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Opensignal’s new report analyzes the best broadband internet provider by province

Aerial view of mobile phone cell tower to illustrate lack of broadband internet service in rural areas and need for investment

Ever wondered who the best home internet provider was in Canada?

Well, according to a recent analysis by Opensignal, it depends on the province you reside in.

The company found a number of factors contribute to the experience, including location, types of available infrastructure, and available provider providers.

There are two types of fixed broadband in Canada: cable providers using hybrid fibre coax (HFC), and fibre networks, noted as fibre to the premise (FTTP) services.

The analysis examines the experience of Opensignal users in Alberta, Atlantic Provinces, British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec and Saskatchewan.

Since one factor can’t determine the best type of provider, the analysis also examines six different areas, including how consistent the quality is, download speeds, and upload speeds.

Overall, Bell and Telus’ fibre services rate highly in the markets where they are offered. But their availability is limited in Canada.

Albert and B.C.

Both provinces have three fixed broadband providers: Telus Fibre, Shaw, and Telus’s non-fibre services.

In Alberta, Telus Fibre and Shaw are the two major players but Telus outweighs Shaw in five of the six categories. Broadband Consistent Quality for Telus, which measures users’ network experience across a number of different areas, was 2.6 percentage points higher than Shaw.

However, Shaw does have faster download speeds, according to Opensignal users, with an average of 145.8Mbps, 18.7 percent faster than Telus Fibre.

In B.C., Telus Fibre also dominates most catteries. The analysis notices upload speed from the provider “is a clear standout, as users are able to experience upload speeds that are thrice as fast as those observed by Shaw.”

BC broadband experience

Image credit: Opensignal

Atlantic Canada

Bell, Rogers, and Eastlink are the leading players in the area. According to the analysis, Rogers’ customers enjoy the fastest download speeds, clocking in at 159Mbps.

However, Bell’s fibre network leads in upload speed, which is 3.1 times faster than Rogers and 6.6 times than Eastlink. Along with Eastlink, Bell Fibre also offers the best consistent quality.

Manitoba

Shaw and Bell MTS are the main providers in the province. Shaw has better experience than Bell MTS in five categories. They both share the spot in broadband success rate, which measures Wi-Fi networks.

Shaw’s broadband download speeds are 3.7 times faster than MTS. Upload speeds are 1.8 times faster.

Ontario

In Ontario, Bell Fibre leads scores across the board compared to Rogers, Cogeco and Bell’s non-fibre services.

Bell Fibre and Rogers tied for top download speeds, which are 53 percent faster than Cogeco, the third competitor on the list.

Ontario broadband speeds

Image credit: Opensignal

Quebec

Quebec is the only Canadian market part of the analysis that lists Vidéotron as a leading provider.

However, the company doesn’t compare to Bell’s fibre services, which has the fastest broadband download speeds in the province at 151Mbps. It’s twice as fast compared to Vidéotron’s network. Bell fibre also has the highest upload speeds in the province, with an average of 115Mbps.

Saskatchewan

This is the only market where Sakstel operates. However, it doesn’t compare to the services offered by its closest competitor, Shaw.

Shaw’s broadband download speed averages 142Mbps, 3.5 times faster than the average download speeds seen by SaskTel customers at roughly 40Mbps.

However, both companies have similar upload speeds.

Image credit: Shutterstock 

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Mobile Syrup

Bell, Rogers, and Telus offer similar 5G availability and reach: Opensignal

Bell, Rogers, and Telus consistently claim they offer Canada’s best 5G service. But a recent analysis from Opensignal reveals the competing providers don’t have the stronghold they all claim to possess.

The analysis found Bell offered the best 5G download speed in Canada, averaging at 158.7Mbp. The figure is nearly 15 percent faster than Telus and 21 percent faster than Rogers. However, the analysis also found that Rogers improved its download speed from its last report, published in August 2022, the most, increasing its speed by 32.6Mbps.

