OpenSignal Releases First State of Mobile Video Report

First-of-its-kind global analysis reveals surprising relationship between network speeds and consumer video experience

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM, September 25, 2018 /EINPresswire.com/ -- OpenSignal, the independent global standard for measuring real-world mobile network experience, has published its inaugural State of Mobile Video report. The groundbreaking analysis examines end users’ overall video experience on mobile networks in 69 countries around the world.

“The most startling conclusion of our global analysis is that countries with the most sophisticated networks and the fastest speeds aren't necessarily those providing the highest-quality video-viewing experience. In the case of mobile video, faster isn't always better. If you already have a decent network connection, then an additional boost in speed isn't necessarily going to make your video experience better,” said Kevin Fitchard, OpenSignal lead analyst and author of the report.

OpenSignal’s new report represents a key step forward in the company’s innovative approach to measuring real-world consumer mobile experience. “In addition to quantifying the underlying characteristics of the network such as speed and latency, we're analyzing how those dimensions impact the services and applications people use on an everyday basis,” said Fitchard.

OpenSignal’s new video experience analysis seeks to answer a simple yet highly relevant question for operators and consumers: How good or bad is the video viewing experience on an operator's network?

How it Works
OpenSignal calculates overall video experience on a scale of 0-100 based on tests from real phones onto multiple content providers. The metric is derived from an International Telecommunication Union (ITU)-based approach that takes into account video load time, stalling rate during video playback and picture quality. These scores are then grouped into categories:

75-100: Excellent
65-75: Very Good
55-65: Good
40-55: Fair
0-40: Poor

Key Findings

Many countries provide a Very Good video experience.
Eleven of the 69 countries analyzed earned a Very Good rating on OpenSignal's video experience scale, meaning mobile video loaded quickly and rarely stalled even at higher resolutions. But even among those elite nations there is still room for improvement. No country achieved the highest video experience rating of Excellent.

The fastest country doesn't offer the best mobile video quality.
South Korea was by far the fastest of the 69 countries analyzed in this report, but 15 other countries ranked higher in video experience. The best video experience OpenSignal recorded was in the Czech Republic.

European countries top mobile video experience chart.
European countries tended to outperform the rest of the world in mobile video experience. Not only did an EU nation top OpenSignal’s list, but of the 11 countries that earned a Very Good score, nine of them were in Europe.

The relationship between speed and video experience is complicated.
OpenSignal's analysis shows that video experience and connection speed are linked in countries where speeds are relatively slow, but once a country passes the 15 Mbps threshold in average overall download speed, the raw power of connections has little bearing on streaming video quality.

“Clearly, network speed is not the sole factor determining video experience, particularly in countries where 4G services are firmly established. Rather, many other factors go into determining the quality of video one receives, from network latency to resiliency of connections to the individual policies operators adopt,” Fitchard said.

Read the full State of Mobile Video report at: https://opensignal.com/reports/2018/09/state-of-mobile-video

About OpenSignal
OpenSignal, a mobile analytics company, is the independent global standard for measuring real-world mobile network experience. Using billions of measurements collected from tens of millions of smartphones through its own and partner apps, the company analyzes real-world mobile network experience at the largest scale and frequency in the wireless industry: by operator and by country, regionally and worldwide. OpenSignal believes measuring how the network performs directly through users’ eyes is key to building better wireless networks that drive a connected world. OpenSignal’s analytics products are used across the industry by mobile operators, telecoms regulators, equipment manufacturers and analysts.

For more information about OpenSignal’s commercial solutions visit: https://opensignal.com/business-solutions

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