Network Experience Involves More than Speed: Opensignal
Opensignal is deepening its focus on the consumer experience on wireless networks through the recently launched Global Network Excellence Index, said Sylwia Kechiche, the company’s senior director of industry analysis. “We want to explain that network excellence is not all about speed,” Kechiche said Friday during a Mobile World Live podcast. Opensignal uses a metric called “constant quality,” which measures subscriber experience doing “everyday tasks,” she said. “What we want to bring to the table” is an examination of whether “everyone can participate in the digital economy.” Opensignal wants to simulate “what will happen when you do certain things” online.
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Kechiche, who attended the Mobile World Congress in Doha (see 2511260040), said 5G deployment in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has been “uneven." The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries -- Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates -- have stood out with a “massive amount” of C-band spectrum awarded for 5G, she said. The GCC countries are deploying 5G, 5G standalone and 5G advanced “ahead of 6G.”
However, some North African countries are just starting deployments and many users are still connected to 2G and 3G networks, Kechiche said. We’re seeing “some progress” in other MENA countries, she said. For instance, Turkey “just awarded 5G spectrum, and they have plans to start with 5G-advanced from the get-go,” she said. “You have very much different dynamics in different countries.”
Carriers are changing their views on AI in its early stages, to focus on how customers can use it, Kechiche said. “It shouldn’t be technology for technology’s sake,” she said. AI is about “enabling productivity,” cutting costs and making sure consumer experiences “are good enough on a day-to-day basis.”