Ecuador

Movistar managed to keep hold of our national 4G Availability award, although there was statistically no movement in its score since our last report — and its rivals are closing the gap. Claro managed a moderate increase in its score of close to 3 percentage points, but CNT's growth was outstanding in this metric as our users on its network saw a 4G Availability increase of over 8 percentage points. This jump not only saw the operator force a draw for second place with Claro, but brings CNT within 4 percentage points of the leader Movistar.

Movistar lost our Video Experience award, as its score fell by over 3 points (out of 100). Both Claro and CNT increased their scores to draw for our national award in our latest analysis — with CNT once again seeing a huge improvement of 13 points to jump from a fairly distant third into joint first place.

All three of Ecuador's operators now have Video Experience scores ranking in our Fair range (40-55), meaning our users on their networks can expect video streamed to smartphones to exhibit long loading times and frequent interruptions, especially at higher resolutions. But CNT has improved from a Poor rating six months ago (meaning mobile video was barely watchable), while Claro is showing steady improvement.

The decline in Movistar's overall Video Experience was caused by a sudden drop in its 4G Video Experience score, which plunged over 7 points in the past six months. Our analysis of the supporting metrics which make up our Video Experience scores show that both Video Stalling Occurence and Video Load Time for our users on Movistar's 4G network have steadily worsened over the course of this year, which could be a symptom of congestion as more and more Ecuadorians migrate to 4G and increase their data consumption. Movistar has been investing in increasing the reach of its 4G network, but the operator needs to ensure it continues to manage capacity if it hopes to regain its Video Experience crown.

Our Download Speed Experience award was won by Claro, after the América Móvil-owned operator pulled ahead of Movistar following a draw between the two rivals six months ago. Our users on Claro's network saw their average Download Speed Experience increase by close to 1 Mbps, while Movistar's score stayed virtually the same. But we again saw the greatest increase from CNT, whose score jumped close to 3 Mbps to put it into joint second place with Movistar.

As we observed in Video Experience, the cause of Movistar's stagnant Download Speed Experience growth seems to be rooted in its 4G experience. The Telefónica operator's 4G Download Speed score has dropped by 4 Mbps in the last six months, according to our measurements. But Claro's 4G-only download score also dropped by a couple of megabits, while CNT's stayed practically static.

América Móvil recently announced its total mobile connections in Ecuador grew 3.6% in the past year, while Telefónica revealed consumer 4G penetration in its smaller Latin American markets was up by nearly 10 percentage points. This robust growth is likely putting pressure on capacity, with the impact evident on our users' mobile 4G network experience.

Claro scored another victory in Upload Speed Experience, with an 18% increase in its score allowing it to wrest the award away from Movistar. Our users on Claro's network saw their Upload Speed Experience scores improve by 0.7 Mbps, while Movistar's score saw no statistical change since our last report. But it was CNT who again saw the greatest improvement, as the state-owned player increased its score by 60% (although CNT’s Upload Speed Experience score remains barely half that of the leader Claro).

As was again the case, the source of Movistar's stagnant growth appears to be its 4G upload connections. The operator saw its 4G Upload Speed score drop by close to 2 Mbps in the past six months, while Claro's stayed virtually the same. Claro did manage to boost its 3G Download Speed score by about 25%, giving it a little help in winning our overall Upload Speed Experience award.

Claro kept hold of our Latency Experience award, and although there was very little movement in its score in the past six months, the operator remained head and shoulders above its peers in this metric. Claro's score was nearly 35ms better than Movistar, and over 60ms ahead of CNT. Our users on Movistar's network saw a minor improvement in their Latency Experience, while CNT bettered its score by close to 20ms. However, both of them have a long way to go if they hope to catch the leader.

Our users did see some signs of a worsening in their Latency Experience on Claro's 4G network, though. The operator's 4G Latency score has deteriorated by over 10ms in this data collection period, while we saw no significant movement in either of the other two operators' 4G Latency scores.

Latency is becoming more and more important to the mobile user experience, affecting a wide range of popular applications from online gaming to video streaming and IP-voice calling and messaging. Even Claro's superior Latency Experience score is a long way off the sub-40ms results we’re seeing in more mature markets, so this will need to decrease if the mobile experience on these kind of applications is to improve.