Category Archives: Analysis

Who has the best 4G network in the Nordics?

This is our fourth comparison of the mobile network experiences in the Nordics based on performance data from Opensignal. There are more details and background is the previous (onetwothree) blogs.

This time the data is gathered from March to May 2019. 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 capable devices have been connected to 4G. Opensignal calls this 4G availability.

Continue reading Who has the best 4G network in the Nordics?

Interviewing 23 executives and experts for Ericsson ConsumerLab research on 5G consumer potential

Reference: Go-to-market, 2018-2019

Conducting and transcribing 22 interviews with 23 senior executives from telecom operators, handset and chip manufacturers, start-ups, academia and think tanks on the potential of 5G for consumers.

These interviews were, alongside focus groups, used as input to design Ericsson ConsumerLab’s consumer research ultimately covering 22 countries and over 35000 smartphone owners globally.

The interviews form an integral part of the 5G consumer potential report as issued by Ericsson ConsumerLab in May 2019. All interviewees are named in the report. Thank you for your kindness!

Continue reading Interviewing 23 executives and experts for Ericsson ConsumerLab research on 5G consumer potential

Are fast networks fast because they aren’t used?

This blog is a follow-up on Tefficient’s recently published mobile data usage and revenue analysis of operators

    When you use a mobile network, your traffic has to co-exist with traffic generated by other users currently connected to the same cell. Your speed experience will depend on how much and what type of traffic those other users generate. It will also depend on how your operator has dimensioned that cell, i.e. how many carriers they have put up. Ultimately that depends on the available spectrum your operator has access to.

    When operators want to convince us how great their networks are, they typically talk about download speed, i.e. how many Mbit/s users on their network averagely get when downloading something from the internet. It is being supported by a number of independent network performance specialists – Tutela, Opensignal, Ookla, P3, RootMetrics – issuing country reports naming winning networks.

    These reports are actually often multi-faceted with several performance metrics, but that is often too complex to use in marketing, operators think. The simplified marketing message becomes: Speed is good – and we won.

    Here are a few recent examples:

    Continue reading Are fast networks fast because they aren’t used?

All operators climbed the tree – 46% turned usage growth into ARPU growth

  • Which operator has the world’s highest data usage?
  • Which operator carries the most data traffic in the world?
  • Which operator earns the most or the least per GB?

This is tefficient’s 22nd public analysis on the development and drivers of mobile data. We have ranked 90 reporting or reported operators based on average data usage per SIM, total data traffic and revenue per gigabyte in 2018.

Continue reading All operators climbed the tree – 46% turned usage growth into ARPU growth

China and India shift to 4th gear – leave many mature markets in the dust


Final! Mobile data usage and revenue for 39 countries

This is tefficient’s 21st public analysis of the development and drivers of mobile data.

Mobile data usage is still growing in all of the 39 countries covered by this analysis. But there are two countries that stand out – China and India. In the first half of 2018, these two ‘developing’ nations have overtaken several mature markets when it comes to average data consumption per subscription. The growth is incredibly fast and driven by 4G.

But China and India aren’t yet challenging the top – where the two unlimited superpowers, Finland and Taiwan, still reign. Continue reading China and India shift to 4th gear – leave many mature markets in the dust

How to continue to improve mobile service revenue and customer loyalty

Reference: Analysis and Go-to-market, 2018

Quantitative and qualitative exploration and analysis project starting with a Nonstop Retention® benchmark for a specific country market.

Analysing a wide area of propositions and tactics from several different markets:

  • Multi-user and multi-device plans
  • Fixed-mobile convergent plans
  • Premium value plans and options
  • Flexible plans and sub-brands
  • Early upgrade plans for handsets
  • Loyalty programmes

Identifying best practice with regards to impact on revenue, take-up and customer loyalty. Applying it to the local market competitive context, resulting in a recommendation presented during interactive workshops.

Continue reading How to continue to improve mobile service revenue and customer loyalty

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

When we once 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 the third time we address this. The first blog – with data from the autumn of 2017 – contains all the background and reasoning. It was followed up by another blog based on data from the winter of 2017/18.


This time the data is gathered from March to May 2018 and covers about 490 million readings from about 15000 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 capable devices have been connected to 4G. OpenSignal calls this 4G availability.

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

Five of your questions that Tefficient can answer – now

2019 will be a year with significant uncertainty for many operators. Will we get that frequency license? Will the merger in our market be approved? Will we be able to launch 5G? Will competing fixed wireless propositions steal our broadband customers and erode prices? Will our competitors begin producing original content?

Good then that there are questions that can be answered here and now. These are the ones we know many of you are busy with:

Continue reading Five of your questions that Tefficient can answer – now

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?

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’