Opensignal has released its September 2022 Mobile Network Experience Report for Malaysia which provides a snapshot of the current mobile experience. There are a couple of key takeaways which cover best experience, fastest speeds, consistency and also coverage.
The September report is based on data gathered for 90 days between 1st June to 29th August 2022 among users across different Malaysian states using different telcos including Celcom, Digi, Maxis, U Mobile, Unifi and Yes.
As usual, Opensignal provides awards across different categories. For the current report, both Maxis and Digi bag the most share of awards, followed by U Mobile.
Digi records the fastest average download speeds at 20.5Mbps
Among all the telcos, Digi is ranked #1 for download speed experience with an average of 20.5Mbps, followed closely by Maxis at 19.2Mbps, Unifi Mobile at 12.4Mbps, Yes at 12.1Mbps and Celcom at 11.2Mbps. Meanwhile, U Mobile takes last place at 8.6Mbps for average downloads. According to Opensignal, the download speed experience of Digi users was 65.1%-68.8% faster than Unifi and Yes, 83.6% faster than Celcom and 137.7% faster than last-placed U Mobile.
Yes users are connected to at least 4G 98.8% of the time
When it comes to coverage, Yes is awarded the best for availability with users connected to 4G and above 98.8% of the time. At the moment, Yes is also the first and only telco to offer 5G coverage via Digital Nasional Berhad. This is followed closely behind by U Mobile at 98%, Maxis at 96.7%, Digi at 96.1%, Celcom at 96% and Unifi Mobile at 95%. Opensignal has stated that the availability metric is not a measure of a network’s geographical extent and it shouldn’t be used as an indicator if you are likely to get a signal if you visit a remote rural or uninhabited region.
The availability is calculated based on how often users have a connection, rather than where they are having coverage. This takes into account instances where mobile users have no signal at all which is a sign of dead zones especially indoors. It added that since their availability data is collected indoors, Opensignal believes that this is the right way of detecting areas of zero signal.
Celcom still offers the widest coverage in Malaysia
If you’re looking at actual geographical mobile network coverage in Malaysia, Celcom is ranked #1 at 9.2 out of 10 points, followed by Digi and Maxis which record 8.6 points each, followed by U Mobile at 7.7 points and Unifi at 7.0 points. In this category, Yes ranked last at 6.9 points, which is very close to Unifi Mobile. This shouldn’t come as a surprise as the big four telcos are established longer and have a more extensive nationwide 4G coverage.
Unifi and Digi awarded best for consistency
Another category which Opensignal focus on is consistency to meet minimum performance standards for lower and high-performance applications. For Cost Consistent Quality which calculates the percentage of users meeting minimum performance thresholds for SD video, voice calls and web browsing, Unifi comes out on top at 82.7%, followed by Digi at 83.8% and Celcom at 80.8%.
Meanwhile, Digi is ranked #1 with 64.8% for Excellent Consistent Quality which calculates the percentage of users being able to meet minimum requirements to watch HD video, complete group video calls and online gaming. This is followed closely by Unifi at 62.7% and Maxis at 53.4%.
You can read the full Opensignal report which also includes a breakdown of state-level performance here.
