Verizon Raised the Bar for Mobile Video Experience in 1H 2019, Says OpenSignal
Verizon solved a “conundrum” in the U.S. mobile industry in the first half by meeting consumers’ desire for “unfettered video consumption while maintaining a quality video experience,” OpenSignal reported Monday.
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In the six months through mid-June, Verizon’s video experience score “surged upwards,” making it the only U.S. operator to earn a “good” rating in the video experience metric, meaning videos streamed to its subscribers’ devices loaded faster and had fewer interruptions than competitors’, said analyst Kevin Fitchard. With video the “future of mobile broadband, this gives Verizon a sizable competitive advantage in attracting more consumers to mobile video services,” he said. Behind Verizon’s 56.1-point video quality rating were T-Mobile at 51.7, Sprint at 47.5 and AT&T at 46.3.
In 4G availability, Verizon and T-Mobile were “neck-and-neck,” said Fitchard, with the nod to Verizon's 94.8 percent rating, trailed by T-Mobile at 94.2. AT&T and Sprint tied for third with 4G availability scores just below 90 points. Scores indicated the proportion of time OpenSignal users with a 4G device had a 4G connection.
T-Mobile held the top spot in download speeds with a 23.6 Mbps, followed by Verizon at 22.9 and AT&T at 22.5. Sprint had 19.2 Mbps, measuring the average download speeds experienced across 3G and 4G networks. Fitchard highlighted AT&T's “rapid rise” in 4G download speed experience, saying its average speed of 24.6 Mbps was the fastest OpenSignal users experienced on any of the major operators' networks due to new spectrum and network upgrades. AT&T landed third in download speed experience because users were able to find 4G connections more often on their networks than on AT&T's, Fitchard said. AT&T “could easily vie” for the download speed award in the next report, he said.
In average upload speeds experienced across 3G and 4G networks, T-Mobile took the top spot from Verizon at 7.3 Mbps, followed by Verizon at 6.9, AT&T at 4.9 and Sprint at 2.4.
AT&T (52.5 milliseconds) and T-Mobile (52.6) led in latency, or network response, measuring the amount of time it takes data to make a round trip through the network. Verizon had 56.8 milliseconds and Sprint 59.8.
OpenSignal isn't observing further 4G access expansion due to preparations network operators are making for 5G rollouts, said Fitchard. Growth in speeds and video experience likely are due to those preparations since many current elements of 4G -- such as fiber backhaul and evolved packet core -- will “pull double duty as a foundation” for 5G rollouts, he said.
Metrics were based on 5.6 billion measurements from 1.4 million devices March 16-June 13.