methodology

In the world of scientific experiments there is no such thing as an exact measurement. Instead, the standard scientific approach is to deal in degrees of confidence. Things we have greater confidence in are things that we can state to a higher degree of precision, but no matter how well we measure something it will never get to the point where it can be stated as an absolute number. Scientists represent this level of precision with what is known as “confidence intervals”, a standard that has been adopted in all industries and domains across the globe.

When we founded OpenSignal 7 years ago, we had a very specific goal in mind. We sought an alternative to the old way of measuring mobile network performance. Instead of packing a car full of test gear and then driving around searching for signals, we decided to focus on the consumer. We felt what mattered most to consumers were the actual speeds and availability they experienced on their phones, not some abstract representation of network performance based on test equipment.