Measuring KSA Broadband

Transcription

1 Measuring KSA Broadband Meqyas, Q2 218 Report In 217, the CITC in partnership with SamKnows launched a project to measure internet performance. The project, named Meqyas, gives internet users in Saudi access to Smartphone apps and Whiteboxes to measure internet quality of experience. The goal of Meqyas is to increase transparency and encourage better internet performance throughout the Kingdom.

2 How we test Meqyas for Smartphone Test agents ios app Smartphone apps for ios and Android have been developed to measure wireless internet performance. Test your mobile and Wi-Fi connections with the Meqyas app. Android app Meqyas for home broadband A Whitebox built for testing, which sits between your home router and the internet. Register your interest to receive a free Whitebox and you can receive real time information on how your internet connection is performing! Sign up at Meqyas tests Tests Definition Fixed Mobile Download The speed data travels from our test server to your device, measured in bytes per second. Upload The speed data travels from your device to our test server, measured in bytes per second. Latency How long it takes a data packet to go from your device to our test server and back to your device. Jitter Measures the amount of difference between packet delays, or the stability of your latency. Packet loss YouTube When a packet of data becomes lost (does not arrive for two seconds), measured as a percentage of packets lost out of packets sent. Measures the highest bitrate you can reliably stream of the most popular video in your country. Web browsing Measures how long it takes to fetch the HTML and referenced resources of a popular website. CDN measurements Voice over IP Measures download performance for the same (or very similar) object from a variety of popular Content Delivery Networks over HTTP. Measures the suitability of a broadband connection for VoIP calls.

3 Initial findings 1st April 218-3th June 218 This report focuses on an overview of the fixed-line and mobile internet performance across the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. During the second quarter of 218, the number of testing devices for fixed broadband continued to increase, thus providing a more solid statistical sample that better reflects the quality of broadband services in the KSA. We ve pulled out some of the key findings and these are highlighted below: 4G mobile broadband showed very good improvements during Q2 218 in both download and upload speeds. The quality of mobile broadband service continues to be affected by peak hours of activity, but there has been a good improvement compared to Q The quality of fixed-line internet services is, as expected, heavily dependent on the type of connection. Fiber connections perform much better than copper-based ADSL services. Average download speeds on fixed broadband across the KSA are slightly below those advertised by service providers. By contrast, upload speeds are largely in line with the advertised rates. Network congestion is not a significant issue on fixed-line networks, with very little impact on download and upload speeds during the busiest hours of the day. 3 Overall Mobile Performance Mbps Download Upload Mobile broadband services in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia delivered an average download speed of 25.4Mbps during the second quarter of 218, whilst upload speeds were of 12.6Mbps. These figures represent increases of 31.6% on 4G and 12.5% on 3G, with 19.3Mbps and 11.2Mbps seen in the first quarter of the year, and are representative of a good mobile network. Overall Fixed-Line Performance (% of advertised speed) 1% 9% 8% 7% 6% 5% 4% 3% 2% 1% % 78.2% % Download 93.5% Upload Fixed-line services maintained a high performance in upload speed at nearly 93.5% of advertised rates, whilst download speeds were lower at 84.8%. Download for fixed-line services showed improvements of 1.8%, while upload improved by 1.5% compared to the first quarter of the year.

4 Mobile results 1st April 218-3th June 218 Mobile Download Speed by Month Apr-18 May-18 Jun-18 4G 3G Overall Mobile download speeds continued to improve each month during Q2 218, achieving a maximum of 25.7Mbps during May and June - an increase of 27.2% compared to March 218. This increase was driven by the higher speeds obtained by 4G technology, whilst download speeds over 3G decreased slightly to a minimum of 6.2Mbps in June. Mobile Upload Speed by Month Apr-18 May-18 Jun-18 4G 3G Overall Mobile upload speeds also continued to improve during Q2 218, reaching a peak of 12.8Mbps in May and June - a 11.3% increase compared to March 218. As with download speeds, the improvement was entirely led by the performance of the 4G spectrum as upload speeds over 3G saw little change.

5 Mobile results 1st April 218-3th June Mobile Download Speed by Technology and Service Provider Mobily STC Zain Mobily STC Zain 3G 4G The chart above shows how significant the difference is between 4G and 3G performance across mobile operators. STC s 4G performance improved by 32.%, while Mobily s improved by 32.6% and Zain s by 8.8%. Meanwhile, 3G speeds actually decreased by.3 -.8Mbps for all providers Mobile Upload Speed by Technology and Service Provider Mobily STC Zain Mobily STC Zain 3G 4G The difference between 4G and 3G was even more remarkable for upload speeds. All operators 4G technologies outperformed their 3G speeds by 4 times or more.

6 Mobile results 1st April 218-3th June 218 Mobile Peak vs Off-Peak Download Speeds Off-Peak Peak Network congestion in mobile broadband resulted in an 11% decrease in download speeds during the hours of peak activity. This is, however, an improvement from Q1 218 when mobile download speeds decreased by a much higher 26% during peak hours. Mobile Peak vs Off-Peak Upload Speeds Off-Peak Peak The effect was much smaller on upload speeds, with a decrease of around 3.1%.

