cROWD
For the most recent crowdsourcing analysis conducted in Brazil, 966 thousand users have contributed 6.3 billion samples. The evaluation area of our crowdsourcing represents 81.2 per cent of the built-up area of the country.
With an area of 8.5 million square kilometres, Brazil is the fifth largest country in the world, accounting for more than 47 per cent of the surface of South America. It is no surprise that this unique geography means huge challenges for mobile operators and makes it very hard to provide countrywide network coverage.
As about 90 per cent of the Brazilian population are located in the federal states near the southern and eastern coast of the country, obviously mobile network operators focus on servicing these areas – especially the larger cities.
These prerequisites are also reflected in testing and benchmarking the performance and coverage of mobile networks. For the reasons mentioned, approaches such as classic drivetesting can only consider more densely populated areas. In contrast, the method of crowdsourcing is ideally suited to analyze the actual characteristics of the Brazilian mobile networks.
These analyses are based on gathering information in the background while smartphone owners use a set of specific apps. A detailedexplanation of the underlying methodology can be found on pages 10 and 11. However, the most important aspect is that this approach is based on data gathered from 81.2 per cent of the built-up area of Brazil – which makes it statistically significant for the whole country.
THREE-MONTH OBSERVATION PERIOD
P3‘s crowdsourcing metrics are based on three-month periods. The most current one covers the months December 2018, January 2019 and February 2019. Interested parties are welcome to approach P3 any time for even more current results.
The results were placed into our scoring scheme with a maximum of 1,000 points. They reflect the difficultiesto provide high and widely distributed mobile network performance over the huge country of Brazil.
The geographic distribution of the crowd sourced samples can be seen here.
TELEFÓNICA SCORES HIGHEST
IN VOICE AND DATA COVERAGE
The coverage values determined for voice and data rate the areas where the according services are available. However, it must be taken into account that the specified percentage values do not reflect the respective parts of Brazil‘s land area, but the quota of points that an operator can achieve in this discipline. These points are earned for both the actual coverage and also the “Quality of Coverage“ – a value representing whether voice and data services actually work
in the considered evaluation area (please find a more detailed description here).
Telefónica (Vivo) reaches the best result for data coverage – but it is striking that the achieved 24 per cent of available points are a far better result than the 9 per cent which Vivo gathers for voice coverage. In both disciplines, Vivo scores still higher than its competitors. But the gap is much wider in the data category than in the voice category, where all four Brazilian operators rank closely together.
TIM GATHERS HIGHEST NUMBER OF POINTS
FOR 4G COVERAGE
When assessing the coverage of 4G service, TIM is closely ahead of its competitors. Vivo and Claro still achieve results in a similar range, while Oi ranks clearly behind.
CLARO AHEAD OF COMPETITION
IN USER DOWNLOAD SPEED
The crowdsourcing also assesses the data rates that users actually achieve when utilizing their smartphones. In this examination, Claro is leading the field, followed at a distance by Telefónica and then TIM. Once again, Oi ranks last in this discipline.
TELEFÓNICA AND OI LEADING
IN DATA SERVICE AVAILABILITY
This KPI rates the number and length of service degradations within the observation period. Between December 2018 and February 2019, Telefónica and Oi achieved the highest scores, effectively ranking on par. Claro and TIM follow at some distance, but both still achieved viable results.
THE CROWDSOURCED RESULTS EMPHASIZE THE DIFFICULTIES IN PROVIDING A WIDELY DISTRIBUTED HIGH MOBILE NETWORK PERFORMANCE OVER THE HUGE COUNTRY OF BRAZIL
DETAILED ANALYSIS FOR THE METROPOLITAN AREAS
OF BRASILIA AND RIO DE JANEIRO
As already mentioned before, the unique geography of Brazil and its distinct population distribution have a clear effect: The Brazilian operators concentrate much more on providing coverage and services to the larger metropolitan areas than to the rural parts of the country.
