Mexico Mobile Quality Report

Data Collection Period:
1 April 2024 - 30 June 2024
Publishing date:
July 2024

Introduction

The Mexican mobile market comprises several operators, of which three have their own networks with nation-wide coverage: AT&T, Movistar and Telcel. And, although it is not an operator, it is also important to mention Altán, which functions as a wholesale service provider with its own network. Thus, the network situation for these MNOs and Altán acts as a trustworthy barometer of the network situation in the country. A good knowledge of the network situation also allows the customers to perform fully informed decisions.

The objective of this report is to provide a summary of the network situation in Mexico for these three MNOs and Altán.

This report provides a quick overview of the network situation based on the following KPIs:

  • Disconnection time: daily average minutes that the users from a MNO have had only emergency coverage or no coverage.
  • 4G and 5G time: percentage of time that the users from a MNO have had 4G and, if available, 5G coverage (including 5G NSA and 5G SA).
  • 5G penetration and usage: percentage of users that have 5G connectivity, percentage of time in 5G and percentage of active usage of 5G.
  • Network status in the Common Coverage Area: an analysis of the network status, based on the signal strength and the signal quality, for the areas where all two MNOs provide coverage.
  • Call type: percentage of use of each call type by operator. This shows which technologies each of their customers primarily use.
  • Mobile network latency: percentage of customers on different latency ranks. The ranks are selected according to several performance thresholds.

Summary

The Mexican telecommunications market is controlled by three operators with their own networks and MVNOs that together hold 88% of the market: AT&T, Movistar and Telcel. And Mexico also has Altán, a wholesale service provider that, adding the market shares of the MVNOs that operate under its network, would reach 9.57% of the market.

In this competition to increase its customer base, Telcel is the number 1 operator in Mexico with 57,42% of the market. Its competitors are fighting for second place, with Movistar with 15.17% of the market and AT&T with 15.16%.

Each operator's network performance is very similar. However, there are some notable differences between them.

If we take into account the disconnection time, Telcel is the operator that remains without coverage for the least amount of time compared to its competitors.

Regarding 5G, Telcel is the operator with the highest percentage of 5G customers (6%).

On the other hand, AT%T is the operator that presents the longest 5G coverage time for its 5G clients (28%), while Telcel is the operator that has the longest time of use of 5G coverage with 7%.

AT&T and Movistar are the operators that offers the best quality of 4G and 5G coverage, both in area and in measurements.

If we look at the types of calls, Altán customers use VoLTE in almost all his calls (92%), while the rest of the operators still maintain considerable percentages of 3G calls.

Finally, regarding latency, in general terms, AT&T has better latency than its competitors, with 75% of its measurements being rated as at least good latency.

The main key figures are the following:

  • The three main operators (AT&T, Movistar, Telcel) and Altán in Mexico provide 4G or 5G coverage to their customers at least 81% of the time.
  • 5G is not yet standardized in the country and the number of 5G users is very low. The MNO with the most 5G clients is Telcel (6%), followed by AT&T (5%) and Movistar (4%). Altán does not have 5g technology.
  • Regarding 5G coverage time for 5G clients, AT&T provides 5G coverage 28% of the time but only active use 5% of the time. It is followed by Movistar with 24% of the time with 5G coverage and 4% active use and finally Telcel with 13% of the time with coverage 5G and active use of 7%.
  • VoLTE calls are especially relevant for Altán, accounting for at least 92% of total calls.
  • AT&T is the operator that has the best latency for a decent experience in all possible types of use, with 75% of measurements rated as good or excellent.

Methodology

In the following pages an in-depth description of each analyzed KPI can be found, including the methodology and rationale behind them. At a more general level, the following paragraph describes the data collection methodology.

At a more general level, Weplan Analytics collects crowdsourced data from more than 200 million devices in 31 countries. For this analysis, 1,100 million measurements collected between April and June 2024 were used. The following map shows the density of measurements taken throughout Mexico by Weplan Analytics.

As the three aforementioned MNOs and Altán serve their networks to other parties (such as VMNOs, due to roaming agreements or as part of emergency coverage) they have been filtered by the network provider reported in the SIM card.

More details about the methodology can be found here.

Connectivity



Connectivity: Daily disconnection time

The following graphic shows the disconnection time as the average number of minutes that each customer of each MNO experiences disconnections throughout the day.

Disconnection time includes moments when a customer has no coverage at all (such as underground parkings, inside elevators, so far away from an antenna that connection is not possible...) or moments when a customer only has emergency coverage, that is, the ability to perform only emergency calls. This disconnected time may (and, in most cases, will) be discontinuous, and is the average of the daily disconnection time for all users.

Among Mexican operators, Telcel has the shortest daily disconnection time, with only 22 minutes of daily disconnections.

Connectivity: 4G and 5G time

As a result of the development of 5G technology, legacy technologies such as the 2G and 3G networks are being turned off with the aim of freeing up electromagnetic spectrum to make room for more modern technologies such as 4G and 5G. This is because the frequencies are limited, so it is necessary to turn off the old ones so that the new ones can occupy those frequencies. Thus, one of the main objectives of operators is to guarantee at least adequate 4G coverage, and for those that already meet this objective, the focus turns to 5G.

Altan has the best 4G or higher coverage time for its customers, maintaining this coverage 96% of the time.

5G penetration and usage

Although the first 5G tests began in Mexico in 2019, 5G commercialization did not take place until 2022, with Telcel launching its commercial network on February 22, 2022, in the 18 main cities of the country. Although AT&T deployed its 5G network on December 8, 2021, initially on 50 devices, it was not until May 23, 2022 that it made 5G available to customers.

