Measuring KSA Broadband - Meqyas
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Measuring KSA
Broadband
Meqyas, Q1 2019 Report
In 2017, the CITC in partnership with SamKnows launched a
project to measure internet performance. The project, named
Meqyas, gives internet users in Saudi Arabia access to
Smartphone apps and Whiteboxes to measure internet
quality of experience. The goal of Meqyas is to increase
transparency and encourage better internet performance
throughout the Kingdom.
The information in this document is correct as of May 2019
Meqyas Q1 2019 ReportHow we test
Meqyas for
Smartphone iOS app
https://itunes.apple.com/sa/app/meqyas/id1266594528
Smartphone apps for iOS and Android have been
developed to measure wireless internet performance.
Test your mobile and Wi-Fi connections with the Meqyas
app.
Android app
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=sa.gov.citc.app
Meqyas for home
broadband
Sign up at:
A Whitebox built for testing, which sits between your
https://www.meqyas.sa/signup
home router and the internet. Register your interest to
receive a free Whitebox and you can receive real time
information on how your internet connection is
performing!
Meqyas Tests
Tests Definition Fixed Mobile
Download The speed data travels from our test server to your devices, measured in bits per second.
Upload The speed data travels from your device to our test server, measured in bits per second.
Latency How long it takes a data packet to go from your device to our test server and back to your
device.
Jitter Measures the amount of difference between packet delays, or the stability of your latency.
Packet loss When a packet of data becomes lost (does not arrive for two seconds), measured as a
percentage of packets lost out of packets sent.
YouTube Measures the highest bitrate you can reliably stream of the most popular video in your country.
Web browsing Measures how long it takes to fetch the HTML and referenced resources of a popular website.
CDN measurements Measures download performance for the same (or very similar) object from a variety of popular
Content Delivery Networks over HTTP.
Voice over IP Measures the suitability of a broadband connection for VoIP calls.
Meqyas Q1 2019 Report The information in this document is correct as of May 2019Key findings
1st January 2019 – 31st March 2019
This report focuses on an overview of the fixed-line and mobile internet performance across the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. To achieve
the data collection necessary for these reports, SamKnows and the CITC have been collecting data from hardware probes and
smartphone apps across the Kingdom for over a year. Tests this quarter on both fixed-line and mobile provided a robust number of
samples in order to allow the following analysis.
Overall Mobile Performance
(Mbps)
35 32.2
30
25
20
15 13.1
10
5
0
Download Upload
Saudi Arabia's mobile broadband providers delivered users with average download speeds of 32.2Mbps during the first quarter of
2019, and upload speeds of 13.1Mbps, representing a respective increase of 12.2% for download, and a decrease of 3% in upload
compared to the last quarter of 2018. Both download and upload speeds remained high, and characteristic of a good mobile
broadband network.
Overall Fixed-Line Performance
(% of advertised speed)
100% 93.0%
90% 85.0%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Download Upload
Download speeds over fixed-line broadband networks achieved 85% performance compared to advertised speeds during the first
quarter of 2019, improving by 0.8 percentage points compared to the 84.2% performance average of Q4 2018. Upload performance
also posted a similar improvement, increasing to 93% from the previous quarter's 92.2%.
Meqyas Q1 2019 Report The information in this document is correct as of May 2019Mobile results
1st January 2019 – 31st March 2019
Mobile Download Speed by Month
(Mbps)
40 35.7
33.8 33.7
35
30 33.4
25 31.2 31.5
20
15
10 7.0 7.2 7.3
5
0
Jan-19 Feb-19 Mar-19
4G 3G Overall
Mobile download speeds ranged from a low average of 33.7Mbps in February to a high of 35.7Mbps in March, with 4G download
speeds remaining high and above 33Mbps throughout the quarter. 3G speeds were especially notable as they showed a good
improvement from the 6.9Mbps maximum seen in November 2018, to a maximum of 7.3Mbps in March.
Mobile Upload Speed by Month
(Mbps)
16 14.0 14.2 13.8
14
12
13.0 13.3 13.0
10
8
6
4 2.5 2.4 2.5
2
0
Jan-19 Feb-19 Mar-19
4G 3G Overall
Mobile upload speeds were relatively constant throughout the quarter, with a maximum of 14.2Mbps in February for 4G connections,
which was followed by a slight dip to 13.8Mbps in March. These speeds, however, were markedly lower than last quarter's maximum
of 15.1Mbps during October. The overall average mirrored 4G speeds with a maximum upload of 13.3Mbps in February and a
subsequent decrease to 13.0Mbps in March. Upload speeds over 3G connections were steady at a range of 2.4Mbps to 2.5Mbps for
the quarter, showing a minor improvement from the 2.3Mbps peak seen in December 2018.
