Latest news with #Opensignal
The Star
30-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Star
Unifi Mobile raises the bar with 5G mobile performance
Unifi Mobile ranked top in Malaysia for 5G Video Experience, 5G Download Speed, overall Video Experience and Games Experience in OpenSignal's Mobile Network Experience Report (Nov 2024). FAST, reliable and stable mobile networks matter more than ever in today's digital-first world. That's why every mobile service provider works hard to deliver the best possible experience. However, when it comes to video performance, different networks may offer varying levels of quality depending on factors such as coverage, speed and consistency. Among Malaysia's major mobile service providers, Unifi Mobile stands at the forefront when it comes to providing bespoke network coverage with a top-notch video experience. The results speak for themselves. Unifi ranked top in four performance categories in Opensignal's November 2024 Mobile Network Experience Report, reinforcing its position as one of Malaysia's leading mobile networks: > 5G Download Speed > 5G Video Experience > Games Experience > Video Experience These awards underscore Unifi Mobile's efforts to meet the growing demands of today's digital lifestyles with fast, reliable connectivity. Unifi Mobile's UNI5G plans combine 5G/4G internet speeds with unlimited data for seamless streaming and internet connectivity. Taking it to the streets To put its speed and streaming quality to the test, Unifi Mobile teamed up with local singer and actor Fattah Amin for a fun, on-the-ground challenge in Kuala Lumpur's Chinatown, inviting passersby who subscribe to other telco services to go head-to-head. There were two challenges: 'Game siapa lag, dia kalah!' and 'Lumba load video.' In the first challenge, Amin faced off with participants in a mobile gaming showdown. The network that lags loses. The second tested streaming speed, with both sides racing to see who could load a video faster. For the showdown, Fattah raised the stakes by promising RM1,000 to any participant who could beat him. Based on their experience during the challenges, most passersby agreed that Unifi delivered on speed, video quality and gaming performance, thereby living up to its recognition in Opensignal's latest report. Catch the full street challenge on Unifi's social media accounts. Better streaming starts with better connectivity The quality of your streaming experience can often make or break your day, from work calls to weekend binge-watching. If you've ever experienced laggy streams or patchy calls, you know how crucial network reliability can be. Plans like UNI5G Wow Prepaid offer affordable, nationwide coverage and stable connections with uncapped 5G speed all day without compromising on video streaming quality. Think team meetings or your favourite series, uninterrupted. Customers can enjoy 60% discounted access to a wide selection of popular streaming platforms, including Viu, iQIYI, Disney+ Hotstar and many more, from as low as RM8.40 per month. If you're still using a 4G phone, Unifi Mobile's UNI5G Postpaid plan offers a complimentary 5G smartphone when you sign up and pair it with unlimited data, starting from just RM49/month, so you can savour the 5G experience at its fullest. If you need extra data to stream non-stop, UNI5G Postpaid 39 plan comes with a limited-time offer of 200GB data for just RM1. With its notable video quality, Unifi Mobile is out to change the narrative of how mobile service providers provide network coverage and transform the way consumers view mobile content. Recognised for award-winning performance, Unifi Mobile offers a network built for today's digital demands. Learn more, including available upgrade options, at
CNET
17-07-2025
- Business
- CNET
Wi-Fi Experts Reveal How Trump's Budget Bill Could Slow Down Your Wi-Fi
You won't find the term 'Wi-Fi' anywhere in the text of President Donald Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill, but a provision authorizing the FCC to auction off spectrum could seriously impact speeds on newer Wi-Fi routers. Every wireless device, from garage door openers to baby monitors, relies on the electromagnetic spectrum to work. But that spectrum is a limited resource -- to open up capacity for one technology, you have to take it away from another. The latest generation of Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 7 routers made massive speed improvements when the FCC opened up the 6GHz band for Wi-Fi use in 2020. Now, the FCC could auction off up to half of that same band to wireless companies, essentially trading Wi-Fi speeds for mobile. Americans spend between 77% and 88% of their screen-on time connected to Wi-Fi, according to the mobile analytics company Opensignal. That's also where the bulk of data-hungry tasks like uploading, downloading and online gaming occur. For every one bit carried on a mobile network, nearly 9 bits are carried on Wi-Fi. It's clear that we use Wi-Fi for the vast majority of our heavy lifting on the internet. So why does Trump's Big Beautiful Bill trade Wi-Fi speeds for mobile? Put simply, the government wants the money. Locating local internet providers 'Because spectrum auctions allow the government to get revenue without raising taxes, spectrum auctions frequently show up in budget bills,' writes Harold Feld, an analyst with the consumer advocacy group Public Knowledge. 