Brazil
Opensignal is the independent global standard for analyzing consumers' connectivity experiences. Our industry reports are the definitive guide to understanding what happens when people use their mobile and broadband connections in their daily life.
Brazil
Opensignal is the independent global standard for analyzing consumers' connectivity experiences. Our industry reports are the definitive guide to understanding what happens when people use their mobile and broadband connections in their daily life.
Key Findings
Claro wins both overall speed awards outright
Claro is the sole winner of both the Download Speed Experience and Upload Speed Experience awards. Our users on this network saw the fastest average overall download speeds, clocking in at 21.7 Mbps — 5.6 Mbps (34.8%) faster than second-placed Vivo. Claro wins Upload Speed Experience with a score of 7.6 Mbps — but this time, TIM comes second, 0.7 Mbps (10.1%) behind the winner.
Claro takes home all overall experiential awards
We saw an experiential hat-trick in this report, as Claro wins the Video Experience, Games Experience and Voice App Experience awards outright. Claro is the only operator in Brazil to place in the Acceptable (74-80) category for Voice App Experience, meaning some users were satisfied but some experienced perceptible call quality impairments.
TIM wins two awards outright — Core Consistent Quality and Availability
TIM takes Core Consistent Quality with a score of 84%. Core Consistent Quality measures the percentage of users’ tests that met the minimum recommended performance thresholds for lower performance applications including SD video, voice calls and web browsing. TIM wins the Availability award outright, with a score of 95.6%. Our users in Brazil connected to 3G or better services at least 93.5% of the time.
Claro is the sole winner of Excellent Consistent Quality
Claro wins the other consistent quality award outright — Excellent Consistent Quality — outright, with a score of 67.7%. This score reflects the percentage of users’ tests on operator networks meeting the minimum recommended performance thresholds to watch HD video, complete group video conference calls and play games.
Mobile Experience Awards
Market Overview
In Opensignal's latest Brazil Mobile Network Experience report, we add two new awards that quantify the consistency of the experience on the country’s three national networks.
Claro dominates the awards table, winning six awards outright — including all awards in the Overall Experience category — out of eight available. TIM is the sole winner of Availability and Core Consistent Quality.
In April 2022, Oi has finalized the sale of its mobile unit to its mobile competitors — Claro, TIM and Vivo — for BRL 15.9 billion ($3.4 billion) after Anatel and CADE greenlit the transaction earlier this year and other competitors dropped opposition to the transaction. TIM has already started migrating Oi’s subscribers to its network. In addition, TIM and Vivo are in the process of selling the surplus of Oi’s base stations, as required by the regulator. As a result of this sale and changes in the Brazilian mobile market, Opensignal has now stopped reporting on Oi’s mobile network experience.
Our results in this report are based on measurements collected across all major mobile operators in Brazil – Claro, TIM and Vivo – over the period of 90 days between March 1, 2022 and May 29, 2022, to see how they fared. Alongside this analysis, we have also published a companion report — Brazil 5G Experience Report — which analyzes the experience of our 5G users when connected to 5G technology.
Overall Experience
National Analysis
Claro wins Video Experience with a score of 43.5 points — 1.7 points ahead of second-placed TIM and 3.3 points ahead of third-placed Vivo.
Definitions
Opensignal’s Video Experience quantifies the quality of video streamed to mobile devices by measuring real-world video streams over an operator's networks. The metric is based on an International Telecommunication Union (ITU) approach, built upon detailed studies which have derived a relationship between technical parameters, including picture quality, video loading time and stall rate, with the perceived video experience as reported by real people. To calculate video experience, we are directly measuring video streams from end-user devices and using this ITU approach to quantify the overall video experience for each operator on a scale from 0 to 100. The videos tested include a mixture of resolutions — including Full HD (FHD) and 4K / Ultra HD (UHD) — and are streamed directly from the world’s largest video content providers.
In addition to Video Experience, we report on the following metrics related to video experience:
- 5G Video Experience: The average Video Experience of Opensignal users when they were connected to an operator’s 5G network.
- Video Experience – 5G Users: The average Video Experience of Opensignal users with a 5G device and a 5G subscription across an operator's networks. It factors in 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G video experience along with the availability of each technology.
- 4G Video Experience: The average Video Experience of Opensignal users on an operator's 4G network.
- 3G Video Experience: The average Video Experience of Opensignal users on an operator’s 3G network.
National Analysis
Claro triumphs in Games Experience, with a winning margin of 5.5 points ahead of the runner-up TIM. Vivo comes last, with a score of 48.9 points.