7 Mobile results 1st April 218-3th June 218 YouTube Video Streaming Quality 4G 57% 22% 21% Mobily STC Zain 3G 4G 3G 4G 3G 38% 44% 43% 68% 75% 2% 21% 22% 42% 18% 36% 19% 35% 12% 7% Full HD 18 Pixels HD 72 Pixels SD 64 Pixels The YouTube measurement streams a real video from the live YouTube service. This is a particularly interesting service to measure as traffic is often delivered directly from the service providers networks, through the use of Google Global Caches (GGCs); these are servers installed by the service providers inside their network to cache YouTube and other Google content. The impact of radio technology was also evident on the quality of YouTube streaming, with 4G technology resulting in a much higher percentage of videos being successfully streamed at 18p resolution (Full HD) than on 3G. STC delivered 75% of videos at 18p (Full HD) resolution via 4G vs 44% on 3G, and Mobily's ratio was of 68% for 4G and 43% on 3G. The difference on Zain, whilst lower, was still notable at 57% vs 38%. Streaming at 72p (HD) resolution was much less dependent on radio technology, with successful streams in equal measures across all providers on 4G and 3G Mobile Webpage Loading Time (seconds) G 4G 3G 4G 3G 4G Mobily STC Zain Web browsing measurements were conducted from the participants smartphones to a common Saudi Arabian web site. The test measures the total amount of time it takes to fetch the web page and all associated objects and indicates how long it takes for a webpage to load in a user s browser. The average time required to load webpages on the 4G spectrum was 1 second or lower for all providers. 3G webpage loading times were higher by approximately.7 to.8 seconds depending on the operator, but also low enough as to not be noticeable by most users.

8 Fixed-line results 1st April 218-3th June 218 1% 9% 8% 7% 6% 5% 4% 3% 2% 1% % Fixed-Line Peak vs Off-Peak Performance (% of Advertised) 94.6% 93.2% 85.4% 84.4% Download Upload Off-Peak Peak The next section shows the impact of peak hour activity on fixed-line broadband speeds across all of KSA, first overall, and then across different service providers. The impact of peak hour activity on fixed-line broadband was very limited, with peak times at 84.4%, one percent lower in real terms than off-peak. Upload was similar, with 94.6% during off-peak and 93.2% during peak times. Fixed-Line Peak vs Off-Peak Download Speeds (% of Advertised) 1% 9% 8% 7% 6% 5% 4% 3% 2% 1% % 94.8% 87.4% 74.3% Mobily STC STC Fiber ADSL Fiber connections delivered noticeably higher performance compared to copper-based ADSL connections, as is to be expected from the difference in technology. STC fiber services provided the highest speeds compared to their advertised rates at 94.8%, whilst the provider's ADSL service delivered 74.3% of advertised rates. Mobily's fiber services had a performance of 87.4%.

9 Fixed-line results 1st April 218-3th June 218 YouTube Video Streaming Quality ADSL 73% 25% 2% Mobily STC Fiber Fiber 77% 76% 23% 23% 1% Full HD 18 Pixels HD 72 Pixels SD 64 Pixels The quality of YouTube video streaming was very similar across service providers, with Mobily and STC's fiber products delivering successful Full HD streams In 76% and 77% of tests conducted. STC's ADSL products also had a very high rate of Full HD streaming at 73%. Although we would normally expect a larger difference, this difference is reduced by the use of Google Global Cache technology. Tests resulting in Standard Definition as the maximum achievable resolution were minimal, although slightly more frequent on ADSL services Web page loading time (seconds) Mobily STC STC Fiber ADSL Web browsing measurements were conducted from the Whiteboxes in participants homes to a selection of common Saudi Arabian websites. The test measures the total time to fetch the web page and all associated objects. STC's fiber services provided users with the lowest times required to fully load common webpages at 2.3 seconds, whilst users on Mobily's fiber service would have required a.6 seconds longer. STC's ADSL services had webpage loading times at 3.3 seconds.

10 Fixed-line results 1st April 218-3th June % 7 CDN Latency by SP and Content Provider (ms) Akamai Amazon Apple Cloudflare Google Microsoft Akamai Amazon Apple Cloudflare Google Microsoft Akamai Amazon Apple Cloudflare Google Microsoft Mobily Fiber STC Fiber STC ADSL Latency to CDNs is important as CDNs are where providers, such as major social networks and popular mobile app providers, host their most heavily trafficked content (e.g Google is used by YouTube and Snapchat, while Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and PlayStation rely primarily on Akamai). Lower latency equates to lower page load times for users. As in the previous report, none of the six major Content Delivery Network operators tested were found to have infrastructure in the Kingdom. This continues to be an opportunity for performance enhancement, particularly for those services which are important to Saudi Arabian customers. What s next This is the third of many reports which will be released quarterly by the Meqyas project which will track improvements in internet performance over time. We will also be expanding the number of volunteers. More people = more data! Please participate by downloading the mobile app, or by volunteering to receive a Whitebox. ios app Android app Sign up at