The independent global standard for measuring real-world mobile network experience The State of Wifi vs Mobile Network Experience as 5G Arrives November 2018 By Ian Fogg, VP Analysis Report Facts Report Location Sample Period Measurements Unique Devices Global Aug 5 - Nov 3, 2018 63,223,150,678 7,788,215 Our Methodology | Our Metrics 2 State of Wifi vs Mobile Network Experience as 5G Arrives November 2018 Key Findings Landscape In 33 countries smartphone users now experience faster average download speeds using a mobile network than using Wifi according to OpenSignal mobile analytics. The range of countries where mobile proves faster vary widely from richer countries such as Australia, where the benefit of using mobile was greatest where smartphone users experienced average download speeds13 Mbps faster on mobile than Wifi, and France (+2.5 Mbps) to markets across every continent, for example: Qatar (+11.8 Mbps); Turkey (+7.3 Mbps); Mexico (+1.5 Mbps) and South Africa (+5.7 Mbps). In three highly developed geographies Hong Kong, Singapore and the USA the mobile experience bucks the global trend and significantly underperforms compared with smartphone users Wifi download experience with a slower mobile experience of -38.6 Mbps, -34 Mbps and -25 Mbps respectively. The time smartphones spend connected to Wifi has no significant correlation with users experiencing faster Wifi speeds relative to those on mobile, because smartphones will automatically connect to known Wifi networks without including speed as a factor in their decision. Outlook Newer mobile network technology increases mobiles superiority: In 50 countries, 63% of those studied, 4G networks offer a faster smartphone download experience than Wifi, up from 41% of countries when compared with overall mobile download experience instead of 4G. Just seven countries saw a faster experience on 3G, and even in those countries the speed advantage of a 3G mobile experience was modest, at best an increase of 3Mbps in Lebanon. 5G will accelerate the advantage of mobile technology because of the pace of mobile innovation and the dependency of Wifi network experiences on the quality of fixed network broadband deployments which are slow and expensive to upgrade with fiber to the premise (FTTP). Implications Mobile operators and smartphone makers must re-evaluate their Wifi strategies, especially around mobile offload, automatic network selection and indoor coverage, to ensure they do not accidentally push consumers smartphones onto a Wifi network with a worse experience than the mobile network. Our Methodology | Our Metrics 3 State of Wifi vs Mobile Network Experience as 5G Arrives November 2018 Background: Why everyone has believed Wifi to be superior to cellular Theres long been an industry assumption that Wifi is better than mobile networks in almost every way. As a result, ever since the arrival of the earliest iPhone and Android smartphones around ten years ago, smartphones have routinely jumped on the nearest known Wifi connection and used it in preference to 2G, 3G or 4G mobile networks for data. But now new OpenSignal mobile analytics indicates that mobile is no longer inferior to Wifi in every regard and the mobile industry must change a number of design decisions as a result. The reason early modern smartphones made the choice to stop using cellular for data if a usable Wifi hotspot was nearby is simple to understand given the situation back then. Ten years ago, Wifi: - Was faster than mobile almost all of the time. The first iPhone only used slow 2G networks so of course, Wifi backed by ADSL or cable modems running at many Mbps was faster. Even for later iPhones or Android smartphones, the mobile networks back in 2008/9 were only 3G, and were often overloaded by the sudden surge of smartphone sales. - Was cheaper, always. Wifi in the home or office had no marginal cost for the users, but often mobile networks charged more for plans with more data volume or in some cases for the privilege of even having any mobile data. - Had much greater capacity. With the exception of those on initial iPhone plans with unlimited data, smartphone users had to confront limited data volumes on mobile, but unlimited data when they connected to Wifi. And, many of the mobile operators that initially offered “unlimited” data with the iPhone soon backtracked. Wifi was so important when the iPhone launched that some of the initial batch of exclusive iPhone mobile operators bundled a free public Wifi access plan with the iPhone mobile tariff, for example O2 in the UK and AT hybrid fiber solutions such as VDSL, or DOCSIS; and in relatively rare occasions in most countries a fully fiber option connection connects a home or office. Wifi also has its own special challenges such as congestion of the unlicensed airwaves which Wifi uses, as anyone can operate a Wifi network in the same location at the same time, leading to unpredictable and often poor Wifi performance. Often, in busy urban locations there can be ten to twenty active Wifi networks all trying to use the same spectrum. 1 4 . 73 8 . 81 7 . 26 . 61 9 . 11 2 . 71 0 . 72 9 . 11 0 . 01 9 . 04 5 . 08 . 27 . 31 3 . 81 5 . 21 1 . 52 7 . 33 2 . 31 9 . 71 9 . 32 7 . 23 7 . 11 5 . 83 2 . 42 2 . 93 1 . 61 1 . 61 4 . 21 0 . 41 0 . 65 . 82 0 . 41 7 . 49 . 61 2 . 35 . 99 . 26 . 36 . 79 . 42 4 . 97 . 61 1 . 15 3 . 37 2 . 84 2 . 42 6 . 33 5 . 62 7 . 02 2 . 94 1 . 02 1 . 93 0 . 