Definitions
Opensignal’s Games Experience measures how mobile users experience real-time multiplayer mobile gaming on an operator’s network. Measured on a scale of 0-100, it analyzes how our users’ multiplayer mobile gaming experience is affected by mobile network conditions including latency, packet loss and jitter.
Games Experience quantifies the experience when playing real-time multiplayer mobile games on mobile devices connected to servers located around the world. The approach is built on several years of research quantifying the relationship between technical network parameters and the gaming experience as reported by real mobile users. These parameters include latency (round trip time), jitter (variability of latency) and packet loss (the proportion of data packets that never reach their destination). Additionally, it considers multiple genres of multiplayer mobile games to measure the average sensitivity to network conditions. The games tested include some of the most popular real-time multiplayer mobile games (such as Fortnite, Pro Evolution Soccer and Arena of Valor) played around the world.
Calculating Games Experience starts with measuring the end-to-end experience from users’ devices to internet end-points that host real games. The score is then measured on a scale from 0 to 100.
In addition to Games Experience, we report on the following metrics related to games experience:
- 5G Games Experience: The average Games Experience of Opensignal users when they were connected to an operator’s 5G network.
- Games Experience – 5G Users: The average Games Experience of Opensignal users with a 5G device and a 5G subscription across an operator's networks. It factors in 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G games experience along with the availability of each technology.
- 4G Games Experience: The average Games Experience of Opensignal users on an operator's 4G network.
- 3G Games Experience: The average Games Experience of Opensignal users on an operator's 3G (e.g. UMTS/HSPA or CDMA 1X EV-DO) network.
National Analysis
Claro defends the Voice App Experience award with a score of 74.7 points, commanding a lead of 2.3 points over second-placed TIM. Claro is the only operator in Brazil to place in the Acceptable (74-80) category, meaning some users were satisfied but some experienced perceptible call quality impairments.
Definitions
Opensignal's Voice App Experience measures the quality of experience for over-the-top (OTT) voice services — mobile voice apps such as WhatsApp, Skype and Facebook Messenger — using a model derived from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) approach for quantifying overall voice call quality and a series of calibrated technical parameters. This model characterizes the exact relationship between the technical measurements and perceived call quality. Voice App Experience for each operator is calculated on a scale from 0 to 100.
In addition to Voice App Experience, we report on the following metrics related to voice app experience:
- 5G Voice App Experience: The average Voice App Experience of Opensignal users when they were connected to an operator’s 5G network.
- Voice App Experience – 5G Users: The average Voice App Experience of Opensignal users with a 5G device and a 5G subscription across an operator's networks. It factors in 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G voice app experience along with the availability of each technology.
- 4G Voice App Experience: The average Voice App Experience of Opensignal users on an operator's 4G network.
- 3G Voice App Experience: The average Voice App Experience of Opensignal users on an operator's 3G (e.g. UMTS/HSPA or CDMA 1X EV-DO) network.
National Analysis
Claro is the sole winner of the Download Speed Experience and Upload Speed Experience awards. Our users on this network saw the fastest average overall download speeds, clocking in at 21.7 Mbps — 34.8% faster than second-placed Vivo. TIM comes third, just 0.1 Mbps behind the runner-up Vivo.
Definitions
Measured in Mbps, Download Speed Experience represents the typical everyday speeds a user experiences across an operator’s mobile data networks.
In addition to Download Speed Experience, we report on the following metrics related to download speeds:
- 5G Download Speed: The average download speed observed by Opensignal users with active 5G connections.
- Download Speed Experience – 5G Users: The average download speeds experienced by Opensignal users with a 5G device and a 5G subscription across an operator’s networks. It factors in 2G, 3G, 4G, and 5G download speeds along with the availability of each technology.
- 4G Download Speed: The average downlink speed observed by Opensignal users when they were connected to 4G.
- 3G Download Speed: The average downlink speed observed by Opensignal users when they were connected to 3G (e.g. UMTS/HSPA or CDMA 1X EV-DO).
National Analysis
Claro wins Upload Speed Experience outright with a score of 7.6 Mbps. TIM claims the second spot, 0.7 Mbps behind the winner and only 0.2 Mbps ahead of Vivo.
Definitions
Upload Speed Experience measures the average upload speeds for each operator observed by our users across their mobile data networks. Typically upload speeds are slower than download speeds, as current mobile broadband technologies focus resources on providing the best possible download speed for users consuming content on their devices. As mobile internet trends move away from downloading content to creating content and supporting real-time communications services, upload speeds are becoming more vital and new technologies are emerging that boost upstream capacity.
