State of Mobile Networks: (March 2017)

The battle for 4G supremacy between and AT&T continued to rage in our latest testing results. This is one battle from which Mexico's mobile consumers only benefit. Mexico's 4G signals are making their way to more places, and the overall speeds available to most users are on the rise. Analyzing more than 547 million measurements, OpenSignal compared the mobile data experience on Mexico's three major mobile operators over the previous three months.

AT&T jumps ahead in Telcel keeps the 4G REPORT FACTS our LTE availability speed crown rankings Telcel maintained its lead in our 4G speed tests, After tying with Telcel in 4G availability in our last averaging download speeds of 24.8 Mbps report, AT&T now tops our chart. Our users were whenever our testers connected to its LTE network. able to latch onto an AT&T LTE signal 71.5% of the AT&T was second in our rankings, averaging 21.6 time compared to a Telcel LTE signal 69.4% of the Mbps, but thanks to its higher 3G speed and 4G Report Location Mexico time. availability rankings, it won our overall speed award. Data Sample 547,891,227 Size

User Sample 31,577 Size

Telcel and AT&T see big Mexico's 4G reach is Sample Period Dec 1st 2016 - Feb 28th boosts in overall speed growing 2017

We saw a significant bump in overall speed in both We saw improvement from all three operators in our our Telcel and AT&T tests, driven both by increases in LTE availability scores in the last six months, our 4G speed and 4G availability measurements. indicating mobile broadband services are becoming Our users not only had access to faster speeds on much more accessible to Mexico's 4G users. their chosen LTE networks, but they were able to access 4G connections more often.

Overall Network Comparison

Download Speed: 4G Download Speed: 3G Download Speed: OverallLatency: 4G Latency: 3G Availability: 4G AT&T

Movistar

Telcel

THE OPENSIGNAL APP: TESTING NETWORK PERFORMANCE ON MILLIONS OF PHONES GLOBALLY

Our app continually runs tests to measure the real world experience users receive. Instead of relying on user-initiated or drive-test simulations, we are able to paint a holistic picture of network’s performance through our background tests and crowdsourcing techniques -- all the while protecting the privacy of our millions of active OpenSignal users. The app has been downloaded over 15 million times collecting billions of measurements.

Network Availability Comparison

AT&T AVAILABILITY: 4G

This metric shows the proportion of time LTE subscribers on each network have a 4G (LTE) Movistar connection available to them. It's a measure of the proportion of time users have a 4G signal on a network rather than a measure of geographic or population coverage. Telcel 69.44%

0 % 13 % 26 % 39 % 52 % 75 %

Network Speed Comparison

AT&T DOWNLOAD SPEED: 4G

This metric shows the average download speed on each network on 4G (LTE) Movistar connections.

Telcel 24.81Mbps

0 Mbps 5 Mbps 10 Mbps 15 Mbps 20 Mbps 25 Mbps 30 Mbps

AT&T DOWNLOAD SPEED: 3G

This metric shows the average download speed on each network on 3G connections. Movistar

Telcel

0 Mbps 1 Mbps 2 Mbps 3 Mbps 4 Mbps 5 Mbps

AT&T DOWNLOAD SPEED: OVERALL

This metric shows the average download Movistar speed experienced by a user across all of an operator's networks. Overall speed doesn't just factor in 3G and LTE speeds, but also the availability of each network technology. Telcel Operators with lower LTE coverage tend to have lower overall speeds because their customers spend much more time connected to 0 Mbps 3 Mbps 6 Mbps 9 Mbps 12 Mbps 15 Mbps slower 3G networks.

Network Latency Comparison

AT&T LATENCY: 4G

This metric shows the average latency on each network on 4G (LTE) connections. Latency, Movistar 56.45ms measured in milliseconds, is the delay data experiences as it travels between points in the network. A lower score in this metric is a sign of a more responsive network. Telcel

0 ms 13 ms 26 ms 39 ms 52 ms 75 ms

AT&T 151.44ms LATENCY: 3G

This metric shows the average latency on each network on 3G connections. Latency, Movistar measured in milliseconds, is the delay data experiences as it travels between points in the network. A lower score in this metric is a sign of a more responsive network. Telcel

