Opensignal, the independent global standard for measuring real world mobile network experience, has released its latest ‘Malaysian Mobile Network Experience’ report, analysing the mobile network experience for customers of the main operators in the country: Celcom, Digi, Maxis, U Mobile, Unifi and Yes.
The analysis was made at a national level, as well as across 15 Malaysian territories, helping Malaysian mobile users to understand which mobile network may be best for them based on how they use their phones and where they live in the country.
For this report, Opensignal made its awards based on the real-world mobile experience of Malaysians, calculated by collecting and analysing data from thousands of Malaysian mobile users during a three-month period (December 2020 to February 2021).
This edition highlights major changes, mostly positive, in the average mobile experience for Malaysian users since Opensignal’s last Malaysian Mobile Network Experience report, which was published in September 2020.
Key national findings:
- Just two years ago, Maxis and Celcom shared all of Opensignal’s experience awards evenly between them, with pretty decisive leads over the other operators. Even in the last report (September 2020) Maxis was still dominant winning three of the seven categories. However, the field has caught up, with U Mobile now achieving three awards (the most of any telco), Digi two and Unifi one, in addition to Celcom’s two and Maxis’ one. Clearly competition has intensified as the variation in mobile network experience between service providers in Malaysia has narrowed.
- There have also been quite a few changes since the last Opensignal report in September 2020. DiGi is the new winner in the Video Experience and Download Speed awards. These were previously held by Maxis.
- U Mobile has won the Voice App Experience and Upload Speed Experience awards outright, whilst also jointly winning the Games Experience award with Maxis.
- Unifi was able to force a statistical tie with Celcom on 4G Availability.
- Opensignal saw noticeable increases in users’ mobile experience across operators in most categories. Unifi users reported a significant increase in Video Experience (31%), Download Speed Experience (35.1%), and 4G Availability (5.2 percentage points.
- U Mobile users saw improvements in Games Experience (17%), Upload Speed Experience (5.5%), 4G Availability (5.4 percentage points) and 4G Coverage Experience (2.5%).
Sample national charts (these can be downloaded directly from the Report)
Video Experience
- DiGi users had the best experience when streaming video on mobile networks. DiGi beat Maxis to win the Video Experience award with a score of 62.7 points (out of 100) — an improvement of 6.5% since the last report
- The overall Video Experience in Malaysia has improved on the majority of networks. Unifi users reported the greatest improvement of 31%, followed by those on U Mobile with 18.4%. Only Celcom’s score decreased slightly. With all these changes, all five operators are now placed in the Good category.
Download Speed Experience
- DiGi has overtaken Maxis with the top spot for Download Speed Experience. Users on DiGi’s network have seen their speeds improve by an impressive 26.1% since the last report, while their counterparts on Maxis reported a decline of 17.5%. As a result, DiGi overturned Maxis’ lead of 3.9 Mbps and, in this report, now commands a lead of 1.4 Mbps. Apart from DiGi users, Unifi users were the only ones who observed improved download speeds.
Games Experience
- In Opensignal’s last report Maxis were the outright winner in this category which measures the mobile gaming experience. However, despite improving its score from 55.3 to 57.3 this time, Maxis now has to share the award with U Mobile, which dramatically improved its score from 49 (the worst score in the previous report) to 57.4 this time around
- Despite all round improvements, Malaysia’s telcos are still all ranked in Opensignal’s ‘Poor’ category when it comes to mobile gaming experience. A Poor Games Experience rating means that users found the level of experience unacceptable, with poor responsiveness and lack of controllability in many cases.
Voice App Experience
- Opensignal’s last report saw U Mobile and Unifi battling it out for the Voice App Experience award. However, this time U Mobile is the sole winner with a score of 76.8 out of 100 — an improvement of 2.4 points since our last report. All but one of the operators place in the Acceptable Voice App Experience category.
Upload Speed Experience
- Malaysian users continue to enjoy the best Upload Speed Experience on U Mobile’s network with speeds averaging 7 Mbps – a 5.5% improvement since the last report. Meanwhile, our DiGi users saw the biggest increase of 18.1% in their average upload speeds, and Celcom users saw the largest decline of 23.6%.
- Upload speeds are becoming increasingly important in mobile services as mobile users now engage more on social media apps and are moving away from content consumption to content creation, which gives operators with the fastest upload speeds a distinct advantage.
4G Availability
- Since the last report, the proportion of time that Unifi users spent connected to 4G has increased by 5.2 percentage points. But users on previous winner Celcom’s network saw their score rise by a more modest 1.3 percentage points, so both Celcom and Unifi are now statistically tied, with scores averaging around 89.5%. This means Celcom no longer wins the award outright.
- Maxis and U Mobile followed behind with a score of 87.8% and 86.3%, respectively. DiGi was the only operator with a score below 85%. Overall, our 4G users on all five networks saw an improvement in the proportion of time they were able to connect to a 4G signal, with those on U Mobile experiencing the greatest increase of 5.4 percentage points.
Regional Results
Opensignal’s Mobile Network Experience Report for Malaysia also took a deep dive into the regional performance of Malaysia’s mobile operators (including Yes, where relevant) across 15 Malaysian territories (Johor, Kedah, Kelantan, Kuala Lumpur, Melaka, Negeri Sembilan, Pahang, Perak, Perlis, Pulau Penang, Putrajaya, Sabah, Sarawak, Selangor and Terengganu).
These charts identify the winners (and losers) in six experience categories and can serve as a guide for Malaysian consumers interested in knowing which networks perform particularly well (or poorly) in their home regions. The data also provides a better understanding of the difference in mobile experience enjoyed by users in various parts of the country, including urban and rural regions and Peninsular & East Malaysia.
28 April 2021
