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he year 2012 has been a true turning
point for mobile communications. There
is an enormous growth as an ever-growing
number of people opt for smartphones and be-
cause more and more services are available that
appeal to the consumer, and thus traffic increa-
ses. This traffic runs on mobile networks, yet
the UMTS technology used for this of formerly
384 kbit/s is now extended to 42 Mbit/s .
LTE is still a long way off
And this makes life tough on Austrias mobile
data highway. The alternative is called LTE and
offers considerably higher speeds. This techno-
logy however is still in its infant phase. For one,
there are not enough sites, nor is the number of
LTE-capable smartphones high enough to merit
any essential relief to other networks. Things
should start moving no earlier than 2013. Whe-
reby Austria has not yet even auctioned off the
important 800 Mhz bands for wide-area cover-
age. This is why the four network operators are
currently obligated to adequately supply their
clientele with established technology.
Here in Austria, it is especially A1 Telekom
Austria, an operator who has always fared very
well in tests, who now has to defend its excel-
lent reputation - after all, with a 40-percent mar-
ket share, it has the most customers. And in this
respect, its no walk in the park for T-Mobile
Austria with some 31 percent of all customers.
This applies all the more so since they provide
an 11-percent market share of their GSM net-
work to the pure UMTS network operator and
last years network test winner, Hutchison 3G,
3 in short. T-Mobile Austria and 3 will be
splitting 18 percent of customers coming from
Orange. This network operator may soon be
owned by 3. It is however currently still inde-
pendent.
This year, all operators had to be put to the
same test two measuring vehicles with a total
of twelve smartphones, four USB HSPA sticks
and two network scanners were used. The pro-
cedure is described on the following page and
the route on page 36.
BERND THEISS
T
Network Test
Austria
The smartphone revolution is pushing 3G net-
works to the limits of their capabilities. con-
nect tested which network operator in Austria
provides the best services for its customers.
Mobile communications
connect 11/2012
32
With success rates of some 99
percent in urban areas, Austrias
network operators have shown us
what was technically possible in
2011. Time therefore to raise the
bar, by selecting the route for in-
stance. We therefore selected a
cluster of three to four smaller and
larger towns each in the south,
north, east and west for our vehic-
les to conduct their measurements
for the category Cities & Sur-
roundings. The measuring team
conducted readings in a total of 14
cities. In the east of Vienna, of
course, as well as Wiener Neu-
stadt, Klosterneuburg and St. Pl-
ten. Besides the challenging rou-
tes themselves, there were also
some new changes to the test pro-
cedure. Measurements were now
fully conducted with HD-Voice,
i.e. voice transmission with an ex-
tended frequency band and there-
fore a more natural sound. In ad-
dition, besides telephony itself,
ongoing data transmission (Multi-
RAB), much higher this year than
in the previous year further com-
plicated the voice test.
Voice telephony in the cities
The more challenging routes were
clearly reflected in the results, as
was the additional data load. Only
T-Mobile Austria was able to top
their previous years score
with 98.7 percent, making it the
undisputed winner in terms of te-
lephony in the cities and their sur-
roundings.
The competition lagged behind
T-Mobile Austria, but also behind
their excellent previous-years re-
sults. However, they were also in
the top-level range with success
rates of around 98 percent. Led by
3 (Hutchison 3G) and closely fol-
lowed by T-Mobile and A1 Tele-
kom Austria, voice quality is also
high. Just Orange appeared to be a
bit off, which can be attributed to
the lacking HD-Voice support in
their network. The three other net-
work operators in Austria offer
this superior voice standard.
Voice telephony on the highway
Naturally, since highways are pre-
dominantly used as transfer rou-
tes, the success rates tend to dec-
rease somewhat when making
calls. And yet, A1 Telekom Aust-
ria, 3 and T Mobile Austria do not
budge with values of 97 percent
( 0.3). Orange trailing by barely
one percent is still good, but is a
bit behind in terms of voice quali-
ty. 3 is a leader in this category
once again, very closely followed
by A1 Telekom Austria and T-Mo-
bile Austria. Overall three of the
four Austrian network operators
set new standards, particularly T-
Mobile Austria a huge leap in
the voice score gave them their
winning edge. Good job!
As in 2011, the connect-net-
work test partner P3 sent out two
measuring vehicles to take to
Austrias roads. Vehicle 1 was
equipped with eight smartphones,
each controlled by their own dedi-
cated industrial PC. In addition,
there were two reserve units and
two further industrial PCs that ac-
ted as server and control compu-
ter. Vehicle 2 was equipped with
four smartphones, plus four USB
data sticks and each with a spare
to take over in the case of a mal-
function. Each measuring device
was assigned to their own indust-
rial PC as well, and two further
computers were put to use as ser-
vice and control unit.
