MOBILE BENCHMARK Groningen Hoorn Zaanstad Almere Haarlem Amsterdam Hengelo Amersfoort THE 2019 Den Haag Utrecht Leiden Leidschendam- Voorburg Gouda Arnhem MOBILE Roerdam Nissewaard Nijmegen s-Hertogenbosch Breda NETWORK Tilburg Eindhoven Drivetest Walktest TEST IN THE Roads Railways NETHERLANDS Maastricht P3 and connect have been testing the Dutch mobile net- Another constant in the Nether- works since 2015. Given the high lands are frequent mergers and network performance, it is remar- acquisitions as well as similar kable that the results still have changes in the market environ- improved over the years. ment. How will the now three Dutch operators perform this time? RESULTS IN A NUTSHELL T-Mobile is the overall The P3 connect Mobile Benchmark in the Netherlands has winner of this year’s P3 traditionally shown strong results. This trend continues in connect Mobile Bench- 2019, resulting in three “outstanding” grades with two of mark Netherlands – for the contenders keeping the high scores they achieved in the fourth time in a row the previous year and one of them even improving them. and with the highest score ever measured P3‘s network benchmarks are widely accepted as being highly objective and defining the de-facto industry stan- by P3 worldwide. KPN dard. The carefully designed methodology of the 2019 shows the biggest score benchmark in the Netherlands combines drivetests improvement over the and walktests for executing detailed voice and data measure ments under controlled circumstances with a previous year, while sophisticated crowdsourcing approach. This provides Vodafone keeps its high profound insights into the overall coverage of voice, performance level. data and 4G services, real-world User Download Speeds and Data Service Availability. BEST IN TEST T-MOBILE P3‘s holistic approach to network benchmarking in- 4/20194/2017 MOBILE BENCHMARK cludes both drivetest and walktest measurements as THE NETHERLANDS www.connect-testlab.com well as crowdsourcing. The drive and walktests allow max. T-Mobile for evaluating the cutting edge of the networks‘ capa- 1000 Points KPN Vodafone bilities. Crowdsourcing unveils the service quality, per- 136 formance and coverage actually experienced by the 135 133 CROWD users. We have thoroughly weighted these components max. 150 in order to give a realistic and authoritative assessment of the rated networks‘ true potential and performance. DATA max. 510 T-MOBILE TAKES THE OVERALL WIN, KPN AND VODAFONE 503 492 493 show effeCtivelY the same level of performanCE For the fourth time in a row, T-Mobile is the clear winner of the P3 connect Mobile Benchmark Netherlands. VOICE max. 340 KPN and Vodafone follow at some distance, but also 338 334 333 achieve the grade “outstanding”. With their scores only two points apart, they show practically the same level Total Score 977 961 959 of performance. Also, the fact that all three Dutch ope- Grade outstanding outstanding outstandingXXX rators are graded as “outstanding” emphasises the very Shown voice, data, crowd and total scores are rounded. high performance level of the Dutch mobile networks. T-Mobile clearly leads in all tested disci plines inclu- Overall Results Voice, Data and Crowd one ding the newly introduced crowd score and achieves N Mobile odaf the highest score level ever determined in our Mobile T- KP V Benchmarks. KPN shows the biggest score improve- Voicemax. 340 Points 338 334 333 Ci es (Drivetest) 153 100% 98% 98% ment in comparison to its results from the previous Ci es (Walktest) 51 99% 98% 100% year. This operator scores slightly better than Vodafone Towns (Drivetest) 68 100% 100% 97% in the Voice and Crowd categories and is particularly Roads (Drivetest) 42 99% 99% 98% strong in the Voice tests in smaller towns and in the Trains (Walktest) 26 94% 96% 94% Voice and Data tests on connecting roads. Vodafone Data max. 510 Points 503 492 493 slightly outperforms KPN in the data category and Ci es (Drivetest) 230 99% 98% 98% shows strong results in the walktests in bigger cities. Ci es (Walktest) 76 98% 93% 99% Especially in the data measurements conducted on Towns (Drivetest) 102 99% 97% 96% Roads (Drivetest) 64 100% 100% 99% Dutch trains, the operators leave some room for improve- Trains (Walktest) 38 91% 87% 85% ment – however, compared to some neighbouring Crowdsourced Qualitymax. 