Rogers offered the fasted 5G upload speed. It has a score of 29.9Mbps, with an 8Mbps gap with Bell and Telus, which tied for second. Rogers also led in the last report and increased its speed by 5.8Mbps this time around. While Telus and Bell customers also saw an increase in the recent analysis, they weren’t able to catch up to Rogers.

Image credit: © Opensignal Limited

Telus offered the best 5G video experience, scoring 75.1 points out of 100. Bell and Rogers statistically tied for second. However, all three fall in the “very good” category, which has scores from 68-78.

The big three also had tied scores in the 5G reach and availability categories.

The results are based on device data Opensignal collected between October 1st and December 29th, 2022.

Mobile Network Experience

Opensignal used the same parameters to collect data for network experiences and found Rogers offered Canadians the best video experience. It was the only company from the big three to score a “very good rating” from Opensignal.

This means the devices surveyed streamed video at 1080p or better. Users were also satisfied with the time it took to load videos and there was “little stalling.” In comparison, both Bell and Telus had statistically similar scores and fell in the “good” category.

However, both Bell and Telus stayed ahead of Rogers when it came to 4G coverage. The telecom companies received a score of 9.8 compared to Rogers’ 8.8.

“Our users on Bell and Telus connect to 4G in the most locations out of all those visited by our users across all carriers,” the analysis found.

Bell offered the fastest overall download speeds in Canada, a category it has taken for the second time in a row. The average download speed was 74Mbps, almost 4 percent faster than Telus and nearly 26 percent faster than Rogers.

When it came to core consistent quality, Telus took top honours. With a score of 91 percent, it paced Bell by less than 2 percent.

Source: Open Signal 

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Mobile Syrup

Opensignal report says Canadian 5G is closing the urban-rural gap

According to a new report from Opensignal, Canadian 5G is helping to close the gap between urban and rural network experiences.

Opensignal gathered data across various categories, including download speed and time spent without signal, sourced from several countries to compare with Canada. Opensignal chose “three similarly large markets,” which include Australia, Brazil, and the U.S. It also included Germany in the comparison.

Starting with download speeds, Opensignal found that Canadians experienced fairly similar 5G speeds regardless if they were in rural or small, medium or large urban areas. Specifically, rural users experienced 5G speeds that were, on average, 12.2Mbps (or 9.5 percent) slower than large urban areas.

That difference is significantly better than 4G speeds, which saw urban area speeds on average 34-52 percent faster than rural speeds.

Looking at how Canada stacked up to other countries, Brazil was the only one with statistically similar rural and urban speeds. Australia had the largest difference in 5G speeds between rural and urban areas, but Germany and the U.S. also had significant speed differences.

Also of note is that Canada’s 5G speeds overall are among the lowest of compared countries, with only rural Germany and rural U.S. posting slower 5G speeds.

Signal availability

Moving onto signal availability, Opensignal measured the percentage of time users spend without signal and the availability of 5G measured by the amount of time spent connected to a 5G signal.

For the amount of time with no signal, Canada didn’t see a huge difference between rural and urban areas, although urban users spent less time without signal. Rural areas saw Canadians without signal 2.3 percent of the time, compared to 1.3 percent for small urban and 0.9 percent for medium and large urban areas.

Looking at the other countries, Australia and Brazil saw the highest difference between rural and urban time without signal, with rural users without signal at 5.2 percent and 6.8 percent of the time, respectively. Germany and the U.S. had smaller gaps in signal availability between rural and urban users. Opensignal says the result is impressive for Canada given the “relative size of those markets.”

When it comes to 5G availability, there was a little more of a divide between rural and urban Canada. Rural Canadians had 5G access 9.6 percent of the time. Small urban areas had 10.4 percent availability, not much higher than rural, but medium and large urban areas had 14.7 and 14.2 percent availability, respectively.

Australia had the highest divide between rural and urban 5G availability, followed by the U.S. and Brazil. Germany had no significant difference in availability. Interestingly, the U.S. had the highest overall 5G availability.

