report said.
When it came to download speeds, Telstra came out in front with a 4G download speed average of 23.6 Mbps. Optus clocked in at 19.1 Mbps and Vodafone at 18.4 Mbps.
While Telstra was easily superior in terms of 4G speeds, when it came to 3G speeds Vodafone and Optus more than held their own with OpenSignal deeming the three telcos to be evenly matched.
Overall Telstra came out with the best speeds, averaging 17.1 Mbps across its 3G and 4G networks compared to Optus’ 12.87 and Vodafone’s 12.79.
“OpenSignal measured LTE download speeds faster than 18 Mbps on both (Optus and Vodafone) operators’ networks, resulting in a statistical tie for second place,” the report said.
Overall download speeds
When the three telcos were compared for network availability, the results were exceedingly close with Vodafone and Telstra neck and neck, followed closely by Optus.
In order to gauge network availability, the OpenSignal app would take a background reading from the handset device every 10 to 15 minutes.
“This reading includes many fields, such as the network technology — 2G, 3G or 4G, — and we use this to calculate the proportion of time that a user has access to signal,” the report reads.
“We also measure the proportion of time a user doesn’t have access to any of these technologies.”
The chart below shows the proportion of time LTE subscribers on each network have a 4G (LTE) connection available to them — LTE is roughly described as the technology used to achieve the greater speeds of 4G.
For Telstra and Vodafone customers, a 4G network was available about 76 per cent of the time, while that number fell slightly to 73 per cent for Optus customers.
Network availability comparison
While the data is most favourable for Telstra, the company actually came last in terms of latency.
Latency, measured in milliseconds, is the delay data experiences as it travels between points in the network. A lower score in this metric is indicative of a more responsive network.
Vodafone easily had the least latency delay when it came to 3G networks and was tied in first position with Optus in terms of 4G performance.
Latency comparison on 4G networks
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