'In effect, this amounts to treating spectrum as a piggy bank rather than a vital national resource, which makes for lousy spectrum policy.' The last spectrum auction generated $22 billion in revenue for the federal government in 2021-2022. This one is expected to raise $85 billion by 2034, according to estimates by the Congressional Budget Office. This isn't the first time the mobile industry has attempted to commandeer that valuable spectrum. When the FCC first opened up 6GHz in 2020, then-FCC Chair Ajit Pai -- who was appointed by Trump -- wrote that keeping the band open to Wi-Fi 'promotes more efficient and productive use of the spectrum' than using it for cellular networks. In addition to the 6GHz band, the bill also lets the FCC auction off spectrum from Citizens Broadband Radio Service, a 150MHz slice between 3.55 and 3.7GHz that's primarily used by fixed wireless internet providers in rural areas. How will your Wi-Fi be affected? The wireless industry is poised to take control of about half the 6GHz band, the valuable piece of electromagnetic spectrum that makes Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 7 routers so much faster than their predecessors. A laptop equipped with Wi-Fi 7 could reach "potential maximum" speeds of 5.8Gbps -- 2.4 times faster than the 2.4Gbps possible with Wi-Fi 6/6E, according to Intel, one of the companies producing Wi-Fi 7-certified chipsets. The median internet speed in the US currently sits around 288Mbps, which is roughly 20 times slower than 5.8Gbps. But like data consumption, the appetite for faster internet speed grows every year: Nielsen's law of internet bandwidth finds that a high-end internet user's connection speed grows by roughly 50% each year, doubling every 21 months -- an observation that has held true since 1983. As more and more people opt for gigabit internet speeds, the 6GHz band becomes even more essential. Wi-Fi 7 routers doubled the channel size of the 6GHz band, going from 160MHz to 320MHz. It's like a highway going from two to four lanes -- traffic can flow more easily without hitting jams. A slew of new devices are equipped to take advantage of 6GHz, including the latest iPhones, Samsung Galaxy and Google Pixel phones, MacBooks, iPads, PlayStation 5 Pro, and Xbox Series X and S gaming consoles. The other bands used by Wi-Fi routers, 2.4 and 5GHz, are so well-entrenched at this point in every house in America that it would be impossible to budge them out. But because 6GHz is relatively new, there aren't as many devices operating on that band. But 6GHz may be getting crowded with Wi-Fi devices sooner than we think. CableLabs, a nonprofit funded by cable industry companies, ran a simulation based on five years of growing Wi-Fi demand for 6GHz in a 144-unit building. It found that 6GHz will quickly approach exhaustion in high-density environments like this. '6GHz seems like a lot of spectrum, but when you look at it in a scenario where there's 144 Wi-Fi networks in a building with all these devices, it doesn't quite go as far as you think,' Mark Walker, VP of technology policy at CableLabs, told CNET. Hitting that limit on the 6GHz band would mean different things for different applications, and it's most likely to happen during the 'internet rush hour,' or between 7 and 11 p.m.. 'That's when you start to see latency and packet loss creep up,' Walker said. 'For something like email, that's not super critical. If your email comes 2 seconds later, you don't even know. But if my voice comes 5 seconds later on a video call, the call is effectively over.' Why the mobile industry wants 6GHz Mobile carriers are always extremely thirsty for more spectrum, but it's unclear how much they really need 6GHz. 