November 3rd 2020

In Australia, Telstra consistently offered the best mobile experience to its customers, according to a new report from Tutela, a global crowdsourced mobile data company. The new 2020 State of Mobile Experience Report found that the operator offered its users the highest Excellent Consistent Quality in the country, indicating that in 86.1% of tests, the network was good enough for demanding applications, such as 1080p video streaming, real-time mobile gaming, and HD video calling. Telstra also had the highest Core Consistent Quality at 95.6%, the fastest median download speed in the country, and the best coverage. However, Vodafone achieved the fastest median upload speed and the best one-way latency result in Australia.

To more objectively evaluate when connections are (and are not) enabling users to do those things, Tutela has developed a standard called Consistent Quality. Simply put, it’s two sets of thresholds, called Excellent and Core. If a connection hits the Excellent standard, it means that connection was good enough for demanding applications including HD group video calling or 1080p video streaming. Meanwhile, Core connection is good enough for SD video streaming, web browsing, emails, and VOIP calling, but users may experience delays or buffering when trying to use more demanding apps.

When examining the countries against one another, Australia dominated in all five main categories tested, with the most significant lead against New Zealand occurring in the latency test, Australian subscribers were experiencing a more responsive network than New Zealand subscribers by 11.2 ms. 

Tutela has analyzed over 1 billion total records taken from real-world smartphone users, including more than 17 million speed and latency tests, taken between April 1st and September 30th 2020.

Key findings from this report include:

• Telstra consistently offered the best mobile experience in Australia, with the operator taking first place with the highest Excellent Consistent Quality, the highest Core Consistent Quality, fastest download speed, and best coverage. 
• Vodafone took out first place for the fastest upload speed in Australia and the best latency result. 
• In New Zealand, Spark won in three of the six metrics tested, including highest highest Excellent and Core Consistent Quality in the country and best coverage. Vodafone had the fastest download and upload speed, and 2degrees had the best latency result.

Tom Luke, VP at Tutela, said: “Operators in both Australia and New Zealand continue to showcase impressive results, particularly Telstra in Australia and Spark in New Zealand. Australia has made impressive early strides towards 5G, and we are looking forward to seeing how the new technology, along with the additional assets gained in the March 2021 spectrum auction, help to improve the mobile experience for users in Australia. Mobile subscribers in both Australia and New Zealand both stand to greatly benefit from the deployment of 5G infrastructure and we look forward to watching the improvements to customer experience over the coming months.”

The full report is available here.