Meqyas Q1 2019 Report The information in this document is correct as of May 2019Mobile Download Speed by Technology
and Service Provider
(Mbps)
40 38.0
35 30.7 29.4
30
25
20
15
10 7.4 7.3
5.0
5
0
Mobily STC Zain Mobily STC Zain
3G 4G
The chart above shows average mobile download speeds by operator and access technology. STC continued to deliver 4G users
with the highest average speeds of 38Mbps, showing an increase from last quarter's 35.2Mbps. Mobily and Zain, however, showed
good gains, improving by a respective 18.5% and 19% from the 25.9Mbps and 24.7Mbps download seen in Q4 2018. Mobily continued
to deliver the highest 3G download speeds, and was closely followed by STC at 7.3Mbps, which was the most improved at nearly
+9% from last quarter's 6.7Mbps. Zain, by contrast, saw 3G average download speed decrease by 10% from the 5.5Mbps seen in Q4
2018.
Mobile Upload Speed by Technology
and Service Provider
(Mbps)
18
16 15.2
14 13.2
11.4
12
10
8
6
4 2.3 2.6
2.0
2
0
Mobily STC Zain Mobily STC Zain
3G 4G
Mobile upload speeds on 4G saw remained high, with STC continuing to deliver the highest at an average of 15.2Mbps, however this
represents a decrease of 7.3% compared to the previous quarter. Zain followed at 13.2Mbps, showing an improvement of 3.1%
compared to the 12.8Mbps of Q4, whilst Mobily's maintained an average of 11.4Mbps that was largely unchanged from the 11.2Mbps
of Q4 2018. Upload speeds on 3G instead saw good gains from STC - up 13% from 2.3Mbps in Q4 2018 - and Mobily, which was the
most improved at 15% from the 2.0Mbps average of the previous reporting period. Zain's 3G average upload speed decreased ever
so slightly from the 2.1Mbps seen in Q4.
Meqyas Q1 2019 Report The information in this document is correct as of May 2019Mobile Peak vs Off-Peak Download Speeds
(Mbps)
40
35.7
35
30
25.4
25
20
15
10
5
0
Off-Peak Peak
The overall improvement in mobile broadband download speeds was reflected in the off-peak and peak performance. The last
quarterly report showed a discrepancy where average download speeds had improved, but only during off-peak hours. By contrast,
Q1 2019 sees both off-peak and peak hour download speeds improving by a respective 13.3% and 10%. While this is a positive
development, the effect of network congestion during peak hours remains very high, with download speeds decreasing by 28.9%
during peak hours of user activity.
Mobile Peak vs Off-Peak Upload Speeds
(Mbps)
16
13.6
14
12.1
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
Off-Peak Peak
Mobile upload speeds during off-peak hours decreased by 3.5% from the last quarter's 14.1Mbps average, whereas the decrease was
lesser during peak hours at 2.4%, down from 12.4Mbps - a very small difference in practical terms - from Q4 2018. The decrease in
performance due to network congestion remained relatively high, with a difference of 11% between off-peak and peak hours that
was, however, reduced from last quarter's 12.1%.
Meqyas Q1 2019 Report The information in this document is correct as of May 2019YouTube Video Streaming Quality
Mobily 39% 28% 33%
STC 40% 28% 32%
3G
Zain 18% 26% 56%
Mobily 71% 21% 8%
STC 68% 22% 11%
4G
Zain 52% 29% 19%
Full HD HD SD
1080 Pixels 720 Pixels 640 Pixels
The YouTube measurement streams a real video from the live YouTube service. This is a particularly interesting service to measure
as traffic is often delivered directly from the service providers' networks through the use of Google Global Caches (GGCs); these are
servers installed by service providers inside their network to cache YouTube and other Google content.
Full HD YouTube video streaming at 1080p had a significantly higher success rate over 4G than it did over 3G, as ought to be
expected from the more advanced technology. Mobily users experienced the higher percentage of successful Full HD streams over
4G at 71%, improving from the previous quarter's 68%, followed by STC at 68%. Full HD streaming was not as successful for Zain
users at 52%, although the service provider did see a substantial improvement compared to the 45% of last quarter. Mobily and STC
also provided 3G users with the highest rate of Full HD streaming, but users are almost equally likely to experience videos in Standard
Definition. Zain had the lowest ratio of successful Full HD streaming on 3G - even decreasing from 24% to 18% quarter to quarter -
with users more likely to be able to stream videos in 720p or Standard Definition.
Mobile Webpage Loading Time (seconds)
1.8 1.7 1.7
1.5 1.3
1.2 1.0 1.0
0.9
0.7
0.6
0.3
0.0
Mobily STC Zain Mobily STC Zain
3G 4G
Web browsing measurements were conducted from the participants’ smartphones. The test measures the total amount of time it
takes to fetch the web page and all associated objects and indicates how long it takes for a webpage to load in a user’s browser.
Users on 4G services were able to fully load webpages at an average of 1 second or less, with STC having the fastest load time of
0.7 seconds. 3G users also had good webpage loading times, with STC also seeing the lowest average of 1.3 seconds followed by
Mobily and Zain at 1.7 seconds.