'There is no pressing need that I feel like we have to go out and acquire spectrum in the next 12, 24, even 36 months,' AT&T CFO Pascal Desroches said at a conference just last month. Similarly, Verizon Executive VP Sowmyanarayan Sampath said, 'We have almost unlimited spectrum' in May 2024. T-Mobile also said last year that it's only used about 60% of the spectrum it already has. That said, a J.D. Power survey from January found that demand for data is increasing among wireless customers, and with it, network problems -- something that the 6GHz band would certainly help with. Desroches also noted that new spectrum could be used to boost AT&T's wireless home internet service, AT&T Internet Air. (I got paltry average download speeds of 5.86Mbps when I tested the service last year.) AT&T cheered the spectrum news in the budget bill, writing in a statement that it will help the company 'meet soaring consumer demand and keep the US technologically competitive with other countries.' Fixed wireless providers could also be affected I've focused mostly on the impact on Wi-Fi speeds, but fixed wireless internet providers in rural areas are also at risk of losing CBRS spectrum. It's not just internet providers, either -- more than 1,000 organizations use these airwaves, including hospitals, airports, sporting venues and universities, according to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. With less space available in these frequencies, service could be severely diminished. The Wireless Internet Service Providers Association, which represents small fixed wireless ISPs, sent a letter to the FCC on Tuesday asking it to reconsider auctioning off CBRS spectrum. 'WISPA's members rely on the band to provide essential and reliable broadband services to hundreds of thousands of end users, many of whom live and work in rural communities, or other sparsely populated areas, where competitive choice is lacking,' the letter says. There are a lot of ways the FCC can go with this spectrum auction, and there will certainly be plenty of lobbying by wireless carriers, Wi-Fi advocates and rural internet providers before the dust settles. But we all use these airwaves every day, and the FCC's decisions will impact us one way or another.
Phone Arena
01-07-2025
- Business
- Phone Arena
Debate about whether T-Mobile or Verizon is the best may have finally been settled
T-Mobile and Verizon have been beefing over which company is the best overall and connectivity insights firm Opensignal appears to have settled the debate. Last month, T-Mobile asserted that tests conducted between Q4 2024 and Q1 2025 by Ookla had established that it had the best mobile network in the US. While T-Mobile has often boasted about being the leader in individual categories, this was the first time it claimed to be leading in most metrics. Verizon shot back a day later, claiming it had the fastest and most reliable network in the country. The company expanded on that by saying that RootMetrics, which it finds to be more reliable, says that it's ahead of T-Mobile . Customers don't necessarily care which company is the absolute best as long as the service is reliable in their area. But for anyone keeping score, T-Mobile may be slightly better. T-Mobile topped the majority of metrics. | Image Credit - Opensignal As first reported by Light Reading , Opensignal, which considers itself the "global standard for analyzing consumers' connectivity experiences", conducted a test between February 1 and May 1, and concluded that T-Mobile provides the best overall experience. T-Mobile dominated in most categories, including Reliability Experience, Consistent Quality, Download Speed Experience (177.5Mbps), and 5G Download Speed Experience (252.4Mbps). The company was the top performer in nine categories. Verizon ranked highest in five categories, including 5G Video Experience and Coverage Experience. AT&T came out ahead in just one category — Availability. This means that AT&T users were connected to mobile data more often throughout the day than T-Mobile and Verizon customers. It's not surprising to see T-Mobile outrank its biggest competitors, given its technological lead in foundational areas. When you look at individual scores for each category, there isn't a huge variation between AT&T , T-Mobile , and Verizon , except when it comes to overall download and upload speeds. So while it might not be wrong to say that T-Mobile is the current industry leader, it doesn't have a huge lead, which is why it should reconsider making network leadership a centerpiece of its communications. Secure your connection now at a bargain price! We may earn a commission if you make a purchase Check Out The Offer
Daily Mirror
26-06-2025
- Business
- Daily Mirror
Everyone using O2, EE, Vodafone and Three must check their postcode immediately
