Awards Methodology
Awards methodology
Categories
Best network quality
This award honours the MNO that demonstrated an exceptional quality throughout its network in its country over its competitors. For this award we have taken into account the network Quality of Experience from millions of real end-users smartphones. Therefore, this analysis evaluates the network infrastructure as a whole, from the Radio Network to the backhaul performance.
A daily score is calculated for each MNO and technology using the average signal strength, the 25th percentile of signal quality and network performance KPIs. This score measures which percentage of samples have sufficiently good connectivity (according to the Signal strength and signal quality thresholds table below). Then, a unified daily score is created giving weight to each technology based on the prevalence of said technology for the analyzed MNO.
The final score used for classification is the average of all daily scores. One MNO overperforms another when there is no overlap of their confidence intervals (if there is, it would be considered a tie).
Best network coverage
This award exemplifies the extraordinary endeavors made by the MNO that has strived the most to cover every corner of its country, enabling end users to make calls and stay connected in the widest possible area, compared to the competition.
The MNO with the highest percentage of area (at geohash 7 level) covered with at least good connectivity (according to the Signal strength and signal quality thresholds table below) is the winner of the category. The percentage is calculated over the total number of distinct geohashes 7 analyzed. The presence (or lack thereof) of ties is determined by the overlap of the confidence intervals.
Best Urban/Rural Experience
The urban or rural character of an area is established using population open-data. Areas (analyzed in a 1.2 km x 0.6 km grid) with higher population density are considered urban, and the rest are rural. The urban-rural threshold is carefully decided for each country.
For each environment and each of the following subcategories, a score is calculated:
- Average time spent without mobile coverage.
- Average time spent with 4G or 5G coverage.
- Average time spent using 5G.
- Average of daily median latency in mobile networks.
- Average of daily median jitter in mobile networks.
- Average of daily percentage of lost packages in mobile networks.
- Average of daily median download speed in mobile networks.
- Average of daily median upload speed in mobile networks.
The winner of the Best Urban/Rural experience award is the MNO with the best result across all subcategories for the corresponding environment. The best MNO in each category gets 3 points, the second best gets 2 points, the third gets 1 point and all subsequent positions get 0 points. It is possible to have ties (e.g, if two MNOs are tied at the first position, both of them get 3 points). The presence (or lack) of ties is determined by the overlap of the confidence intervals (as described in section Confidence intervals). All subcategories have the same weight.
Fastest Fixed Network
A daily score is created using both the daily median download speed and daily median upload speed of the samples, with a weight split of 80%-20%. This split follows the usage patterns observed in users (80% of time spent downloading and 20% of usage time spent uploading). Both active and passive measurements are used, with equal weight given to both of them.
The final score used for classification is the average of all daily scores. The presence (or lack thereof) of ties is determined by the overlap of the confidence intervals.
Categories
Best 5G experience
For each of the following subcategories, a score is calculated (the 5G SA subcategories are only taken into account if there is a significant usage of 5G SA in the country):
- Percentage of time spent over 5G: time spent using 5G (both NSA and SA).
- Percentage of time spent over 5G SA: time spent using 5G SA.
- Percentage of daily traffic over 5G: traffic using 5G (both NSA and SA).
- Percentage of daily traffic over 5G SA: traffic using 5G SA.
- Average Daily jitter over 5G: average jitter over 5G (both NSA and SA).
- Average Daily latency over 5G: average latency over 5G (both NSA and SA).
- Average Daily packet loss over 5G: average packet loss over 5G (both NSA and SA).
- Average download speed over 5G: average download speed over 5G (both NSA and SA).
- Average upload speed over 5G: average upload speed over 5G (both NSA and SA).
The winner of the Best 5G experience award is the MNO with the best result across all subcategories. The best MNO in each category gets 3 points, the second best gets 2 points, the third gets 1 point and all subsequent positions get 0 points. It is possible to have ties (e.g., if two MNOs are tied at the first position in one subcategory, both of them get 3 points). The presence (or lack) of ties is determined by the overlap of the confidence intervals (as described in section Confidence intervals). All subcategories have the same weight.
Lowest Mobile Latency (4G+5G)
A daily median of the mobile latency of the samples for the analyzed MNOs is calculated. The final score used for classification is the average of all daily latency data. The presence (or lack thereof) of ties is determined by the overlap of the confidence intervals.
Best Improvement in Network Availability
The winner of this category is assessed looking at the time spent without connectivity the first and last weeks of the analyzed period.
Best WiFi Experience
For each of the following subcategories, a score is calculated:
- Average of daily median latency in WiFi.
- Average of daily median jitter in WiFi.
- Average of daily percentage of lost packages in WiFi.
- Average of daily median download speed in WiFi.
- Average of daily median upload speed in WiFi.
