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| Source: Opensignal. 4G download speed experience in Mbps for Singapore roamers in Malaysia compared to the experience for Malaysian mobile users. |
In an analysis of roaming experiences for Singapore 4G mobile users in Malaysia in 2019, Opensignal has found that Singtel users enjoyed the best download speed experience, upload speed experience and latency experience.
M1 and StarHub users had a similar download and upload speed experience when in Malaysia, but StarHub users moved ahead of M1 in their roaming latency experience. While the average latency experience seen by both StarHub and M1 users was considerably slower than those seen by domestic Malaysian users — indicating a worse experience — Singtel users only fared 2.6 ms worse when compared to domestic Maxis users - Singtel users typically roam on Maxis.
Sam Fenwick, Insights Analyst, Opensignal, said that there is some correlation between the download speed experience observed by a roaming user and that observed by domestic Malaysian users on the same host network.
"This is most pronounced when comparing the download speed experience observed by Singtel roamers and domestic Maxis users, and less so when comparing M1 roamers against domestic Celcom users. With the latter, there’s a speed reduction of roughly 3.4 Mbps in favor of Malaysian Celcom users.
"This difference could be caused by a number of factors, such as the international connectivity between the two networks, the terms of the roaming agreement, another kind of bottleneck or even some form of throttling on roaming users that is affecting M1 users’ download speed experience when roaming on Celcom’s network," he said.
Latency experience is a measure of network responsiveness and would likely be adversely affected by international roaming given the extra steps that it entails, Fenwick said. Steps could include the need to reach the home operator’s core network, he explained.
In contrast, both StarHub and M1 users had a worse experience compared to domestic Malaysian users. The latency (responsiveness) experience seen by M1 users was nearly double that seen by Celcom’s domestic users (74.5 ms versus 39.4 ms, a difference of 35.1 ms), while the average latency experience seen by StarHub users (55.1 ms) was greater than that seen by Celcom, DiGi and Maxis users by 15.7, 12.8 and 17.2 ms, respectively.
"Operators typically have roaming agreements with one or more host networks, allowing their customers to roam on them while abroad. We detected that when in Malaysia, Singtel users typically roam on Maxis, M1 users most often roam on Celcom and StarHub users normally roam on Celcom, DiGi and Maxis," Fenwick added.
Fenwick also explained that differences in the average mobile experience observed between roamers and domestic users can arise due to differences in the mix of mobile devices they’re using and the locations where they spend most of their time. The mobile experience is typically superior in urban areas, for example.
"There’s also the potential impact from the additional latency and potential bottlenecks created by having to relay the information between host and home core networks and between the home core and the content delivery networks," he said.
