Category Archives: mobile data usage

4G LTE, 5G, Blog, data monetisation, Hong Kong, Ireland, Lithuania, mobile data usage, South Korea, UK, US, Wi-Fi

Public Wi-Fi: Lost in transition to 5G?

Two years ago, telcos were still proudly reporting their progress in utilisation of their own public Wi-Fi hotspots for cost efficient offloading of mobile data. Public Wi-Fi was also positioned as an investment in a better customer experience – especially in public indoor environments. Telcos that were late with 4G – such as in Taiwan and Belgium – could utilise their public Wi-Fi to bridge the transition from 3G to 4G.

You can find this in our telco Wi-Fi analysis from September 2016.

But something changed. Continue reading Public Wi-Fi: Lost in transition to 5G? →

Blog, data monetisation, Finland, mobile data usage, Nonstop retention®, Wi-Fi

With the all-digital Dot, Telia puts an end to ‘one size fits all’

Those of you that read our series of international mobile data analyses know that Finland is the country with the highest average mobile data consumption in the world.

Truly unlimited mobile data is a key explanation to this: 66% of Finland’s mobile subscriptions (excl. M2M) had unlimited mobile data in June. As a direct consequence of this Finns have developed a readiness to try out new apps and services at any location and at any time – as they never have to consider the data consumption or the associated cost. The habit of ‘Wi-Fi hunting’ is not spread in Finland.

Because of the unlimited model, mobile has also come to substitute fixed in many households. The average Finn had 1,72 mobile subscriptions in December 2017 – much more than the Nordic neighbours: Continue reading With the all-digital Dot, Telia puts an end to ‘one size fits all’ →

4G LTE, 5G, Austria, Blog, data monetisation, Finland, FTTx, mobile data usage, Poland, US

Are Europe’s most pronounced fixed wireless operators taking half a step back?

American carriers and uncarriers are embracing fixed wireless as one of the first use cases that 5G will solve. Verizon finally lifted the curtain on its fixed wireless offering yesterday: Verizon 5G Home. October 1 it will be available for 50 USD per month to existing Verizon customers in certain areas in Houston, Indianapolis, Los Angeles and Sacramento.

T-Mobile’s 5G will – to use their own words – have more ‘breadth and depth‘ than Verizon’s. With 5G, T-Mobile will position itself within fixed wireless for the first time:

“51% of Americans have only one high-speed broadband option – no choice at all! The combined company will create a viable alternative for millions by enabling mobile connections that rival broadband, driving prices lower and improving service.”

The only caveat when it comes to T-Mobile’s ambition is that it is conditional. This will happen if T-Mobile and Sprint are allowed to merge – a decision not yet made.

But if fixed wireless is up and coming in the US, it’s actually a pretty established business for a few operators across the pond – in Europe. Continue reading Are Europe’s most pronounced fixed wireless operators taking half a step back? →

Analysis, data monetisation, mobile data usage

More data? Always. For more? It happens.

New! Mobile data usage and revenue for 115 operators

Tefficient’s 20th public analysis on the development and drivers of mobile data follows on our country-focused analysis published in July.

In our latest analysis we have ranked 115 operators based on:

  • Average data usage per SIM
  • Total data traffic
  • Revenue per gigabyte

The data usage per SIM grew for all operators. And it grew quickly. But what happened to ARPU? Could operators monetise the data usage growth?

Our Christmas tree graph visualises those that delivered on “more for more” – and those that are just followed the “more for less” stream.

Download analysis: More data? Always. For more? It happens. Continue reading More data? Always. For more? It happens. →

4G LTE, Analysis, Austria, data monetisation, fixed data usage, FTTx, mobile data usage

Unlimited moves the needle – but it’s when mobile addresses slow fixed internet that something happens

Mobile data usage and revenue for 36 countries

This is tefficient’s 19th public analysis of the development and drivers of mobile data.

Mobile data usage is still growing in all of the countries covered by this analysis. But the growth rates are very different and so are the usage levels. Unlimited moves the needle. Finland tops the charts in usage – but it’s India that leads the growth league.

