April 2021

In the latest Mobile Experience Snapshot for El Salvador, Tigo won in four of the five metrics tested, including the highest Excellent Consistent Quality at 59.6%. The operator also had both the fastest download and upload speeds and most responsive network, while Claro had the highest Core Consistent Quality at 80.5%. 

An important discovery was found in our data where Digicel users are now spending 10.7% of the time on a 4G network, more than we have ever seen in the past. Although it may be a smaller percentage in comparison to users on other networks, it shows that the operator is making great strides towards providing the best mobile experience it can. In 2017 it was reported that Digicel had invested USD 450 million in a 5 year planned 4G rollout in the country, and we are now seeing that come to fruition. An exciting time for the operator.   

Tigo leads in Excellent Consistent Quality

In Common Coverage Areas across El Salvador, Tigo had the highest Excellent Consistent Quality with 59.6% of connections having a network experience suitable for use-cases like 1080p video streaming, real-time mobile gaming and HD video calling. Claro was in second place by only 7.7.%, while Movistar was in third place with an Excellent Consistent Quality of 46.6%, followed by Digicel in fourth place at 41.8%. 

In regards to Core Consistent Quality, Tutela’s metric for when a connection is good enough for web browsing, social media sharing and SD video streaming, no operator reached the 90% threshold. Claro was narrowly out in front with a Core Consistent Quality of 80.5%, however only 0.3% separated the operator and second place Tigo. Movistar was in third place with a Core Consistent Quality of 71.7%, and Digicel was in fourth place with 68.3%, a difference of 12.2% behind Claro. 

You can learn more about Tutela’s consistent quality metrics here.

Tigo leads for both download and upload speeds 

Tigo had the fastest download speeds in Common Coverage Areas across El Salvador with 9.9 Mbps. Claro and Movistar were only 2.1 Mbps and 2.9 Mbps slower than the operator, while Digicel had a median download speed of 6.6 Mbps, 3.3 Mbps slower than Tigo. 

Tigo was the winner in the upload speed test with a median transfer speed of 8.0 Mbps, over 3 Mbps faster than both Movistar and Claro and 4.6 Mbps faster than Digicel. 

Tigo leads in latency

Tigo had the most responsive network in Common Coverage Areas across El Salvador with a latency result of 36.4 ms. Despite its last place rankings in the other metrics tested, Digicel was in second place with a latency result of 40.9 ms, followed by Movistar at 41.3 ms, and Claro in last place with 44.6 ms. 

Our findings for El Salvador are based on 4.03 billion network quality measurements including 292,000 speed tests between December 2020 and February 2021. Our latest complimentary Mobile Experience Report is available to download from the Tutela Insights portal.