Meqyas, Q1 2018 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 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.
Initial findings
1st Jan 2018 – 31st Mar 2018
This report focuses on an overview of the fixed-line and mobile internet performance across the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Although it is still early in the project, extremely interesting and actionable data is already being collected. We’ve pulled out some of the key findings and these are highlighted below:
- Mobile broadband services are displaying month-on-month improvements
- Mobile broadband services experience degradation in speed during peak hours
- In the fixed-line space, results indicate that products are largely meeting their advertised performance levels
- User experience is affected by suboptimal routing and traffic sharing arrangements to some content providers
- Some Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) are serving content from far locations, when there are closer locations with lower latencies
Mobile broadband services in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia delivered average download speeds of 19.3Mbps, and upload speeds of 11.2Mbps during the first quarter of 2018. These speeds are high and indicative of a good overall mobile network.
For fixed-line services, upload speeds were above the 92% mark, but download speeds underperformed at an average of 83% of advertised.
Mobile results
1st Jan 2018 – 31st Mar 2018
Download speeds for mobile broadband have been increasing month-over-month since December 2017, registering an improvement of nearly 18% since then. Looking at the technology split, it is evident that the steady increase in download speed can be largely attributed to improvements on 4G download speeds, which have increased by nearly 17% in the last quarter. By contrast, 3G download speeds have been fairly static, reaching a maximum of 7.2Mbps in February, followed by a decrease in March.
The improvement is also reflected on mobile upload speeds, which have also increased steadily, with an increase of almost 12.7% since the end of 2017. A situation similar to that of download speeds can be seen here, with 4G technology has steadily increased by 9% since the end of 2017, whereas 3G upload speeds have been largely static.
As expected, 4G technology was superior in terms of providing users with higher download speeds, with STC delivering the overall highest downloads. STC’s download speeds were also the highest on 3G.
Higher download speeds mean that you can download files more quickly, and stream videos and other media with fewer interruptions. Higher upload speeds are important to let you share your own photos and videos, or for video calls and online games.
Service provider upload speeds followed a similar pattern as they did in download, with STC delivering the highest across both 3G and 4G. The difference in the network technology is even stronger when looking at uploads, where, for example, STC and Zain’s 4G upload speeds were over 6 times faster than 3G.
As expected, network congestion plays a significant role in mobile download speeds, as the tests conducted find a decrease from 22.4Mbps to 16.6Mbps, or 26%. Upload speeds were also affected, albeit to a much lesser degree of 13%.
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 SPs’ networks, through the use of Google Global Caches (GGCs); these are servers installed by the SPs inside their network to cache YouTube and other Google content.
YouTube streaming over 4G delivered a higher proportion of content in Full HD than 3G, as would be expected from the technology. Mobily and Zain each delivered 47% and 44% of content in Full HD over 4G, while the ratio was noticeably higher for STC at 55%. The effect of radio technology was most noticeable in Full HD streaming, as 720p resolution (HD) was streamed with equal success across both 4G and 3G.
Web browsing measurements were conducted from the participants’ smartphones to a common Saudi Arabian web site. 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.
Webpage loading time was consistent across all SPs on 4G at 0.6 to 0.9 seconds, with no SP reaching 2 seconds. This means that the user experience would be largely similar across each SP.
Fixed-Line results
1st Jan 2018 – 31st Mar 2018
The next section shows the impact of peak hour activity on fixed-line broadband speeds across all of KSA, first overall, and then across different service providers. The impact of peak hour activity on fixed-line broadband was very limited, with a 3% decrease in download performance, and a negligible change in upload.
Users on fiber connections received the highest speeds compared to their advertised downloads, with STC delivering the highest performance during both peak and off-peak hours. Mobily’s fiber products also provided users with speeds close to their advertised rates, although the impact of peak hour traffic was more pronounced. At 81%, performance for STC’s ADSL products were noticeably lower than that of its fiber offerings. This is to be expected from copper-based connections.
The YouTube measurement streams real video from the live YouTube service. This is a particularly interesting service to measure as traffic is often delivered directly from SPs’ networks, through the use of Google Global Caches (GGCs); these are servers installed by the SPs inside their network to cache YouTube and other Google content.
Results across all providers and access technologies were very similar in terms of the quality of resolution successfully delivered to users. STC’s fiber products had a higher rate of streams at Full HD or higher at 87%, while Mobily’s fiber users would have been able to successfully stream content at resolutions similar to those of STC’s ADSL users. The similarity in streaming quality across different technologies may be attributed to the use of Google Global Caches across the STC and Mobily networks, which can account for a better delivery of content. Standard Definition streams as a maximum achievable resolution were minimal.
Web browsing measurements were conducted from the Whiteboxes in participants’ homes to a selection of common Saudi Arabian websites. The test measures the total time to fetch the web page and all associated objects.
Users on STC’s fiber services experienced the lowest times when loading webpages, at just over 2 seconds, while Mobily’s fiber products took over half a second longer, at just under 3 seconds during off-peak hours. These figures are within the norm seen for fiber products across worldwide SP’s. ADSL products also delivered a good performance in the loading time of webpage content. The impact of peak hour activity was very limited and negligible to users across the board.
None of the six major Content Delivery Network operators tested were found to have infrastructure present within the Kingdom. Some CDN operators had infrastructure within the region, whilst others saw their traffic being served from very distant locations such as the US and western Europe. In some cases, a CDN operator clearly had infrastructure in the region but sometimes much more distant infrastructure was being used.
Latency to CDNs is important as CDNs are where providers, such as major social networks and popular mobile app providers, host their content (e.g images, videos, web code etc). The lower the latency to the CDN, the better your experience using its content will be. This metric reflects the ease with which your internet connection can obtain content from key providers.