LONDON, U.K. — In its first comparison of the 5G experience across Canada’s three national carriers, U.K.-based mobile analytics company Opensignal found there was no outright winner in any of the seven categories of user experience it analyzed for the report, released today.
Using data collected from its users between January 1 and March 31, Opensignal found three-way statistical ties between Bell, Rogers and Telus on three metrics — 5G availability, 5G reach and 5G upload speed — and in the remaining categories, users saw ties between two of the three operators, says Opensignal.
“In Opensignal’s first comparison of the 5G experience across carriers in Canada, we found a mobile network experience landscape characterized by extreme competition. Out of seven awards for the taking, not one award category was won outright by any of the operators,” reads the report.
For 5G availability, the scores for Bell, Rogers and Telus were 8.7%, 8.3% and 8.2%, respectively, meaning Opensignal’s users in Canada were able to connect to an active 5G signal for a similar amount of time regardless of their choice of carrier, says the report.
The three carriers’ scores for 5G reach ranged from 3.2 points (out of 10) for Rogers, to 2.9 points for Bell and 2.8 for Telus. Opensignal’s 5G reach metric analyzes the average proportion of locations where 5G users have connected to a 5G network out of all the locations they have visited — meaning Opensignal’s 5G users experienced 5G in almost one-third of locations they visited, explains the report.
As joint winners of Opensignal’s 5G upload speed award, Telus, Bell and Rogers achieved average 5G upload speed scores of 19.2 Mbps, 19.1 Mbps and 18.8 Mbps, respectively.
In terms of 5G download speeds, network partners Bell and Telus jointly won Opensignal’s award with average speeds of 166.2 Mbps and 165.6 Mbps, respectively. In comparison, Opensignal users on Rogers’s network experienced an average 5G download speed of 106.1 Mbps, according to the report.
(Ed note: What does this mean for consumers, in practical terms, today? Not much. It means Bell and Telus users can currently download items to their 5G devices about 56% faster than Rogers’s customers on 5G. Sure sounds like a big deal, but we downloaded a 728 MB movie to our phone from Netflix this afternoon on our 105 Mbps 4G connection in about a minute. Shaving 33 seconds off a movie download is not one of the leading reasons 5G has so much potential.)
Bell and Telus also tied for 5G video experience, with scores of 80.8 and 81.8 points (on a 100-point scale), respectively. Rogers scored 75.2 points for this metric.
Rogers was the joint winner with Bell for 5G games experience, with both carriers achieving “excellent” scores — 87.0 and 85.4, respectively. Telus achieved a “good” score of 83.8 for 5G games experience.
In the final category where there was a statistical tie, 5G voice app experience, Rogers and Telus were the joint winners with respective scores of 84.4 and 83.5 points. Bell followed close behind with a score of 82.8 points.
For more on Opensignal’s April 2021 report on 5G user experience in Canada, please click here.