In order to investigate how pronounced the differences in network coverage and quality are, we have conducted additional crowdsourced analyses for the areas of Brasilia, the nation‘s capital, as well as for Rio de Janeiro. This geographically focused analysis covers the same period as our nationwide results – spanning December 2018, January 2019 and February 2019.
IN BRASILIA, CLARO ACHIEVES HIGHEST SCORE
FOR VOICE AND DATA COVERAGE
As expected, the coverage KPIs are considerably higher in the larger cities than those determined for the whole country. In Brasilia, Claro is ahead of the competition both in terms of voice and data coverage. Telefónica (Vivo) and TIM follow at close distance in data coverage, while Telefónica ranks a little further behind Claro regarding voice coverage.
IN RIO DE JANEIRO, TIM IS AHEAD IN
VOICE AND DATA COVERAGE
In Rio de Janeiro, TIM leads the field both in voice and data coverage. In both disciplines, Telefónica (Vivo) follows closely behind. In data coverage, Claro ranks not too far behind the leading two contenders.
TIM IS AHEAD FOR 4G COVERAGE IN BRASILIA
AS WELL AS IN RIO DE JANEIRO
When it comes to analyzing the coverage with 4G services, TIM is clearly ahead both in Brasilia as
well as in Rio de Janeiro. While the other contenders also achieve feasible results, it is striking that Oi ranks significantly behind the other three operators in both examined metropolitan areas.
TELEFÓNICA SCORES BEST FOR USER DOWNLOAD SPEED IN BRASILIA,
IN RIO DE JANEIRO, CLARO LEADS THE FIELD
When investigating the download speed that users actually achieve, Telefónica scores best in Brasilia, especially due to strong values in the so-called P90 assessment (10 per cent of the users are faster than ...) and the average values of the best throughput achieved by each individual user. Claro follows close behind, and TIM ranks third in this discipline.
In Rio de Janeiro, Claro leads the field – not only providing the fastest speeds in the top 10 per cent of the evaluation areas, but also being ahead in the P90 and average values of the best throughput per user. Here, Telefónica is a strong follower, while TIM again ranks third in this partial consideration. In both regions, Oi comes in last also in the category of user download speeds.
An evaluation of data service availability is not published for this aggregation of metropolitan areas, as its evaluation period is typically longer than three months, and a limitation to city areas would not provide very meaningful results.
A look at the average values of the best throughputs achieved by each individual user participating in our crowdsourcing for the metropolitan areas of Brasilia and Rio de Janeiro (see chart below) shows that the Brazilian operators score in the middle field worldwide. The analysis considers the same evaluation period (December 2018 to February 2019) as the other crowd results in this report.
VERY STRONG SINGAPORE AND SYDNEY, COMPARABLE PERFORMANCE IN LONDON AND JAKARTA
A more detailedlook at the single values provides interesting results. Claro, Telefónica and TIM score significantly better than Oi. In the selection of worldwide business centers at hand, Singapore and Sydney, Australia, lead the field. London, UK, and Jakarta, Indonesia, obtain comparable results as the three stronger Brazilian providers. Although falling behind, Oi performs similar as or slightly better than the operators in Cape Town, South Africa, or the weaker operators in Jakarta or London. Berlin, Germany, scores behind the three stronger Brazilian providers. But Oi still ranks behind the three German operators.
However, when evaluating the actual results, it must be taken into account that areas such as Singapore are densely covered with buildings, whereas cities like Berlin or London contain a higher share of open spaces such as parks or fringe areas, which are provided with less mobile coverage and also comprise of less mobile users.
The analysis at hand concentrates on data throughputs. But an additional look at the coverage with 4G services, 3G/2G data services as well as voice services in the considered cities also provides interesting results. Deeper insights can be made available to interested parties on request.
However, a clear takeaway from the crowdsourced analysis is that the performance and quality of mobile networks are overall acceptable in the larger Brazilian cities – in these areas, it keeps up with the average of international operators.
In contrast, looking at the more rural areas of Brazil, there is a clear opportunity for improvements for the Brazilian operators.
