Canada’s LTE networks remain among the most readily accessible in the world, according to OpenSignal’s latestT State of LTE report.
OpenSignal’s network quality report comes three months after its Global State of Mobile Networks report was released in August. Compared to the latter, which ranked network speeds across the world, this new report looks at global LTE penetration.
While South Korea still has the highest 4G network availability at 95.71 percent, Canada was able to sneak into the top 20 with 75.42 percent nationwide LTE availability. For the sake of comparison, the United States almost misses the top ten countries for LTE availability in a list of 78 nations.
However, when it comes to the speed of those networks, the numbers change significantly. For instance, with network speeds averaging 45.86 Mbps, Singapore dethrones South Korea from its top spot, and the U.S falls to eleventh from the bottom with speeds of 13.03 Mbps.
Canada, on the other hand, narrowly misses the top 20 in this category with recorded speeds of 26.55 Mbps. While the previous LTE network quality report released by OpenSignal in February, 2016 included carrier ratings, this one does not.
In February, Rogers was ranked the 29th carrier in the world for comprehensive LTE coverage, whereas Videotron was ranked 31st, Telus was ranked 48th and Bell was ranked 58th.
Looking at a map of the world truly puts into perspective the rates at which some countries are powering ahead, whereas others, such as the U.S, are still pulling unexpectedly low numbers.
The report also includes a global map that rates the 78 countries on a colour scale that runs from light green (slow/inconsistent coverage) to dark blue (fast/consistent coverage). When the toggle is set to measure speed, Canada falls near the middle of the scale with a grainy blue filling, whereas in regards to availability, Canada falls closer to the high end of the scale with a dark blue filling.
This report makes clear that while 4G technology is progressing around the world, speed doesn’t mean consistency and vice versa. The U.S. is a prime example of these drastic parallels with near perfect consistency and yet among the poorest network speeds of the countries listed.
Globally, however, LTE speeds average approximately 17.4 Mbps, with Costa Rica ranking the slowest at 5.82 Mbps and Singapore ranking the fastest at 45.86 Mbps.The last 30 countries on the list recorded speeds of below 20 Mbps.
In terms of availability, Sri Lanka recorded the least consistent coverage at 40.27 percent, while South Korea recorded the best coverage at 95.71 percent. Just the last eight countries on the list recorded coverage levels of less than 50 percent.
The methodology for this report was collected from regular consumer smartphones under conditions of normal usage. For this particular report, 17,065,628,107 data points were collected from 500,687 users during the three-month period between July 1st and Sep. 30th, 2016.
OpenSignal predicts that by the time the next LTE report is released, several countries in Africa and Asia could be added to the list. For countries already on the map, the next report could see countries pushing speed beyond 50 Mbps.
Related: Canada just misses top ten world’s fastest mobile networks, says OpenSignal
[source]OpenSignal[/source]
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