Game experience

Finally, Opensignal shared a comparison of ‘games experience,’ its attempt to quantify how mobile users experience playing real-time multiplayer games over a network. Per Opensignal’s definitions page, it calculates game experience by measuring the end-to-end experience from users’ devices to the internet end-points that host real games. Game experience is measured on a scale of 0-100.

On 5G, there was no significant difference in game experience for rural and urban users in Canada. With the exception of Australia, most of the other countries also had comparable game experience scores on 5G across rural and urban regions.

Opensignal rounds out the report by noting that Canadian 5G experiences are set to improve as carriers begin rolling out 3,500MHz spectrum. Hopefully as the spectrum rolls out and improves 5G, the network continues to offer similar experiences for both urban and rural Canadians.

Those interested can view the full report here.

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Mobile Syrup

Opensignal’s 5G mobile experience awards names Canada’s big three as high performers

A new global ranking showing users’ 5G experience provides another example of the limited telecom services in Canada.

Opensignal’s 5G Global Mobile Network Experience Awards for 2022 examined the 5G experience between the first half of 2021 and 2022. It places the big three (Rogers, Bell, and Telus) in a small handful of categories.

Global Impact

The ‘Global Impact’ section examined user experience with 5G compared to 4G.

Bell, Rogers, and Telus appear under the ‘5G Reach’ category. It measures how often networks connected users to a 5G network from all the places they visited. On a score of 0-10, Rogers comes first out of the big three with a score of 5.3, while Bell and Telus both have scores of 4.8. Rogers placed 14 out of a list of 34; Bell placed 21, and Telus came in 22nd.

Rogers is the only Canadian brand to appear in the gaming experience category under the Global Impact section. The class examined the gaming experience between 4G and 5G, and Opensignal’s users found the experience increased by 13.7 percent with Rogers 5G.

Rising Stars

Bell, Telus, and Rogers appear under the company’s ‘Rising Star’ category, measuring the 20 most improved companies for 5G experience year-over-year.

Bell and Telus appear in the top 20 for 5G reach. “Bell and Telus have made the grade with increases of 72.5 percent and 71.2 percent, respectively.”

Rogers appears in the top 20 for upload speed and is the only North American company to appear on the list.

Report only covers 5G

An Opensignal spokesperson told MobileSyrup that the report only analyzed and compared services for companies that launched 5G services.

“We have not included regional operators, MVNOs or wholesale networks, to ensure the report is focused on the operators that most consumers would consider when choosing a mobile service,” the spokesperson said.

The statement reveals the limited options Canadians have when it comes to choosing a telecom provider offering 5G services in Canada.

Source: Opensignal

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Mobile Syrup

Opensignal report says Telus, Bell offer best download speeds on 5G

Aerial view of mobile phone cell tower to illustrate lack of broadband internet service in rural areas and need for investment

Opensignal has released its August 2022 Mobile Network Experience Report for Canada, offering an analysis of how the country’s carriers stack up to each other. The report includes data collected between April 1st and June 29th, 2022.

Key findings highlighted in the report include that Telus has the “most consistent” network in Canada. Opensignal says its measures of consistent quality quantify “how often users’ network experience was sufficient to support typical applications’ requirements.”

Telus also took home the awards for the best mobile network for gaming and for over-the-top (OTT) voice services — OTT voice typically refers to real-time communications that operate over the internet.

Telus and Bell also tied for the best 4G coverage experience with scores of 9.7/10 (Rogers trailed with a score of 8.8/10).

Speaking of Bell, it claimed top spot for download speed experience. Opensignal notes Telus previously dominated this category, but this time around, Bell saw the fastest overall download speed with an average of 69.5Mbps — about 2.4 percent faster than Telus.

Rogers nabbed the top spot for Upload speeds with an average 10.7Mbps, slightly ahead of Telus’ 10.3 and Bell’s 10.1Mbps.

Some of these metrics switch when looking at Opensignal’s 5G report. Bell and Telus still claim top download speeds on 5G, but Rogers offers better 5G reach and availability, according to Opensignal.