In addition to Upload Speed Experience, we report on five supporting metrics related to upload speeds:
- 5G Upload Speed: The average upload speed observed by Opensignal users with active 5G connections.
- Upload Speed Experience – 5G Users: The average upload speeds experienced by Opensignal users with a 5G device and a 5G subscription across an operator’s networks. It factors in 2G, 3G, 4G, and 5G upload speeds along with the availability of each technology.
- 4G Upload Speed: The average uplink speed observed by Opensignal users when they were connected to 4G.
- 3G Upload Speed: The average uplink speed observed by Opensignal users when they were connected to 3G (e.g. UMTS/HSPA or CDMA 1X EV-DO).
Coverage
Claro
TIM
Vivo
National Analysis
Our users on TIM’s network connected to 3G or better services 95.6% of the time, which was the best score in Brazil. As a result, TIM wins the Availability award outright. However, TIM beat second-place Vivo only by 0.6 percentage points. Claro comes third, 2.1 percentage points behind the winner.
Definitions
Our availability metrics are not a measure of a network’s geographical extent. They won’t tell you whether you are likely to get a signal if you plan to visit a remote rural or nearly uninhabited region. Instead, they measure what proportion of time people have a network connection, in the places they most commonly frequent — something often missed by traditional coverage metrics. Looking at when users have a connection rather than where, provides us with a more precise reflection of the true user experience.
We also keep track of the instances that leave mobile users most frustrated: when there is no signal to connect to at all. The most common dead zones users struggle with occur indoors. As most of our availability data is collected indoors (as that’s where users spend most of their time), we’re particularly astute at detecting areas of zero signal.
Our availability metrics take a user-centric, time-based approach that complements the user-centric and geographical-based methodology used by our reach metrics.
Availability shows the proportion of time all Opensignal users on an operator’s network had either a 3G, 4G or 5G connection.
Map Definition
The coverage maps show the locations where we received measurements from users connecting with 3G or better mobile service. Each map provides an indication of the areas in which it is possible to obtain mobile service from that mobile operator.
Consistency
National Analysis
Claro wins the Excellent Consistent Quality award with a score of 67.7%. This means it was the network that met the minimum recommended performance thresholds for HD video, group video conference calls and gaming in 67.7% of users’ tests. The operator commanded a winning margin of four percentage points over second-placed TIM, while Vivo lagged behind its competitors, with a score of 55.7%.
Definitions
Consistent Quality measures how often users’ experience on a network was sufficient to support common applications’ requirements. It measures download speed, upload speed, latency, jitter, packet loss, time to first byte and the percentage of tests attempted which did not succeed due to a connectivity issue on either the download or server response component.
Full details on how the Consistent Quality metrics — Excellent Consistent Quality and Core Consistent Quality — are calculated can be found here.
Excellent Consistent Quality is the percentage of users’ tests that met the minimum recommended performance thresholds to watch HD video, complete group video conference calls and play games.
National Analysis
TIM triumphs in Core Consistent Quality, with a score of 84% — 1.6 percentage points ahead of Claro and 7.2 percentage points ahead of Vivo. The winner met the minimum recommended performance thresholds for lower performance applications including SD video, voice calls and web browsing in 84% of users’ tests.
Definitions
Consistent Quality measures how often users’ experience on a network was sufficient to support common applications’ requirements. It measures download speed, upload speed, latency, jitter, packet loss, time to first byte and the percentage of tests attempted which did not succeed due to a connectivity issue on either the download or server response component.
Full details on how the Consistent Quality metrics — Excellent Consistent Quality and Core Consistent Quality — are calculated can be found here.
Core Consistent Quality is the percentage of users’ tests that met the minimum recommended performance thresholds for lower performance applications including SD video, voice calls and web browsing.
Related Analysis
Our Methodology
Collecting billions of individual measurements daily from over 100 million devices globally, Opensignal independently analyzes mobile and broadband user experience on every major network operator around the globe.
About Opensignal
Opensignal is the leading global provider of independent insights into consumers' connectivity experiences and choice of carrier. Our proprietary insights into mobile and broadband networks give operators the solutions they need to profitably compete and win, from executive level scorecards and public validation to pin-point level engineering analytics and consumer decision dynamics.
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Confidence Intervals
For every metric we calculate statistical confidence intervals indicated on our graphs. When confidence intervals overlap, our measured results are too close to declare a winner. In those cases, we show a statistical draw. For this reason, some metrics have multiple operator winners.
In our bar graphs we represent confidence intervals as boundaries on either sides of graph bars.
In our supporting-metric charts we show confidence intervals as +/- numerical values.
Why confidence intervals are vital in analyzing mobile network experience