The winner of the Best WiFi experience award is the convergent ISP with the best result across all subcategories. The best ISP in each category gets 3 points, the second best gets 2 points, the third gets 1 point and all subsequent positions get 0 points. It is possible to have ties (e.g, if two ISPs are tied at the first position, both of them get 3 points). The presence (or lack) of ties is determined by the overlap of the confidence intervals (as described in section Confidence intervals). All subcategories have the same weight.
Other considerations
Time window used
Measurements taken between the last 6 months of the corresponding year have been used for the aggregation. For example, for the 2025 awards, measurements taken between June 2024 and December 2024 were used.
Samples
To avoid bias created by users with higher mobility or greater activity, for all KPIs each user has been considered only once per geohash 8 (roughly 38 m x 19 m) and day, with the percentile 50 (median) as the aggregation function. That way, several different measurements by the same person, on the same place, and the same day, are unified.
Throughout this document, all references to “samples” should be understood under the previous description.
Why this aggregation?
WePlan Analytics collects crowdsourced data from more than 200 million devices in 31 countries. In active tests, it is possible that a single user may perform repeated tests for different reasons (e.g., troubleshooting connectivity). In passive tests, it is possible that a single user may generate many measurements not very different from one another (e.g., due to mobility). To avoid those biases, the previous aggregation is performed.
MNOs considered
Only Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) with more than 5% market share will be taken into account in these analyses. Networks that are being dismantled are not included in this analysis. Networks undergoing a merger process will receive a case-by-case treatment which will be explicitly stated.
The MNOs are detected based on the SIM used by the device.
The only ISPs considered are those that are also MNOs (convergent MNOs) and that would be analyzed under the 5% threshold.
Other considerations
Chosen technologies
The technologies collected by Weplan include lack of connectivity, limited connectivity, 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G NSA and 5G SA.
- Lack of connectivity: the device has no mobile connectivity whatsoever. It is a typical situation in underground spaces, tunnels, elevators… The device may still have WiFi connectivity, however.
- Limited connectivity: the device is not able to connect to its own provider (or a provider with a sharing agreement), but is able to connect to a different provider for the sole purpose of emergency calls.
- 2G: 2G coverage. It offers good coverage and reach, with a low data throughput. It allows the user to perform calls.
- 3G: 3G coverage. It offers good coverage and reach, with a low data throughput (but better than 2G). It allows the user to perform calls.
- 4G: 4G coverage. Lower penetration and limited reach compared to 2G and 3G, but with a substantially higher data throughput. It only allows calls in homologated devices for VoLTE (Voice over LTE).
- 5G NSA: 5G Non Stand Alone. 4G network with auxiliary 5G cells that provide higher data throughput and lower latency. Only connections actually using 5G NSA will be under this category for the purpose of the awards. Requires devices with 5G NSA capacity.
- 5G SA: 5G Stand Alone. Even higher data throughput and minimum latency, with a very low reach and penetration. Requires devices with 5G SA capacity.
All relevant technologies in a country will be considered. For example, if a country has totally shut down 3G, it will not be considered in our KPIs. Similarly, if 5G (either NSA or SA) is still in an experimental phase without relevant country-wide deployment, it will not be considered.
A technology will be considered relevant on a country by country basis.
Confidence intervals
Due to the statistical nature of the calculations and scores, a single value does not properly convey all the information. Therefore, 95% confidence intervals are used. The confidence interval for a given KPI is calculated as AVG(Daily KPI) +- 1.96*STDDEV(Daily KPI)/SQRT(Number of days over which the data was collected). This means that we have 95% confidence that the sampling parameter of the population is between the indicated values. If two confidence intervals overlap, statistically there is a chance that both MNOs or ISPs are tied in the KPI being compared. The bigger the overlap, the higher the chance.
Signal strength and signal quality thresholds
Every country, and sometimes even different regions inside the same country, have great differences that impact their network performance: topographical, urban planning, network density differences. However, the thresholds at which the signal strength and signal quality indicate network issues (or lack thereof) do not vary for each country. To avoid using different rules for each country, and provide a quick way to compare different countries, the following criteria have been applied:
| Technology | Category | Technical KPI | Threshold for bad/good connectivity |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2G+3G | Signal Strength | RSSI | -110 dBm |
| 4G | Signal Strength | RSRP | -105 dBm |
| 5G NSA | Signal Strength | NR-RSRP | -105 dBm |
| 5G SA | Signal Strength | NR-RSRP | -105 dBm |
| 4G | Signal Quality | RSRQ | -15 dB |
| 5G NSA | Signal Quality | NR-RSRQ | -15 dB |
| 5G SA | Signal Quality | NR-RSRQ | -15 dB |
These values arise from the experience of Weplan after years of network analysis, and ensure that all countries and MNOs are analyzed under the same criteria.
Cumberland Solutions, S.L. reserves the right to make changes or improvements to the valuation methodology of the operators in each of the categories at any time and without prior notice.