Insight
The Mobile Network Test is the annual testing of networks held by German magazine Connect in partnership with Umlaut (an Accenture company). It is regarded as one of the most important and widely recognised benchmarks in the industry. Beginning in Germany in 1993, the testing eventually expanded into Switzerland in 2011 and Austria in 2012. The goal of the tests, say Connect magazine, is “to investigate the maximum network performance while keeping an eye on everyday aspects.”
Let’s take a look at the results for the DACH region (Germany, Austria and Switzerland).
Germany
This year, both Deutsche Telekom and Vodafone have improved significantly compared to the previous year. Deutsche Telekom emerged as the winner, closely followed by Vodafone and Telefónica in second and third place respectively. Deutsche Telekom also takes the lead in terms of the drive tests in large and small towns and in the walk tests conducted in large cities.
In the voice category, Deutsche Telekom again takes the lead in all scenarios, hitting 99% an over in every category except for railways. Again, Vodafone and Telefónica are close behind, but it’s moving out into the rural areas where the gaps become starker.
Deutsche Telekom has won the Mobile network test in Germany for a thirteenth time, improving on last year’s results by 15 points, rating as outstanding. Vodafone has also made good progress, improving by 11 points on last year, and ranks second this year. Telefónica achieves higher 5G share than Vodafone in major cities, and ranked No 1 in its HQ place, Munich.
Austria
Austria’s top three operators this year were Magenta, A1 and Hutchinson 3. Magenta took the lead in the walk tests carried out in major cities across the country, closely followed by A1 and Hutchinson 3.
In the most difficult scenario, in the train connections used by the test team, the achieved points drop more significantly compared to other categories, and the results show the rankings are more pronounced. Therefore, due to the lower rankings, it is clear here that there is more room for optimization in the trains’ area.
Again, results in the quality reduce the further out of the city you travel, and so do the differences between the operators. This is a similar case with the railways again, with Magenta taking the lead in the voice test. But despite this, the report found Austrian connections on roads “particularly pleasing”. This, Connect emphasise, shows that mobile Internet connections also work reliably on car journeys through Austria.
To summarise, Magenta took the top spot in Austria this year, being rated “outstanding” again, and got its own all-time high score this year, surpassing 970, the first for 6 years in a row, and entering the global TOP5 Club.
A1 also scored “outstanding”, Hutchinson 3 improved on last year also, taking the bronze medal this year as it too made good progress with its 5G rollout, according to the Network Test’s “single review”.
Switzerland
Finally, in Switzerland, there have been significant improvements on last year too. All three providers (Swisscom, Sunrise and Salt) were rated “outstanding”, with Swisscom snatching the top spot. Sunrise is the only operator to have been outstanding for 8 consecutive years. Despite the high level of play here, there were still differences, which included Salt ranking a distant third place in the drive test in major Swiss cities. On the roads and railways, the performance of all three firms hardly differs from that of the cities, which is important to note.
This is the sixth year in a row that Swisscom has won the test in Switzerland, and its scores this year was more than impressive, achieving a huge 981 points out of a possible 1,000. Taking second place this year was Sunrise, with the judges noting that their improvement on last year means “this result deserves the highest recognition”. Both Swisscom and Sunrise are in the global TOP5 club.
Salt achieved the “outstanding” grade for the first time this year, although it was noted there is room for improvement in the availability of voice telephony on the connecting roads.
The method
The sophisticated and advanced methodology of the network test undertaken by Umlaut and Connect considers both the top performance and everyday requirements of the user, taking into account logistics, voice connection, data connection, crowdsourcing, broadband coverage, data rates and latencies, stability and reliability. “Our test is a result of a value-based initiative, and the responsibility we as an industry undertake to create a cleaner and more sustainable future. The fact that all mobile network operators were able to implement energy efficiency features and measures and were able to improve their results – in some cases significantly – speaks for itself. Chapeau to the industry,” said Hakan Ekmen, Global Networks Lead, Comms Industry and simultaneously CEO at umlaut.
This year’s results show impressive improvements from all parties in the DACH region. But, as ever, the goal of these tests remains the same: to investigate the maximum network performance while keeping an eye on everyday aspects.
