Measured based on various metrics, the Network Performance Report published by MCMC on the state of telecommunication in the country, is the most detailed depiction of speeds, coverage and latency of our network providers.
Not only the report contains data and analysis regarding the performance of telco’s it also gives information on the average performance of voice call, mobile broadband including fixed wireless services such as WiMAX, fixed broadband of Digital Subscriber Line and fibre packages, at a national level. MCMC releases the report annually from life test measuring key metrics of Throughput, Network Latency, Packet Loss, Call Setup Success rate and Dropped Call Rate, throughout the country, state by state conducted from January to December 2017. It is this report that many network operators wait with bated breath to see how they fared and if they can make claim to being the number one telco in the country.
This year the report once again places Maxis as the best performer overall, with fastest average download speeds and lowest packet loss in majority of the states measured. Maintaining the status from last year and aggressive network build and maintenance also kept the telco supreme in most parts of the country with the highest 4G LTE coverage compared to everyone else.
Celcom comes in second, recording average speeds of 18.28 Mbps while Digi 15.57 Mbps, both Webe and U Mobile continue to demonstrate lower average speeds. It is also clarified that the measurements were conducted mainly on a street level environment,whereby the received signals on test devices are usually at good to optimum levels. Another aspect of the network performance was the ability of the network to successfully transfer packets from the user end towards the destination host. In a shared network environment, packet loss may occur due to network congestion during heavy utilisation. When different traffic vying for the limited shared resources, packets inevitably will be dropped or delivered out of order. With this regards, Maxis had the lowest packet loss percentage with 0.13% nationwide, indicating minimal network congestion during the transfer of packets at all measurement areas. Webe on the other hand had the highest packet loss percentage with 1.42%, contributed mainly from areas connected to 3G Domestic Roaming.
The much contested Central Region covering Klang Valley, Celcom tips Maxis by a slight margin with average consistent download speeds of 21.69Mbps while Maxis musters 19.37Mbps, however Maxis displayed good network reliability with lowest packet lost percentage at 0.02%. Although Maxis did not have the fastest response, but based on the very low packet loss percentage recorded, it can be assumed that packets sent through their network have a higher degree of assurance to reach its destination.
YES by YTL has been performing poorly year on year, MCMC report indicates the telco having the worst network latency and packet loss in Klang Valley, the test showed YES taking an average 128.59 millisecond for data transfer from end user to server compared to network average of 30-60 ms. The Wimax provider also scored high on packet loss (data unable to reach its intended destination) at 0.95% with Maxis lowest at 0.02%.
