CROWD 

As in the previous year, A1 has a head start in the crowdsourcing discipline – but this time at a relatively close margin.

As in previous years, our crowdsourcing category, which focuses on what the customers of an operator actually receive as opposed to the maximum possible performance, shows that A1 is ahead of the game. This year, however, the gap to the other candidates is relatively narrow – compared to Magenta ranking in second place in the crowd assessment it is only three points. And Hutchison Three is also catching up relatively close, ranking five points behind Magenta.

What is remarkable about A1‘s lead is that the provider is ahead in literally all individual evaluations within the crowd category. The best value for the Quality of Broadband Service rewards the fact that the largest Austrian provider is expanding its network in regions where the two ­competitors offer fewer broadband connections. High values for the Time on Broadband show that customers have correspondingly frequent broadband contact with their network. 

With regard to the likewise overall convincing values for download data rates, it is interesting to note that Magenta achieves the second place for Basic Internet (up to 2 Mbps), while in the two more demanding speed classes HD video (up to 5 Mbps) and UHD video (up to 20 Mbps), the operator Three moves up to second place. The same applies to the time share with broadband reception (Time on Broadband), showing that Three customers are increasingly using high data rates.

In terms of latencies, Magenta and Three rank close to each other in the demanding Gaming speed class.