Our Methodology | Our MetricsState of Wifi vs Mobile Network Experience as 5G Arrives
November 2018
Key Findings
Landscape In 33 countries smartphone users now experience faster average download speeds
using a mobile network than using Wifi according to OpenSignal mobile analytics.
The range of countries where mobile proves faster vary widely from richer countries
such as Australia, where the benefit of using mobile was greatest where
smartphone users experienced average download speeds13 Mbps faster on mobile
than Wifi, and France (+2.5 Mbps) to markets across every continent, for example:
Qatar (+11.8 Mbps); Turkey (+7.3 Mbps); Mexico (+1.5 Mbps) and South Africa
(+5.7 Mbps).
In three highly developed geographies – Hong Kong, Singapore and the USA – the
mobile experience bucks the global trend and significantly underperforms compared
with smartphone users’ Wifi download experience with a slower mobile experience
of -38.6 Mbps, -34 Mbps and -25 Mbps respectively.
The time smartphones spend connected to Wifi has no significant correlation with
users experiencing faster Wifi speeds relative to those on mobile, because
smartphones will automatically connect to known Wifi networks without including
speed as a factor in their decision.
Outlook
Newer mobile network technology increases mobile’s superiority: In 50 countries,
63% of those studied, 4G networks offer a faster smartphone download experience
than Wifi, up from 41% of countries when compared with overall mobile download
experience instead of 4G.
Just seven countries saw a faster experience on 3G, and even in those countries
the speed advantage of a 3G mobile experience was modest, at best an increase of
3Mbps in Lebanon.
5G will accelerate the advantage of mobile technology because of the pace of
mobile innovation and the dependency of Wifi network experiences on the quality of
fixed network broadband deployments which are slow and expensive to upgrade
with fiber to the premise (FTTP).
Implications Mobile operators and smartphone makers must re-evaluate their Wifi strategies,
especially around mobile offload, automatic network selection and indoor coverage,
to ensure they do not accidentally push consumers’ smartphones onto a Wifi
network with a worse experience than the mobile network.
Our Methodology | Our MetricsState of Wifi vs Mobile Network Experience as 5G Arrives
November 2018
Background:
Why everyone has believed Wifi to be superior to cellular
There’s long been an industry assumption that Wifi is better than mobile networks in almost every
way. As a result, ever since the arrival of the earliest iPhone and Android smartphones around ten
years ago, smartphones have routinely jumped on the nearest known Wifi connection and used it in
preference to 2G, 3G or 4G mobile networks for data.
But now new OpenSignal mobile analytics indicates that mobile is no longer inferior to Wifi in every
regard and the mobile industry must change a number of design decisions as a result.
The reason early modern smartphones made the choice to stop using cellular for data if a usable Wifi
hotspot was nearby is simple to understand given the situation back then.
Ten years ago, Wifi:
- Was faster than mobile almost all of the time. The first iPhone only used slow 2G networks
— so of course, Wifi backed by ADSL or cable modems running at many Mbps was faster.
Even for later iPhones or Android smartphones, the mobile networks back in 2008/9 were
only 3G, and were often overloaded by the sudden surge of smartphone sales.
- Was cheaper, always. Wifi in the home or office had no marginal cost for the users, but often
mobile networks charged more for plans with more data volume or in some cases for the
privilege of even having any mobile data.
- Had much greater capacity. With the exception of those on initial iPhone plans with
unlimited data, smartphone users had to confront limited data volumes on mobile, but
unlimited data when they connected to Wifi. And, many of the mobile operators that initially
offered “unlimited” data with the iPhone soon backtracked.
Wifi was so important when the iPhone launched that some of the initial batch of exclusive iPhone
mobile operators bundled a free public Wifi access plan with the iPhone mobile tariff, for example O2
in the UK and AT&T in the US.
Our Methodology | Our MetricsState of Wifi vs Mobile Network Experience as 5G Arrives
November 2018
Landscape:
In 33 countries, or 41% of those analyzed by OpenSignal,
mobile delivers a faster download experience than Wifi
The world has changed dramatically since the dawn of the modern smartphone:
- 4G networks have launched. This new network generation has dramatically boosted the
quality of smartphone users’ experience.
- Almost everyone now owns a smartphone. In mature smartphone markets, this is leading
to concern of lower smartphone shipments affecting the revenues of smartphone makers.
- Mobile video consumption has exploded. Smartphones have become a mainstream way
to watch TV, to such an extent that Netflix is even trialling mobile-only tariff plans and
OpenSignal has pioneered new mobile video experience analytics.
Yet, the perception that mobile networks are inferior to Wifi has persisted, wrongly.
OpenSignal’s mobile analytics data demonstrates that in 41% of the 80 countries OpenSignal studied
for this report – representing 33 countries – the average mobile download speed experienced by
smartphone users is now faster on mobile networks than on Wifi.。