Each vehicle was occupied by a
driver and a technical specialist;
the latter continuously monitored
the readings from the passenger
seat. To measure voice quality,
alternating calls were made from
wideband smartphones from one
vehicle to the other. The voice
quality was measured and as-
sessed on the basis of wideband
voice samples. In this process, the
state-of-the art P.OLQA algorithm
was used. To make the conditions
more realistic, the smartphones
transmitted data in parallel to the
phone calls (Multi-RAB). The
four additional smartphones in
vehicle 1 of the make HTC Sensa-
tion XE (14.4/5.76 Mbit/s) were
used to measure typical data ser-
vices. The following data was re-
corded with slightly adapted ap-
plications on the devices: the
transfer success ratios and times
of websites and HTTP File down-
loads, the File upload and quality
parameters on YouTube (SD:
Standard Definition).
The same measurement scena-
rio was performed by vehicle 2
with Windows 7 operated data
sticks, whereby YouTube was ad-
ditionally assessed in terms of
high definition (HD). Network
scanners were used in both vehic-
les to measure the network co-
verage of the network operator. A
third vehicle was used at select
locations for measurements with
LTE sticks that were not included
in the overall assessment.
THIS IS HOW CONNECT TESTS
SMARTPHONES + TELEPHONY
PROVIDER
A1 Telekom
Austria
Hutchison
3G
Orange
T-Mobile
Austria
TELEPHONY (CITIES AND SURROUNDINGS)
Success rate/call establishment time (%/s) 98/5,5 98,2/5,4 97,9/5,3 98,7/5,4
Voice quality/10% poorer than (MOS-LQO/MOS-LQO) 3,2/2,8 3,3/3,1 2,9/2,5 3,2/2,9
TELEPHONY HIGHWAYS
Success ratio/call establishment time (%/s) 97,3/5,9 97,1/5,9 96,1/6,2 96,7/6,1
Voice quality/10% poorer than (MOS-LQO/MOS-LQO) 3,1/2,7 3,3/3 2,8/2,5 3,1/2,7
Smartphones
& Telephony
Reliability among network operators in 2011 can
hardly be surpassed. Or can it?
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33
One HTC Sensation XE was used
per network operator to measure
data transfer rates. With a gross
transmission rate of 14.4 Mbit/s
for downloads and 5.76 Mbit/s for
uploads, higher loads are only ge-
nerated by notebooks with data
sticks (see page 35). Yet when sur-
fing the Internet, uploading and
downloading data and viewing
standard resolution YouTube vide-
os, even the measurement phones
had to share resources with the
population at large and their
smartphones. This is where the
major network operators A1 Tele-
kom Austria with their 40-percent
market share and T-Mobile Aust-
ria following with 31 percent are
faced with very special challenges
as they attempt to provide capaci-
ties in a more densely populated
infrastructure or an extremely
busy network after all, users
share in the limited resources of
one cell.
Transfer rates in cities
This exercise, which involved cal-
ling up typical popular websites,
was performed extremely well by
A1 Telekom Austria in the Brow-
sing Session test. 30.1 seconds
was the total loading time for all
websites, and the failure ratio was
barely over one percent. 3 was ab-
le to push down the error ratio to
clearly below one percent, and in
turn took an average of half a se-
cond longer when it came to loa-
ding times. T-Mobile Austria, with
31.5 seconds loading time was
closely behind A1 and 3, and their
success ratio of nearly 98 percent
was top-level performance. The
fact that fast loading times is so-
mething that should not be taken
for granted became evident with
Orange: Despite its competitive
success ratios, this network opera-
tor took more than a third longer
to load the four websites. In terms
of file download success ratios,
A1 Telekom Austria, 3 and T-Mo-
bile Austria ran neck and neck, the
winner ultimately being T-Mobile
Austria with a phenomenal suc-
cess ratio of 99.8 percent, closely
followed by 3. Remarkable: The
three network operators achieved
an average value of more than 2
Mbit/s and 90 percent of the time
over 1 Mbit/s. A1 Telekom Aust-
ria was even faster; Orange on the
other hand lost out to almost the
same degree. Upload speeds was
won by 3 with outstanding trans-
fer rates and highest reliability.
Right behind with just a slight dif-
ference were A1 and T-Mobile,
while Orange once again lagged
behind, as had also previously be-
en the case with YouTube.
A1 Telekom Austria impressed
with their fast film loading speeds
and video start, which was predo-
minantly uninterrupted and with
high success ratios. 3 followed
closely behind. T-Mobile Austria,
normally up in the front; fell back
with Orange in this case.
Smartphones on highways
On highways, 3 demonstrated its
superior coverage; strictly
speaking its results were identical
to the scores achieved in the city.
