KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 16 — Malaysia and Singapore’s delayed adoption of the 5G mobile broadband standard has caused both countries to be leapfrogged by neighbours in cellular download speed rankings, according to Opensignal’s latest report.
The report titled “5G Impact On The Global Mobile Network Experience” showed that some countries that had been behind both Malaysia and Singapore as recently as 2019, have gone ahead courtesy of their earlier rollout of 5G.
“In early 2019, Singapore ranked fifth for average download speed out of 100 markets but had fallen to ninth by late 2021.
“Malaysia fell from 61st to joint 70th in the same period, with 5G services only arriving at the end of 2021 as part of the single 5G wholesale network (Digital Nasional Berhad or DNB),” said Ian Fogg, VP Analysis and author of the report.
The report showed that Malaysians mobile users’ average download speed is now below the average enjoyed by users of networks in Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines — with Malaysia’s average download speed standing at only 13.5 megabit per second (Mbps).
According to the data collected by Opensignal, the experience for mobile users in these countries lagged behind Malaysia as recently as 2019, but have enjoyed substantial improvements over the past two-and-a half-years — partly due to the preparation and introduction of 5G — whereas the download experience of Malaysian users has improved only sluggishly in the same period.
On games experience, Opensignal noted that while countries that have launched 5G services with significant adoption have seen improvement in their games experience score, countries without significant 5G adoption have also seen this improvement, pointing out that the current 5G networks do not significantly improve the characteristics of mobile services that underpin geat real-time multiplayer gaming experience.
Malaysia scored 61.9 on a 100-point scale, which put it in joint 43rd place across 100 global markets in Q4 2021 — which is a significantly better ranking than that based purely on the Download Experience score.
“Notably, a great games experience requires a combination of low latency, little packet loss and low jitter among other characteristics and these factors have not changed dramatically yet — due to the fact that the current iterations of 5G still rely heavily on 4G infrastructure,” it said.
That being said, the report noted that Malaysia was still outperformed by Singapore, Vietnam and Thailand in the games experience, ranking 4th, 25th and 40th respectively.
Opensignal is the independent global standard for analysing consumer mobile experience.
Their industry reports are the definitive guide to understanding the true experience consumers receive on wireless networks.
In this report, Opensignal examined the real-world impact that 5G has had on the mobile experience — analysing 100 global markets including those with and without 5G services to understand the difference that 5G has made to date.
* An earlier version of this article contained an error which has since been rectified.