Availability measures the proportion of time that mobile customers spend with an active 5G connection — Rogers scored 13.3 percent compared to 11.9 for Bell and 11.4 for Telus. Reach measures how often users connected to 5G services in 100 locations they visited on average. Rogers scored 52/100, while Bell scored 49/100 and Telus 48/100.

Rogers, again, nabbed top spot for 5G upload speed.

You can view the full Opensignal Mobile Network Experience Report here, or the 5G Experience Report here.

Images credit: Opensignal, (2)

Header image credit: Shutterstock

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Mobile Syrup

Cottage-goers won’t miss out on mobile speeds if connected to 5G or 4G networks: study

While visiting cottage country is a summer staple for many Canadians, it’s seldom that people leave all of their electronic devices behind.

Opensignal examined what cottage dwellers can expect when accessing services through their mobile network this summer.

Download speeds were reported at an impressive 113.7Mbps — but only when connected to 5G. Those connected with 4G could only get download speeds of 52.9Mbps.

It goes without surprise that both of these download speeds were slower when compared to the national average. Nationally, 5G download speeds were over nine percent faster, and 4G speeds were almost 12 percent faster.

A similar trend was recorded for upload speeds, but the gap between speeds nationally compared to cottage country was smaller. 5G users in cottage country saw uploads at 17.6Mbps, and 4G users saw 10Mbps. Comparatively, national users saw an upload speed of 19.8Mbps with 5G and 11.8Mbps with 4G.

The report notes the differences in mobile networks between cottage country users and national users begin and end with mobile upload and download speeds.

Examining streaming video over mobile, there was no “statistically significant difference” in the experience when connected to 5G. A small difference when comparing the 4G experience was reported.

There was also no difference while gaming or using over-the-top (OTT) voice app services, including WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger.

“The quality of users’ experience in cottage country regions while streaming videos, playing multiplayer mobile games and using voice app services, was on par with the national experience, with very little or no significant difference in scores on both 4G and 5G,” the study says.

Image credit: Shutterstock

Source: Opensignal

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Mobile Syrup

Rogers, Telus and Bell named global leaders in 5G gaming by Opensignal

Rogers, Telus and Bell are among the best in the world at providing players reliable 5G network connections for smooth mobile gaming experiences, according to independent analytics company Opensignal.

The telecom giants each took home a “Global Leader” distinction at Opensignal’s 2021 5G Global Mobile Network Experience Awards, with all three scoring above the global average of 76.7 points out of a possible 100 in the “5G Games Experience” category.

Points are earned by measuring network conditions that affect mobile gaming for players, such as “latency, packet loss and jitter.”

Among the Canadian carriers, Rogers led with 86.4 points, followed closely by Telus with 83 and Bell with 83.5.

The seven winners in the “5G Games Experience” category were South Korea’s KT, SK Telecom and LG U+, the Netherlands’ T-Mobile and KPN, Singapore’s Singtel, and Ireland’s Vodafone.

Rogers, Telus and Bell were also recognized in the “Games Experience — 5G Global Impact” category, which measures the improvement in games experience between a carrier’s 5G network versus its 4G network.

In this category, Rogers came out ahead of its Canadian competitors, with Opensignal noting a 17.2 percent improvement between the carrier’s 5G vs. 4G gaming experience, while Telus (13.8 percent) and Bell (13.4 percent) were once again closely ranked.

For context, the global average score for the “Games Experience — 5G Global Impact” category is only 8.2 percent.

Still, “5G Games Experience” and “Games Experience” were the sole categories in which Canada-based telecom companies were recognized.

The other seven categories — with no Canadian winners — were “5G Availability,” “5G Download Speed,” “5G Upload Speed,” “5G Video Experience,” “Download Speed,” “Upload Speed,” and “Video Experience.”

To see if your own 5G internet service is up to snuff, Opensignal released an app in May 2021 that lets users independently check whether they’re actually connected to a 5G network.

Source: Opensignal