Voda Australia overtakes Telstra in latest OpenSignal 4G speed tests

Vodafone has outflanked Telstra in 4G speed in OpenSignal’s latest round of Australian mobile operator measurements after the carriers tied for that metric in the previous report. According to OpenSignal’s latest data, Vodafone’s average 4G download was 40 Mbps, 23 Mbps faster than the global 4G average of 16.9 Mbps.

OpenSignals’s State of Mobile Networks in Australia reviewed the 3G and 4G mobile consumer experience of the main Australian operators in the country: Vodafone, Telstra, Optus.

OpenSignal measures the real-world experience of consumers on mobile networks as they go about their daily lives. It collects 2 billion individual measurements every day from tens of millions of smartphones worldwide. For this particular report, 367,758,078 datapoints were collected from 22,415 users during the period: Jan 1 – Mar 31, 2020.

The most recent test period saw Vodafone Australia moving into a lead role in all metrics, either winning or drawing in every award category.

The report found that Optus and Vodafone were running neck and neck in the 4G availability metric, with both operators providing an LTE connection to OpenSignal users for more than 88% of the time.

The study also found that Telstra delivered some impressive results in Australia’s main cities. In Brisbane, for instance, Telstra’s average 4G speed was over 50 Mbps, while drawing with Vodafone for this metric in Perth and Sydney.

Looking more broadly at the global mobile status quo, OpenSignal said that for the last eight years, the mobile industry overall had relentlessly pushed the limits of 4G technology to “milk as much speed out of its networks as possible.”

“Through LTE-Advanced upgrades, improved smartphone technology and new spectrum, mobile operators have elevated average 4G speeds first beyond 20 Mbps, then beyond 30 Mbps, and in the last two years, beyond 40 Mbps.,” it added. “But the industry seems to have reached a limit to what current technology, spectral bandwidth and mobile economics can support on a nationwide level. For the last several State of LTE reports, OpenSignal has found that in the fastest countries average LTE download speeds have stalled at just over 45 Mbps.”

“The industry is still waiting on that spark that will push speeds beyond 50 Mbps on a national level,” OpenSignal said.

 

 

 

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