0 ms 27 ms 54 ms 81 ms 108 ms 135 ms 160 ms

Analysis METHODOLOGY NOTES

What a difference six months makes. Since OpenSignal published its last State of OpenSignal data is collected from Mobile Networks report for Mexico, we've seen improvements in a number of regular consumer smartphones and mobile data metrics from the country's national operators. LTE signals are recorded under conditions of normal becoming more and more accessible across the country, while the overall speed usage. As opposed to drive-test available across Mexico's mobile data infrastructure is steadily rising. data, which simulates the typical user experience by using the same In our third look at Mexico, OpenSignal examined more than 547 million devices to measure network measurements collected by 31,577 smartphone users between December 2016 performance in a small number of and February 2017. We compared the 3G and 4G performance experienced by locations, we take our our testers on Mexico's three major operators: América Móvil's Telcel, AT&T measurements from millions of Mexico and Telefónica's Movistar. We found a country that is quickly ramping smartphones owned by normal up its 4G capabilities as well as facing an increasingly heated battle between its people who have downloaded the long-time local incumbent and a newly revitalized challenger. OpenSignal app.

LTE's growing reach Those measurements are taken wherever users happen to be, We measured increases in LTE availability across the board in our latest data, whether indoors or out, in a city or and not just slight upticks. All three operators saw their 4G availability scores in the countryside, representing jump by more than 4% since our last Mexico report was published in October. performance the way users The biggest increase we measured, however, was on AT&T. Our users were able experience it. For more information to tap into an AT&T LTE connection 71.5% of the time in our latest reporting on how we collect and analyze our period, as opposed to 66.6% of the time six months ago. That improvement was data see our methodology page. enough to boost AT&T over Telcel in our 4G availability rankings, while in our last report the two operators were statistically tied in the same metric. Our testers For this particular report, were able to get a Telcel LTE signal 69.4% of the time, while Movistar had a 4G 547,891,227 datapoints were availability score of 55.3% collected from 31,577 users during the period: Dec 1st 2016 - Feb 28th That result may seem a bit surprising considering Telcel deployed LTE long before 2017 AT&T Mexico launched its first 4G network in late 2015, but it's important to keep in mind what our availability metric measures. Rather than measure geographic or population coverage, OpenSignal's availability metric tracks the All data has been collected from proportion of time users have access to a particular network. Essentially we're users of the OpenSignal mobile app measuring the typical consumer experience on LTE, and our most recent data for Android or iOS. shows AT&T's users are accessing its LTE service a greater proportion of the time. For every metric we've calculated Telcel maintains its 4G speed edge the statistical confidence interval and plotted this on all of the graphs. When confidence intervals overlap We didn't just find enhanced LTE availability among Mexico's operators; we also for a certain metric we can't actually measured increases in LTE speed from two of them since our last report. Telcel be sure which of the overlapping averaged download speeds 24.8 Mbps, up from 23.3 Mbps, in our tests, and it operators has the best performance. held on to the top prize for 4G speed. AT&T's average measured 4G speed jumped more than 2 Mbps to 21.6 Mbps. Meanwhile, the average download speed tests for Movistar dropped by a megabit between testing periods, landing For this reason some metrics have at 14.1 Mbps. multiple operator winners when we've judged that the data is too We saw fairly little change in our 3G speed results between reports, though close to call a victory. AT&T did hold on to our 3G speed award. Its HSPA download average of 4 Mbps was more than a megabit faster than its nearest rival in our tests. AT&T's higher 3G speed and 4G availability rankings helped it overcome Telcel's better 4G speed score in our overall speed category. Our users were able to connect to AT&T's data networks at an average speed of 13.8 Mbps, a nearly 3 Mbps improvement over the last reporting period. Telcel came in second in our overall speed rankings with an average of 10.3 Mbps, but that score also represented a sizable improvement over the 8.5 Mbps overall average we measured in our October report. Not only did 4G connections get faster on most of Mexico's LTE networks but 4G signals became more pervasive, which in turn led to a better overall experience for our testers.

The final metric we tested was latency, which measures the reaction speed of a network. A low latency score is key to good communications-app performance and better mobile-surfing experiences. Telcel had the best (lowest) latency score in our tests, averaging 55.4 milliseconds, while Movistar took our 3G award with an average latency of 138.9ms.

Mexico is making steady 4G progress. AT&T became the first Mexican operator to surpass 70% 4G availability in our testing, and Telcel is only a hair shy of the same milestone — both good indications that their LTE deployments are starting to reach maturity. In speed, most of Mexico's operators are outperforming many of their global peers. Our 4G speed measurements for Movistar fell short of the global average of 17.4 Mbps as measured in our State of LTE report, but both Telcel and AT&T well exceeded that benchmark. Both operators are now outperforming their U.S. operator neighbors to the north in our speed tests. The typical mobile data experience for Mexican consumers likely only will get better. Even if 3G and 4G speeds hold steady, Mexico's ever-increasing LTE signal availability will mean more people will more often have access to better performing connections.