Average LTE download speeds in Myanmar are significantly ahead of the global average despite the fact that operators only began launching 4G services in the market in 2016.
The latest data from mobile analytics firm OpenSignal has placed Myanmar’s average LTE download speed at over 28Mb/s, comfortably beating the global average of 11MB/s. This puts the country roughly on par with Romania, which came 20th for average LTE speeds in OpenSignal’s State of LTE report, released in February.
The analytics firm’s first State of Mobile Networks report for Myanmar noted that the three main operators had all built reliable LTE networks offering similar download speeds, with Telenor Myanmar delivering 29.2Mb/s and MPT and Ooredoo Myanmar both offering 28.1Mb/s. Across all three networks, 4G signal availability was typically over 68%.
In terms of national average signal availability, Telenor could offer 72.1%, Ooredoo 71.2%, and MPT 68.1%. However, in Yangon - which is Myanmar’s largest city - customers of both Telenor and MPT could receive an LTE signal over 81% of the time.
This statistic does not reflect an operator’s geographical reach; it is a measure of how often OpenSignal’s users could receive an LTE connection on each operator’s network. The statistics were calculated based on 80.7 million measurements collected from 9085 test devices across Myanmar.
Ooredoo was the first operator to launch LTE services in the market in 2016. Despite their relatively recent launches, Myanmar’s LTE networks have surpassed those of its neighbouring countries in terms of LTE speeds, and offer similar availability to markets such as Malaysia and Thailand.
At the end of Q1, Ooredoo led the way in terms of 4G connections with 6.6 million – 87% of its total – while Telenor had 1.45 million and MPT 800,000.