Data-only is a very important driver of usage. Austria is now the clear world leader in fixed-line substitution.

In Korea, the share of data traffic on 4G has now effectively reached 100% with a 4G penetration of 80%. The country is ready for 5G.

A prerequisite for continued data usage growth is that the total revenue per gigabyte is low. This is not the case in Greece, Canada and Belgium. The total revenue per gigabyte there is roughly 20 times higher than in Finland and more than 35 times higher than in India.

In this analysis we again use the Christmas tree visualisation to identify the countries where the more-for-more initiatives of operators buck the general more-for-less trend.

Download analysis: Unlimited moves the needle – but it’s when mobile addresses slow fixed internet that something happens Continue reading Unlimited moves the needle – but it’s when mobile addresses slow fixed internet that something happens →

4G LTE, Blog, Denmark, Finland, mobile data usage, Nordic, Norway, Sweden

Who has the best network in the Nordics? Winter 2018 update.

When we again dive into OpenSignal‘s crowdsourced stats from the Nordics it is to see if something changed with regards to the network experiences of mobile customers in the region.

This is an update of the previous version of this comparison which was based on data from the autumn of 2017. The old blog contains more background and reasoning.

The data is gathered from December 2017 to February 2018 and covers about 380 million readings from about 12000 unique devices. The data has not been published by OpenSignal but has been shared with us through OpenSignal’s analyst program.

4G availability

The graph below ranks the fourteen operators in Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland after how large proportion of time 4G LTE capable devices have been connected to 4G LTE. OpenSignal calls this 4G availability.

Continue reading Who has the best network in the Nordics? Winter 2018 update. →

Blog, Churn, data monetisation, mobile data usage

Why is there a best before date on mobile data?

Fresh milk and mobile data seem to share the same bacteria problem. Even if treated carefully, it eventually goes sour. To protect consumers from a possibly unpleasant experience, dairy producers put a best before date on milk cartons. Mobile operators go further – they revoke unused mobile data before those gigabytes have become a health hazard.

But consumers have started to question if unused data really is unhealthy and deserve a similar down-the-drain treatment as sour milk. Clever mobile operators realised that they can offer rollover data. One of the pioneers globally is New Zealand’s 2degrees. In this video they ask what is happening to all that leftover data.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFBUMLsB6As

Continue reading Why is there a best before date on mobile data? →

4G LTE, Blog, mobile data usage

The world’s best 4G LTE isn’t getting faster

OpenSignal, the company that crowdsources mobile speed and availability experiences from smartphone users worldwide, released its latest State of LTE report today.

It is based on 59 billion measurements and shows that 4G LTE speeds in the fastest countries are in a holding pattern where they don’t increase. The availability of 4G LTE is still improving though, and five countries have now joined the 90% of time club. Three months ago, that club only had two members.

Continue reading The world’s best 4G LTE isn’t getting faster →

4G LTE, Blog, CAPEX, data monetisation, Estonia, Finland, Go-to-market, mobile data usage, References

The secret behind Elisa’s financials

The Finnish-Estonian operator Elisa just published its 4Q 2017 results. And it was a new record in revenue and profitability.

How is that even possible? Readers of our public analysis of mobile data usage know that Finland is the mobile data usage powerhouse of the world – and that Elisa is no exception.

But Elisa doesn’t charge per gigabyte – so where is the revenue growth coming from? How can the company make more profit when it needs to handle all that traffic? This blog reveals their secret. Continue reading The secret behind Elisa’s financials →

Blog, Churn, data monetisation, mobile data usage, Mobile video, References

Six calls to action – directly from consumers

Ericsson ConsumerLab today published a new consumer and industry insight report titled Towards a 5G consumer future.

The research insights are based on a survey of 14000 Android and iOS smartphone users between 15 and 65 in fourteen countries: Argentina, Brazil, China, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Indonesia, Ireland, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, the UK and the US.

To prepare this consumer research, we worked with Ericsson ConsumerLab to analyse and benchmark the mobile data strategies of operators globally. When we had the research results, we jointly reviewed them.

The findings can be summarised in six calls to action – from consumers for operators: Continue reading Six calls to action – directly from consumers →

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