A new service launched by Ofcom is showing just how good (or bad) your mobile signal really is. Anyone with a smartphone in their pocket would be wise to head to a new service from Ofcom - called Map Your Mobile - and punch in their postcode. This latest update from the UK telecoms regulator is aimed at showing consumers which UK networks have the best signal in their local area. According to Ofcom, millions could be missing out on better data and call performance by not using the best mobile firm for the location where they spend the most time. Map Your Mobile is now the most comprehensive tool for comparing mobile coverage and performance across Britain. Once a postcode is entered, a map appears showing which operator's network gives the best performance. Explaining more, Natalie Black, Ofcom's Group Director for Networks and Communications, said: 'Map Your Mobile shows detailed coverage and performance based on what smartphones need today. Put in your postcode and find out which mobile network is right for you.' Along with showing how things are performing at home, Ofcom hopes people will also check their work address and route to the office. If a rival network appears to be better then it could be time to switch. Ofcom says its new checker includes crowdsourced data from Opensignal that is based on people's real experiences, as well as predictive data from the UK's mobile operators. People increasingly need a highly reliable service for data-hungry activities such as gaming, streaming videos and working on the move. This means the new checker gives different results than the previous tool, but more accurately reflects users' modern needs. "Access to fast and reliable mobile coverage is essential for delivering the change our country needs to thrive and boost economic growth," said Telecoms Minister Sir Chris Bryant. "For too long there has been a frustrating gap between coverage reports and the real signal people experience in their daily lives. 'This new tool provides consumers with accurate, postcode-level information so they have the power to choose the network that works where they need it most - whether at home, work or on their commute. It is fantastic to see this practical step being implemented to improve connectivity for everybody across the nation."
India.com
06-06-2025
- Business
- India.com
Mukesh Ambani's Jio or Sunil Mittal's Airtel: Who offers faster internet speed, better 5G coverage? Reports reveals stunning details
(File) Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel, two of India's largest telecom service providers owned by billionaires Mukesh Ambani and Sunil Mittal, respectively, have been competitors since Jio arrived on the scene in 2016 and turned the telecom market upside down due to its aggressive pricing policies that forced out several private players. However, in 2025, both Jio and Airtel are peer competitors, who are evenly matched in various aspects despite the former boasting a larger subscriber base. But who among the two telecom giants provides faster internet services and better 5G coverage? Let us find out. Jio or Airtel– Who's has better download/upload speeds? According to the latest report by Opensignal– and independent analytics firm that specializes in quantifying the mobile-network experience– while Mukesh Ambani-led Jio has overtaken Airtel in several major categories, including having a larger subscriber base, the latter is still considered to provided a better overall experience to its users. In terms of internet speed, Jio is way ahead of its competitors, clocking a whopping 106.3Mbps average download speed, while the average speed achieved by Airtel is just 58.3Mbps, followed Vi at 21.8Mbps, and state-owned BSNL with an abysmal 7.3Mbps, the report revealed. As per the June 2025 report Opensignal, Jio's download speed has increased by 17Mbps, while Airtel has improved its speed by 14Mbps as both providers compete to provide better internet speeds to their users. Apart from providing blazing fast download speeds, Jio has also vastly improved its average upload speed, clocking at 9.1Mbps, a slight increase from 9.0Mbps on an Airtel network. Jio has awarded the Upload Speed Experience Award for improving its upload speed, which has increased by 2.7Mbps, compared to Airtel's 2.1Mbps. Airtel beats Jio in better 5G experience Despite having a smaller network and lower speeds, Airtel still provides a better 5G Video Experience, Gaming Experience, Live Video Experience in both download and upload categories, according to the report. The average download speeds on Airtel's 5G network was clocked at a blazing 212Mbps, and despite witnessing a 28Mbps compared to the previous report, its still around 8Mbps faster than Jio, the report added. Jio holds edge in network coverage, availability Thanks to its gigantic and ever-expanding 5G infrastructure, Mukesh Ambani-led Jio outshines Sunil Mittal-owned Airtel in 5G network coverage and stability, topping categories like 5G Availability, Consistent Quality and Reliability Experience. Jio scores an overwhelming 71.8 percent on the 5G Availability, which is 42 percentage points more than Airtel. Additionally, Jio is also giving Airtel a run for its money in video streaming experience, reducing the gap to a mere 0.3 points, indicating that the telecom giant has vastly improved on this key metric