After the deployments of Telcel and AT&T, it was Movistar's turn, on December 15, 2022, with the particularity that 5G was available to both prepaid and postpaid users. In this initial phase it was only available in three cities in the country: Mexico City, Culiacán and Hermosillo.

The adoption of 5G is being very slow in Mexico, since initially only users with rental plans had access to 5G plans.

Movistar was the first to open 5G to its prepaid users, in December 2022. We had to wait until April 24, 2023 for Telcel to also allow 5G to its prepaid users. 5G availability on AT&T currently appears focused solely on rental plan users.

The possibility of a customer to use the 5G network depends on several factors:

  1. Their device must be 5G compatible.
  2. The MNO must have a 5G network.
  3. The client must contract a mobile plan that allows the 5G to be used, since not all MNOs offer full access to the 5G network as part of their regular plans.

The following charts show the percentage of users per MNO that have 5G access, and the percentage of time they are under 5G coverage. To establish whether a user is a 5G client or not, their 5G connectivity has been checked: if they have connected to the 5G network at least once, they are considered 5G clients.

Percentage of 5G users by carrier

The percentage of 5G clients in Mexico is still very low, with Telcel being the one with the most 5G clients (6%), followed by Movistar (4%) and AT&T(2%).

Altán currently does not have 5G technology.

Percentage of time spent under 5G coverage for 5G clients by carrier

If we look at the time in which each user has 5G coverage available, AT&T is the winner with 28% of the time with 5G coverage available. It is followed by Movistar with 24% and Telcel with 13%.

Percentage of 5G usage time for 5G users

When a user connects to the 5G network, they can do so under a Stand Alone (5G SA, pure 5G) or Non Stand Alone (5G NSA, 5G supported by the LTE network) connection.

When a user connects to the 5G NSA network, they can use only the LTE part (although they still see on their terminal that it is connected to 5G) or also the 5G part. Connecting in one way or another is mainly due to the use and capacity of the network, with the 5G network being prioritized for intensive data uses (e.g. streaming, video calls, video games, etc.) and leaving the 4G network for less intensive uses (e.g. messaging, low consumption web browsing, etc.).

The following graph shows the percentage of time that users are connected to a 5G network and are also using 5G technology.

If we emphasize the time that each user uses the available 5G, Telcel users use the 5G network 7% of the time, followed by AT&T with 5% and Movistar with 4%.

4G and 5G network status

There are two main network performance indicators used to address the network status: signal strength and signal quality. Each technology has its own measurements, but two great categories can be established:

  • Very Good: the network performance for all usages should be excellent.
  • Good: the network performance for all usages may present occasional difficulties but is good overall.
  • Fair: most network network-dependent usages (such as calls or data usage) will have at least a decent performance.
  • Degraded: network usage may be unstable and unreliable but allows for basic usage such as calls with acceptable quality and very slow data transfer rate.
  • Very Degraded: apart from emergency calls network usage is nearly impossible.

There are two ways to analyze these categories: by percentage of covered area or by percentage of measurements.

Most measurements take place in urban areas, where coverage is better.

However, it is important to note that in most countries the majority of the territory is not urban, so the percentage of area with a problematic network situation may be different from the percentage of measurements with a problematic network situation.

In general, all operators offer decent coverage in the common coverage area in Mexico.

AT&T is the operator with the best results with 83% of the area rated as at least fair. Following are Movistar with 82%, Telcel with 79% and Altán with 73%.

Furthermore, it is worth noting that Movistar is the operator with the largest area rated as at least good, with 42%.

If you look at measurements instead of area, the general situation is very similar.

AT&T and Movistar are the operators with the best results, tied with 80% of the measurements are classified as, at least, fair. They are followed by Telcel with 74% and Altán with 71%.

Call type percentage

Although 2G and 3G technologies allow the use of data, the development of 4G and 5G has left these technologies largely relegated to use in phone calls.

However, not all customers can benefit from VoLTE calls, since in order for them to be used, the following conditions must be met:

  1. Your MNO must provide 4G and VoLTE.
  2. They must have a phone capable of making VoLTE calls and a mobile plan that includes VoLTE.
  3. Your phone must be approved by the MNO and the manufacturer to make VoLTE calls.

The last condition means that a customer, without changing their phone, can have VoLTE with one operator, but not have it with another. When a 4G connected customer without VoLTE capability (for any reason) attempts to make a call, a handover process to the 2G or 3G network occurs.

This process, depending on the method applied, is called CSFB (the most common) or SRVCC. In addition, there is also VoWiFi (Voice over Wi-Fi) technology, which is used when a Wi-Fi network is available.

VoLTE technology is the most used by Altán customers, with at least 92% of calls using this technology. It is followed by Telcel with 59%, AT&T with 36% and Movistar with 31%.

Latency status

Latency is the measurement of how much time it takes for the information to be transmitted between the user and the network. A lower latency means a faster, and smoother network experience, whereas a higher latency means that the network experience will not be as good, or even unusable. This makes latency a good indicator for user experience. We have divided latency in four main groups:

  • Excellent latency: very smooth user experience, even with the most data-intensive usage, such as gaming or 4K streaming.
  • Good latency: good user experience, although gaming may not be as fluid and 4K may present occasional problems.
  • Degraded latency: mediocre user experience. Gaming and 4K are either uncomfortable or impossible, videochat may present noticeable lag, messaging with multimedia may take a long time to load and loading a web may be slow.
  • Bad latency: essentially unusable network. Only the lightest usage, such as sending messages without multimedia works decently.

There are clear differences regarding latency between operators.

AT&T presents the best results with 75% of their measurements rated as good or excellent. It is followed by Telcel with 70%, Altán with 61% and Movistar, with 23% of measurements rated as good or excellent.

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