Meqyas Q1 2019 Report The information in this document is correct as of May 2019Fixed-Line results
1st January 2019 – 31st March 2019
Fixed-Line Download Speeds by Technology
and Service Provider
(% of Advertised)
100% 90.2% 89.4%
90%
80% 73.6%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Mobily STC STC
Fiber ADSL
Mobily's fixed-line fiber service delivered users with the highest download performance at 90.2%, following an improvement of 1.6
percentage points from the 88.6% of the previous quarter. STC's fiber service followed closely behind at 89.4%, also improving -
albeit to a lesser degree - from last quarter's 89%. STC's ADSL service achieved an average performance of 73.6% that was slightly
lower but nevertheless comparable to last quarter's 74.7%
Fixed-Line Upload Speeds by Technology
and Service Provider
(% of Advertised)
94.7% 96.7%
100%
85.1%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Mobily STC STC
Fiber ADSL
Upload performance on fiber services remained fundamentally unchanged quarter to quarter, with STC maintaining the highest
average performance at 96.7% and Mobily following at 94.7%. These represent quarterly decreases of 0.8 and 0.7 percentage points,
respectively from last quarter. By contrast, upload performance on STC’s ADSL improved by 2.6 percentage points, up from 82.5%
to 85.1%.
Meqyas Q1 2019 Report The information in this document is correct as of May 2019Fixed-Line Peak vs Off-Peak Performance
(% of Advertised)
100% 93.1% 93.2%
90% 85.5% 83.8%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Download Upload
Off-Peak Peak
The chart above shows the impact of peak hour activity on fixed-line broadband speeds across all of KSA. The impact of increased
user activity during peak hours of operation remained minimal, with download performance decreasing by 1.7 percentage points and
upload performance even improving slightly. These narrow differences indicate a fixed-line broadband network that is generally well
equipped to handle increased user activity during the evening hours without suffering the effects of network congestion.
YouTube Video Streaming Quality
Mobily 96% 4%
Fiber
0%
STC 97% 3%
0%
ADSL
STC 91% 8% 1%
Full HD HD SD
1080 Pixels 720 Pixels 640 Pixels
YouTube video streaming was successful in the vast majority of tests conducted over fixed-line broadband networks, showing good
improvements compared to the last quarter. STC fiber users were able to successfully stream YouTube videos in Full HD in 97% of
tests, up from 89% in Q4 2018, whilst Mobily fiber users had a very similar success rate at 96%, also improving from the 88% of the
last quarter. STC ADSL users also experienced a positive improvement from 86% to 91%, with a minority of tests achieving a
maximum of 720p resolution streaming.
Meqyas Q1 2019 Report The information in this document is correct as of May 2019Web page loading time
(seconds)
4.0
3.4
3.5
3.0
2.4
2.5 2.1
2.0
1.5
1.0
0.5
0.0
Mobily STC STC
Fiber ADSL
STC fiber services provided users with the fastest average webpage loading time of 2.1 seconds, followed by Mobily fiber at 2.4
seconds - both services showing minor improvements compared to the 2.3 and 2.5 seconds seen in the previous report. STC ADSL
services maintained webpage loading times that were slightly higher at 3.4 seconds, with a slight increase from the previous quarter's
3.2 seconds that should, however, be of no consequence to most users.
CDN Latency by SP and Content Provider
(ms)
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
Cloudflare
Cloudflare
Cloudflare
Apple
Apple
Apple
Akamai
Akamai
Akamai
Amazon
Google
Amazon
Google
Amazon
Google
Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft
Mobily Fiber STC Fiber STC ADSL
Content Delivery Networks are used by websites to distribute content, such as images, to users and helps reduce webpage loading
time. A low CDN latency means that users are able to load this content faster. In this quarter, CDN latency saw no changes of note
for Mobily fiber users, with Amazon and Apple content latency remaining above the 400ms mark. These two content providers,
however, saw latency decrease significantly for STC fiber users: Amazon down from 500ms to 300ms, and Apple from 300ms to
200ms. CDN latency also saw limited changes for STC ADSL users, with Cloudflare, Google, and Microsoft maintaining averages
similar to those of the previous quarter, although Apple did see a noticeable increase of 42% from 490ms to 540ms.
Meqyas Q1 2019 Report The information in this document is correct as of May 2019.
What’s next
This is the sixth of many reports which will be released quarterly by the Meqyas project which will track improvements in internet performance over time.
We are constantly expanding the number of volunteers. More people = more data!
Sign up at: https://www.meqyas.sa/signup
Please participate by downloading the mobile app, or by volunteering to receive a Whitebox.
iOS app
https://itunes.apple.com/sa/app/meqyas/id1266594528
Android app
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=sa.gov.citc.app
Meqyas Q1 2019 Report The information in this document is correct as of May 2019You can also read
