Mobile data on smartphones are crucial these days and telcos around the world are offering more data to keep up with rising demand. Over the years, the cost of data has come down significantly while telcos have continued with their expansion of their 4G coverage.
So which telco has the best network in the country? If you’re curious, OpenSignal has published its latest findings in its State of Mobile Networks: Malaysia report that’s dated October 2017.
For those who are not familiar, OpenSignal is mobile network analyser and testing app which keeps track of your network’s performance and signal strength. The latest report is based on data measured between 1 June to 31 August this year. There are over a billion measurements obtained from 75,288 test devices throughout Malaysia.
As expected, Maxis comes out on top overall with the highest 4G/3G download speeds and the lowest latency for both 4G and 3G. Coming in at second place is Yes 4G which was awarded for the highest 4G availability and the fastest download speeds overall.
When it comes to 4G, Yes records an incredibly high 93.18% availability followed by Maxis at 80.45%. OpenSignal notes that 4G availability isn’t a representation of geographic or population coverage, but rather how often its users are connected to a 4G network. It is worth mentioning that Yes itself runs on a pure 4G network so if it goes out of coverage, there’s no 3G or 2G network to fall back on. Yes also records the highest overall average download speed of 19.03Mbps and it isn’t surprising since its users are connected only on 4G, while other telcos have samples measured on 3G.
If we look at the rest, Celcom (16.15Mbps) takes 3rd place followed by Digi (11.77Mbps) on 4th and U Mobile (7.2Mbps) at 5th place for 4G downloads. Webe (or now known as UniFi) is ranked the lowest at 6.76Mbps. When it comes to 3G, 2nd place goes to Celcom (2.9Mbps) followed by U Mobile (2.78Mbps) and Digi (2.58Mbps).
In terms of latency (ping) for 4G, webe takes 2nd place (44.4ms), followed by Celcom (47.06ms), Yes (48.15ms) and Digi (55.43ms). In case you missed it, Webe has 3G domestic roaming on Celcom while U Mobile currently has 3G RAN sharing agreement with Maxis until end of this year.
OpenSignal remarked that both Maxis and Yes were performing above the global average while the other telcos are still far behind their national and global rivals. While Maxis is often seen as the most expensive telco in Malaysia, this report confirms yet again that they have the best network in country. They were also leading in last year’s OpenSignal report and this was also confirmed by MCMC’s own network performance exercise conducted last year.
You can read the full OpenSignal report over here.