85 6 . 31 9 . 01 7 . 72 3 . 92 5 . 32 1 . 43 7 . 14 1 . 42 7 . 92 6 . 53 3 . 94 3 . 82 2 . 13 8 . 62 8 . 43 7 . 11 7 . 01 9 . 11 5 . 01 4 . 59 . 62 3 . 31 9 . 91 2 . 01 3 . 97 . 41 0 . 57 . 68 . 01 0 . 42 5 . 98 . 31 1 . 50 1 0 2 0 3 0 4 0 5 0 6 0 7 0 8 0H o n g K o n gS i n g a p o r eU n i t e d S t a t e s o f A m e r i c aT h a i l a n dR o m a n i aI s r a e lR u s s i a n F e d e r a t i o nJ a p a nU k r a i n eU n i t e d K i n g d o mS o u t h K o r e aB e l a r u sP a n a m aC h i n aI r e l a n dC h i l eS w e d e nS w i t z e r l a n dG e r m a n yP o r t u g a lN e w Z e a l a n dN e t h e r l a n d sP o l a n dD e n m a r kS p a i nC a n a d aV i e t n a mU r u g u a yM a l a y s i aK a z a k h s t a nI n d i aB u l g a r i aI t a l yJ o r d a nB r a z i lC a m b o d i aS r i L a n k aP h i l i p p i n e sI n d o n e s i aP e r uF i n l a n dP a r a g u a yA r g e n t i n aW i f i d o w n l o a d s p e e dO v e r a l l m o b i l e d o w n l o a d s p e e d( M b p s )Our Methodology | Our Metrics 8 State of Wifi vs Mobile Network Experience as 5G Arrives November 2018 By comparison, mobile networks operate in spectrum where the operator pays a fee, or license, to have the exclusive use of a set of frequencies which should in theory make the network experience more predictable and consistent than Wifi. However, these Wifi challenges due to unlicensed spectrum use apply in every country. As a result, they are not likely to have caused the wide differences in the relative download experience delivered by mobile networks and Wifi to smartphone users which OpenSignals analytics demonstrates. Smartphone users do not spend more time on Wifi where the Wifi experience is better OpenSignal analyzed numerous factors to understand why smartphone users spent longer connected to Wifi. Intriguingly, we found no significant correlation between having a relatively faster download or upload experience on Wifi and smartphones spending longer connected to Wifi networks. On this measure, a strong correlation is represented by a value near to either +1 or -1, while a figure close to 0 indicates little or no correlation. This lack of connection between having a better Wifi experience than mobile, and smartphones spending longer connected to Wifi, is most likely because modern smartphones automatically connect to known Wifi networks without asking the user. Smartphone designers made this decision long ago because they assumed that Wifi connectivity was superior to mobile networks. 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 0- 6 0 - 4 0 - 2 0 0 2 0T i m e o n W i f i v s R e l a t i v e s p e e d o f W i f i / m o b i l eTimeonWifi(%)W i f i s p e e d r e l a t i v e t o m o b i l e s p e e d ( M b p s )C o r r e l a t i o n - 0 . 1 5Our Methodology | Our Metrics 9 State of Wifi vs Mobile Network Experience as 5G Arrives November 2018 Per capita GDP is a better indicator of Time on Wifi than relative speeds However, there is a correlation between higher per capita GDP and more time spent on Wifi. This is because the Time on Wifi metric is more affected by the presence of a suitable Wifi network than by consumers decisions to connect each time to Wifi. And Wifi is more likely to be present in countries with more developed infrastructure overall because both mobile networks and individual consumers are more able to invest. Source: OpenSignal (11/2018) overall Wifi download speeds; and LTE availability which indicates the time smartphones spend connected to LTE rather than older mobile network technology generations. Source: OpenSignal (11/2018) & GDP data from World Bank. 0 . 4 60 . 5 40 . 5 0- 0 . 1 5- 0 . 1 70 . 2 90 . 4 5- 0 . 2 0 0 . 0 0 0 . 2 0 0 . 4 0 0 . 6 0W i F i d o w n l o a d s p e e dM o b i l e d o w n l o a d s p e e dM o b i l e u p l o a d s p e e dM o b i l e d o w n l o a d s p e e d d i f f e r e n c eM o b i l e u p l o a d s p e e d d i f f e r e n c eL T E a v a i l a b i l i t yG D P p e r c a p i t a ( n o m i n a l )D e g r e e o f l i n e a r c o r r e l a t i o n w i t h T i m e o n W i f i01 02 03 04 05 06 07 00 2 0 , 0 0 0 4 0 , 0 0 0 6 0 , 0 0 0 8 0 , 0 0 0 1 0 0 , 0 0 0T i m e o n W i f i v s G D P p e r c a p i t aTimeonWifi(%)G D P p e r c a p i t a ( $ )Our Methodology | Our Metrics 10 State of Wifi vs Mobile Network Experience as 5G Arrives November 2018 Upload speed experience trend mostly follows download In most countries where smartphone users experienced faster download speeds on mobile networks, they also experienced faster upload speeds on mobile. In only four countries did smartphone users experience faster downloads, but not also faster upload speeds. For consumers keen to share large video or many photos, in seven countries smartphone users enjoyed faster upload speeds on mobile even though they did not also have a superior download experience. There is a strong relationship between the upload and download experience because both are covered by the same cellular or Wifi standards. Usually, improving the download experience also leads to an improvement in upload, although upload speeds are normally slower than download on cellular networks. - 3 0- 2 0- 1 001 0- 4 0 - 3 0 - 2 0 - 1 0 0 1 0 2 0D i f f e r e n c e b e t w e e n m o b i l e a n d W i f i u p l o a d / d o w n l o a d s p e e d b y c o u n t r y ( M b p s )D o w n l o a dd i f f e r e n c e( M b p s )( U p l o a d d i f f e r e n c e M b p s )