The mobile video experience in the U.S has improved, but it’s still worse than Mexico’s or Canada’s.
Americans rank 68th in the world for the video experience they’re delivered, according to mobile network analytics company OpenSignal. The US sits in the ‘fair’ quality bracket and, in 68th place, it’s right between Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.
To judge ‘perceived video quality’, the company assesses picture quality, video loading time, and stall rates to generate a score of between 0 and 100.
The US got a score of 53.8 points, up from 46.7 points a year ago, but that wasn’t enough to put it in the ‘good’ video experience category, which is populated by Russia, Myanmar, South Africa, Bolivia, and Laos.
OpenSignal attributes the relatively poor US mobile video experience to several factors, but notes that the US had the lowest score of any G7 nation, which also includes Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the UK.
The six other G7 nations all enjoy a ‘very good’ video experience with scores between 65.8 and 69.8.
MacDailyNews Note: OpenSignal’s “The State Of Mobile Video Experience” report states, “While there was an improvement in Americans’ Video Experience — with the score increasing from 46.7 to 53.8 points — it was not enough to shift U.S. consumers up a gear into the Good category. Instead, Video Experience remained stuck in the Fair category. Americans had the lowest Video Experience score of any of the G7 economically leading countries as U.S. carriers struggle with the combination of enormous mobile video consumption and insufficient new spectrum. Opensignal’s results highlight the need for the release of more mid-band spectrum to help U.S. carriers meet the mobile video needs of Americans.”
No shocker here. American companies only give a shit about their profits not our experience
“ Russia, Myanmar, South Africa, Bolivia, and Laos” all got better scores than the US? Maybe in the big cities. I’ll bet there are large areas of those countries that get no signal at all.
“no signal” — Nothing like just making something up and making that your point. Nice.
Personal anecdotal 2 cents:
in a few third world countries I’ve been in it’s surprising that their mobile experience is way better than what I get in Canada (where I now live).
Lots of people are looking at videos, downloading stuff while just on phone data not wifi, I could tap onto their phones wifi hotspots which seemed pretty fast. Nobody bothers to look for fixed based wifi hotspots (like coffeeshops etc), they don’t much exist anyways. I don’t use mobile data too much in Canada as it’s very expensive.
What has happened in those third world countries is that they have SKIPPED the CABLE phase and gone straight into phones and satellites. People in some of those places don’t even know what cable IS as cable was never laid. Their TVs are all satellite and phone companies give cheap data for their phones. Thus companies don’t have old legacy tech they have to use to pay off the investment.
The countries I went too were also more densely populated than Canada (Canada phone rates are expensive due to the sparse population and vast area, companies have to build more cell towers etc).
@neutrino23 “ Russia, Myanmar, South Africa, Bolivia, and Laos” all got better scores than the US? Maybe in the big cities. I’ll bet there are large areas of those countries that get no signal at all……..”
The fact that you concede “maybe in the big cities” these 3rd world countries (not Russia) are ahead of the U.S. says a lot about this country’s priorities. All of these countries rely heavily on Huawei infrastructure.
As for the areas that get “no signal at all” China & specifically Huawei are rapidly solving this problem; and at a cost of 40% less than Nokia or Ericsson. Maybe this is why so many countries are reluctant to follow Trumps Huawei “ban.”