Singtel fastest network in Singapore; StarHub provides more consistently excellent user experience

• StarHub’s mobile network provides users with an excellent service 88% of the time
• SingTel has the best 4G download and upload speeds (36 Mbps and 17 Mbps)

STARHUB’S mobile network provides users with an excellent service 88% of the time, despite Singtel’s network offering speeds 10 Mbps faster on average. This is according to a new report into the mobile experiences of users from Tutela, an independent mobile quality measurement company.

Tutela measured the network quality across Singapore from the mobile devices of over 40,000 Singaporeans between October 2018 and January 2019, collecting over 85 billion network quality measurements across the country at all times of the day and night to ensure a representative sample.

Against a backdrop where the telecoms industry is facing unprecedented change, with cheaper MVNO challengers entering the market and the race to 5G, Singapore’s mobile network operators are working hard to remain world leaders in wireless communication.

Key findings from the report include that:

Singtel had the fastest network overall, with the best 4G download and upload speeds (36 Mbps and 17 Mbps respectively).

StarHub had the best consistent quality of any network tested, with 88.2% of tests meeting Tutela’s standards for demanding network use-cases such as HD video streaming or video calling.

Latency, particularly over 4G networks, was consistently low among all providers, giving users an unparalleled network experience. M1 had slightly lower 4G latency at 14.1 ms.

The performance of the recent MVNO entrants to the market was variable: although Circles and MyRepublic provided connection speeds equal to that of the host network, Zero1’s subscribers routinely saw lower speeds -- although this may be due to the plans offered

Tutela vice president Tom Luke, said: “Singtel’s impressive performance indicates the hard work that the network has done to optimise its quality of experience, particularly in the initial stages.

“However, when it came to the consistency of network quality, StarHub’s higher results show that pure speed simply isn’t everything. Instead, network operators need to be future-proofing their network in the run up to 5G, by providing an outstanding mobile network experience as often as possible.”

Tutela uses crowdsourcing to test mobile networks in a way that represents the day-to-day usage and experience of real-world mobile users, directly from the users’ handsets.

Tutela’s software runs in the background of over 3,000 diverse third-party mobile apps, which have partnered with Tutela to study network quality. The full report is available here.