Telstra 4G speeds put it in global elite class: Opensignal
Telstra is still providing the fastest download and upload speeds across Australia's mobile networks, according to the latest report from mobile analytics company Opensignal.
Australia Mobile Network Experience Report: April 2019 scored Telstra at 41Mbps on average download speeds -- 46Mbps for 4G and 5.5Mbps for 3G -- followed by Optus' 36Mbps and Vodafone's 33Mbps.
"Australia has built some of the world's most powerful LTE networks," Opensignal said.
"Users of all three national operators had download speed experience scores greater than 30Mbps, but one operator, Telstra, managed to exceed the 40Mbps mark, putting it among an elite class of operators globally."
Telstra's upload speed was 9.3Mbps, with Vodafone coming in second on 7.8Mbps, and Optus third on 7.2Mbps.
In Sydney, Telstra was measured as having 49Mbps download and 11Mbps upload speeds; in Melbourne, it had 49/11Mbps; in Brisbane, it had 56/11Mbps; and in Perth, it had 51/8Mbps.
According to Opensignal, Telstra saw its fastest speeds in Adelaide, with 63Mbps down and 11Mbps up.
Optus won on 4G availability, with a score of 92%, though it was followed closely by Vodafone and Telstra, with both sitting at around 90% availability.
Vodafone Australia tied with Telstra on video experience -- both with scores of 69 -- and with Optus on latency -- where each sat at around 34 milliseconds and Telstra lagged behind at 42 milliseconds -- but won no categories.
"In our breakdown of latency by technology, we find both Optus and Vodafone creeping close to the 30ms milestone for 4G latency -- that's a mark few operators have passed in our measurements, and we likely won't see huge improvements beyond 30ms until the next generation of mobile networks," the report said.
Opensignal added that latency will come down towards 1ms once 5G networks appear; Telstra has already launched its 5G mobile network, though there are no 5G smartphones yet available, while Optus has begun switching on its 5G fixed-wireless service. Vodafone has yet to say when it will deploy 5G after its primary vendor Huawei was banned by the Australian government.
The Opensignal report made 490 million measurements across 110,000 devices between January 1 and March 31, 2019.
The stats follow a quarterly report, released earlier this month, from the Australian Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) and Communications Alliance that revealed telco complaints have grown from 6 per 10,000 services in operation (SIO) to 7.5 complaints in just one quarter.
Telstra, Optus, and Vodafone Australia all clocked in with higher complaints ratios -- with Optus' rise being the highest, from 6.9 to 9 complaints per 10,000 SIO.
During the quarter to March 2019, Telstra had a complaints ratio of 8.2 per 10,000 SIO, up from 6.6 last quarter. Vodafone's rise in complaints was only marginal, growing from 3 to 3.1 complaints during the quarter.
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