You may have the most expensive data plan on your mobile today – and sure that would mean faster download speeds, but how does that actually translate to actual everyday experience? Well, Open Signal says that one key element of user experience is video consumption – they’ve published a study to try and correlate download speeds to actual video experience.
Five major telcos were subject to this study – Celcom, Digi, Maxi, U Mobile and Unifi. Their analysis covered three-month periods between September 1 2018 until May 31 2019.
The data collection process was automated and were classed using a 0-100 point system (the higher the better).
Image credit: Open Signal
The study started off by comparing general 4G download speeds across the telcos – Maxis emerges victor while Celcom and Digi put up respectable numbers; biggest losers here are U Mobile and Unifi, both falling well short of its competitors.
But over to video experience, we see that Celcom, Digi and Maxis were neck and neck in scores – all three improved over the timespan of the study. U Mobile stagnated with ‘Poor’ rating scores while, Unifi gradually made up ground and settled on a decent ‘Fair’ rating.
Image credit: Open Signal
The study continues by examining download speed change and its affects on video experience. The study notes that minimal if no affects were scene on video experience regardless of positive or negative changes in download speeds.
Most notable figure in the chart would be U Mobile – users saw a whopping 40% decrease in average download speed late 2018, but during the same time, vide experience only dropped about 5% – signalling that download speeds have very little impact on video consumption.
Same story goes for the other telcos – Celcom saw sizeable improvement of 11% in download speeds in May of 2019, but at the same time, video experience only improved a meagre 3%.
Open Signal notes that video experience can be heavily impacted by telcos that use network optimization which restrict accessible video resolution levels.
Image credit: Open Signal
But on a redeeming note, all telcos performed similarly when streaming videos in SD. But when streaming in HD, Celcom, Maxis and Digi take the helm again, with U Mobile performing poorly once again.
However, do remember this is a study on video experience, and is in no way a complete reflection of overall experience. It is also worth remember that U Mobile and Unifi both offer some of the cheapest data plans in the country.
If anything, this study serves as an open letter to telcos to start working on offering better experience rather than just download speeds.