The P3 connect Mobile Benchmark in Sweden has traditionally shown strong results. This trend continues in 2019, with all operators improving over their scores from the previous test – in the cases of Telia, Tele2 and Tre with considerable score increases. Telia wins for the third time in a row, achieving the grade “outstanding” with the highest score in Sweden so far.

P3, headquartered in Aachen, Germany, is a world leader in mobile network testing. The company has over 3,500 employees worldwide and a turnover of more than 350 million Euros. P3 is partnering with the international telecommuni­cations magazine connect, which has more than 25 years of editorial expertise and is one of the leading test authorities in Europe for telecommunications products and services.

Together, P3 and connect have been conducting the most important network benchmark test in Germany for more than 15 years, extending it to Austria and Switzer­land since 2009. Starting in 2014, P3 has also been conducting benchmarks in the UK and Australia, expanding them to the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden in 2016 while also examining many other mobile networks all over the world including those in the USA and Singapore.

Being highly objective and defining the de-facto industry standard, P3‘s network benchmarks are widely accepted. The carefully designed methodology of the 2019 benchmark in Sweden combines drivetests and walktests for executing detailed voice and data measure­ments under controlled circumstances with a sophisticated crowdsourcing approach. This provides profound insights into the overall coverage of voice, data and 4G services, real-world User Download Speeds and Data Service Availability. 

The drive and walktests allow for evaluating the cutting edge of the networks’ capabilities. Crowdsourcing unveils the service quality, performance and coverage actually experienced by the users. We have thoroughly weighted these categories in order to give a realistic and authoritative assessment of the rated networks’ true potential and performance.

The drivetests and walktests for the 2019 P3 connect Mobile Benchmark in Sweden were conducted from February 21 to March 23, 2019. Two drive test cars together covered about 10,500 kilometres, visiting 20 cities and 27 towns. Additionally, a walktest team visited eight cities. The test areas account for approximately 4.3 million people, or about 43.9 per cent of Sweden’s total population.

TELIA TAKES THE OVERALL WIN, TELE2 AND TELENOR SHOW VERY GOOD RESULTS. TRE CLEARLY IMPROVES ITS SCORE.

For the third time in a row, Telia is the clear winner of the P3 connect Mobile Benchmark in Sweden, maintaining the lead in voice and data services as well as in the newly added crowd score. Continuously improving its score over the last years and this time achieving the highest score measured by P3 in Sweden so far, Telia well deserves the rare grade “outstanding”. Tele2 and Telenor achieve “very good”, followed by Tre with the grade “good”.

All four Swedish operators have improved over their results from our previous benchmarks, with Tele 2 showing the biggest improvement and Telia as well as Tre also achieving most pronounced score increases. Telenor also gathered more points than in the years before, overall keeping its very good performance. Tele2 takes the second rank in voice and data, wheras Telenor ranks second in the crowdsourcing, one point ahead of Tele2. Tre ranks third in voice and shows a considerable score improvement over the result of our previous benchmark. In the crowdsourced assessment of service degradations, we did not observe any limitations in Tre’s network from June 2018 to February 2019..

Formerly owned by the Swedish government, Telia AB merged with the Finnish operator Sonera in 2002. After the merger, the Swedish state owned 46 per cent of the new TeliaSonera and Finland a little over 19 per cent. Since then, both states have reduced their ownership in the company. Today, the company is the largest Nordic and Baltic mobile operator both in revenues and customer base. Most of its shares are owned by diverse shareholders.

In addition to its own brand, Telia operates a budget mobile service under the name “Halebop”. With approximately six million subscribers, Telia is the largest mobile network provider in Sweden. Telia operates a 2G/3G network on 900 MHz and holds individual licences for 4G on 700, 800, 1800 and 2600 MHz. Above that, Telia and Tele2 operate a shared 3G network on 2100 MHz in the 50/50 owned company Sunab. Today, Telia claims to cover 99.9 per cent of the Swedish population with its 4G service. Its offerings include both VoLTE and 4G+ (LTE carrier aggregation).

Sweden’s first commercial internet provider Swipnet started in 1991 and was renamed Tele2 in 1993. In 1997, the company merged with the internet and cable operators Comviq and Kabelvision. In 2016, Tele2 also acquired the formerly Danish broadband operator TDC. 

In late 2018, Tele2 closed a merger with the Swedish broadband and TV provider Com Hem. Tele2 offers a budget mobile service under the name “Comviq”. With about 3.8 million mobile subscribers, Tele2 is the second largest Swedish mobile ope­rator. In 2001, Tele2 established a cooperation with Telia who had not received a 3G licence. Their shared 3G network is owned and ope­rated by the joint company Sunab (Svenska UMTS nät AB) and uses the 2100 MHz frequency range. A similar joint company, “Net4Mobility“, was formed in 2009 by Tele2 and Telenor for the operation of a shared 4G network. Tele2 holds 700, 800, 900, 1800 and 2600 MHz licences. The joint 4G network covers 99.9 per cent of Sweden’s population and offers VoLTE as well as carrier aggregation.

Telenor is a Norwegian multi­national telecommunications company and one of the largest mobile network providers in the world with operations in Scandinavia, Eastern Europe and Asia. Its Swedish operation is the result of Telenor’s purchase of Vodafone Sweden in 2005. The MVNOs Lycamobile and Vimla use Telenor’s network. With about 2.7 million mobile subscribers, Telenor is the third largest Swedish mobile network operator.

Together with Tele2, Telenor holds the joint company Net4Mobility that operates 4G and 2G networks on behalf of both operators. Through this, Telenor holds 800, 900, 1800 and 2600 MHz licences. In addition, Telenor and Tele2 acquired spectrum at 700 MHz which is scheduled to be used for 4G in the second half of 2019. Also, Telenor has a network sharing agreement with Hutchison (Tre) for 3G in the 2100 MHz band, but the licences are held by Telenor and Tre individually. The joint 4G coverage with Tele2 reaches about 99.8 
per cent of the Swedish population. It offers both VoLTE as well as 4G+ (LTE carrier aggregation).

Tre or Three is the brand name under which the multi- national telecommunications company Hutchison started operating 3G (and later also 4G) mobile networks in many countries such as Australia, Austria, Denmark, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, the UK and others. Tre Denmark and Tre Sweden have a joint network covering most of the two countries with no roaming fees to their customers in both countries. In Sweden, Tre’s mobile network is shared with Telenor except for the cities Stockholm, Göteborg, Malmö, Lund and Karlskrona. In addition to its own brand, the network of Tre Sweden also supports the MVNO Hallon.

With approximately 2.2 million subscribers, Tre is number four regarding cus­tomer numbers in the Swedish mobile network market. Tre does not operate a 2G network, but offers 3G on 900 and 2100 MHz and 4G on 800 and 2600 MHz. Today, Tre Sweden covers about 99 per cent of the Swedish population. Its 4G/4G+ network supports both VoLTE as well as 
LTE carrier aggregation.