150 Points 136 135 133 countries, they still perform very strong in this discipline. Crowd 150 91% 90% 89% Connect Ra ng max. 1000 Points 977 961 959 Percentages and points rounded to integer numbers. For the calcula on of points and totals, the accurate, unrounded values were used. MOBILE BENCHMARK 2 THE DUTCH OPERATORS Traditionally, the mobile operators Netherlands compete on the highest performance level. The recent acquisition of Tele2 by T-Mobile narrowed the number of operators down to three, distinctly changing the market conditions. The Koninklijke PTT Nederland The Dutch subsidiary of the In 2000, Deutsche Telekom N.V. emerged from the privatisa- international Vodafone Group bought a minority of the Dutch tion of the formerly state-owned acquired the operator Libertel mobile network operator Ben, PTT in 1998. For the fiscal year in 2003, forming Vodafone which was later extended to a 2018, the com pany reported a Netherlands. In 2016, it mer- 100 per cent acquisition. In 2003, total revenue of 5.7 billion Euros ged with the cable and fibre Ben was renamed T-Mobile Nether- as well as a customer base of operator Ziggo. Today, 50 per lands, with the brand “Ben“ be- 5.5 million consumer and busi- cent of the joint company coming a “no-frills“ offer within ness postpaid subscribers plus VodafoneZiggo is owned by its portfolio. In 2007, T-Mobile NL 1.3 million fixed-mobile phone the Vodafone Group and additionally acquired Orange. plans. By these numbers, KPN another 50 per cent by Liberty At the end of its fiscal year 2018, is clearly the largest Dutch Global. VodafoneZiggo is the T-Mobile Netherlands repor ted a mobile operator. In addition, second largest mobile operator revenue of 1.3 billion Euros. At the KPN reports 2.9 million fixed in the Netherlands with about same time, the company completed broadband and 2.2 million 5.2 million mobile cus to mers. its acquisition of the smallest Dutch interactive tv customers plus The company also spe cifies mobile operator, Tele2. By this step, 610,000 “business multiplay” 3.9 million video, 3.3 million T-Mobile‘s customer base of for- workstations. The company fo- fixed broadband and 2.5 million merly about 3.2 million mobile cuses on marketing its KPN fixed tele phony subscribers. sub scribers was amended by for- brand, however with Simyo, Tel- For the calendar year 2018, mer Tele2 customers, resulting in fort and Ortel it also has offer- Vodafone Ziggo announced a a total of 4 million ­­subscribers. ings in the “no-frills“ segment. mobile revenue of 3.9 bn Euros. At the time of testing, the techni- KPN operates 2G/GSM at The company operates 2G cal integration of Tele2‘s infra- 900, 3G/UMTS at 900 and networks at 900 and 1800 structure into T-Mobile‘s network 2100 MHz and 4G/LTE at 800, MHz, 3G at 2100 MHz and had not yet begun – as a first step, 1800, 2100 and 2600 MHz. 4G/LTE at 800, 1800, 2100 former Tele2 customers benefit 3G is scheduled to be phased and 2600 MHz. It was the first of national roaming with T-Mobile‘s out by the end of 2021. Dutch operator to announce cells. As Tele2 did not legally exist KPN claims a 99.3 per cent that it will phase out its 3G any more, we used SIM cards of coverage of the Dutch popu- network by 2020 in order to T-Mobile only for our mea sure- lation with 4G. Recently, KPN devote its spectrum to 4G. ments. T-Mobile‘s network offers has started to combine all of Vodafone claims to offer more 2G mostly at 1800 MHz, 3G at its LTE frequen cies by “4 car- than 98 per cent population 900 and 2100 MHz and 4G/LTE rier aggre gation” (4CA), which coverage with 4G and to offer at 900, 1800, 2100 and 2600 MHz. enables theore tical download up to 1 Gbps with “4G+“ (carrier The company claims a 4G cover- speeds of up to 1 Gbps. Further- aggregation). VoLTE was intro- age of more than 99 per cent of more, KPN has offered VoLTE duced in November 2016. the population and has been offe- since October 2016 and intro- ring VoLTE since October 2017. duced 4x4 MIMO in March 2019. MOBILE BENCHMARK 3 In 2019, we have conducted the P3 connect Mobile Benchmark Netherlands for the fifth time. Can T-Mobile continue its winning streak for the fourth time? A CLOSE LOOK AT THE DUTCH NETWORKS P3, headquartered in Aachen, Ger- expanding its public mobile network “We see amazing results in the many, is a world leader in mobile net- tests to the Netherlands, Spain and Netherlands. T-Mobile’s score work testing. The company has over Sweden in 2016 as well as examining is the highest we have ever 3,500 employees worldwide and a many other mobile networks all over measured worldwide. Con- turnover of more than 350 million the world including those in the USA gratulations to all Dutch cus- Euros. P3 is partnering with the inter- and Singapore. tomers: In any case, they are national telecommunications maga- The 2019 P3 connect Mobile Bench- chosing from excellent net- zine connect, which has more than mark in the Netherlands consists of work providers. And congra- 25 years of editorial expertise and drivetests and walktests conducted tulations to all Dutch opera- is one of the leading test authorities from February 12 to March 1, 2019.