Whether surfing, file transfers in
both directions or YouTube the
success ratio were between 98.3
and 99.7 percent. With this the
network was just as exceptional
regarding the transfer speed achie-
ved, which even during uploads
was around 900 kbit/s in 90 per-
cent of the cases. Only A1 Tele-
kom Austria managed to stay ba-
rely below this providing perfor-
mance that still satisfied very high
demands. T-Mobile Austria on the
other hand lost out on highways
considerably. But help is on the
way, if T-Mobile closes the rural
gaps in its network by concluding
the National Roaming Agreement
with 3. And this will presumably
be the case very soon. Until then,
3 and A1 Telekom Austria are
ahead of the pack when it comes
to smartphone data.
Smartphones & Data
Using your smartphone to get information fast should be an easy
task with any network operator. So whos the fastest?
PROVIDER A1 Telekom Austria
Hutchison
3G
Orange
T-Mobile
Austria
DATA SMARTPHONE (CITIES & SURROUNDINGS)
INTERNET WEBSITE LOADING
Success ratio (%) 98,9 99,2 98,2 97,9
Session time website 1-4 (s) 30,1 30,6 43,3 31,5
FILE DOWNLOAD
Success ratio (%) 98,8 99,5 99,3 99,8
Average session duration (3 MB)/data rate (TE*) (s/kbit/s) 9,6/2623 11,5/2223 16,8/1487 12,4/2015
90% faster than (kbit/s) 1515 1268 755 1139
FILE UPLOAD
Success ratio (%) 99,5 99,6 99,1 99,1
Average session duration (1 MB)/data rate (TE*) (s/kbit/s) 6,7/1293 5,3/1592 8,3/1010 7,2/1165
90% faster than (kbit/s) 989 1314 683 981
Youtube (SD)
Success ratio (%) 98,5 98,1 93,8 94,5
Uninterrupted participation/start time (%/s) 98,4/4,7 97,6/5,1 92,9/6,4 93,8/5,8
DATA SMARTPHONE (HIGHWAYS)
INTERNET WEBSITE LOADING
Success ratio (%) 95,0 99,0 87,8 91,6
Session time website 1-4 (s) 35,0 31,4 45,6 46,1
FILE DOWNLOAD
Success ratio (%) 97,2 99,7 90,2 97,3
Average session duration (1 MB)/ date rate (TE*) (s/kbit/s) 14,3/1755 10,6/2417 20,1/1243 35,3/703
90% faster than (kbit/s) 1366 1176 642 176
FILE UPLOAD
Success ratio (%) 99,0 99,7 88,9 97,3
Average session duration (1 MB)/ date rate (TE*) (s/kbit/s) 12,4/719 5,9/1415 11,8/705 21,4/386
90% faster than (kbit/s) 508 893 424 98
YOUTUBE (SD)
Success ratio (%) 94,1 98,3 84,1 76,3
Uninterrupted participation/start time (%/s) 94,1/5,9 97,7/4,7 83,6/7,9 76,3/14,4
*
Time equivalent
SMARTPHONE + DATEN
Mobile communications
connect 11/2012
34
To enjoy optimum data transfer
rates in a mobile network, we re-
commend going online with a
USB stick and the dashboard soft-
ware of the respective provider. A
high-performance computer is al-
so required. Equipped with indus-
trial computers in line with these
requirements, the second measu-
rement vehicle from P3 communi-
cations found equally busy loca-
tions in the target area to perform
one-hour stationary measurements
there.
Mobile broadband in the cities
The effects of this measurement
setup and the stationary measure-
ment locations in comparison to
the smartphone measurements in
terms of performance were alrea-
dy revealed in the results of the
standardized web browsing sessi-
on which involved the loading of
four websites. Instead of just over
30 seconds, A1 Telekom Austria
with 8.6 seconds needed less than
a third of the time, thus increasing
their success ratio to 99.4 percent.
3 was even better with 99.8, but
took an acceptable three seconds
longer to load the websites. T-Mo-
bile Austria was a little less reliab-
le but slightly quicker, Orange, as
expected, lagged behind once
again. In the data upload and
download section, 3 and A1 Tele-
kom Austria fought neck and
neck. T-Mobile made its presence
felt in some of the individual dis-
ciplines, but in others remained
clearly but not significantly far
behind. With average transfer ra-
tes of between 8 and some 9.5
Mbit/s, the networks of the three
top operators displayed outstan-
ding performance, and the upload
speed of around 2 Mbit/s and mo-
re documented this high level.
This was also shown by the unra-
ted maximum data rates that
amounted to 26 to 30 Mbit/s in the
three top networks.
During these measurements,
which were designed to demonst-
rate performance, Orange fared
even poorer than before. This also
applies to YouTube in standard
and high definition, categories in
which A1 Telekom with its unique
reliability provided the highest
quality movie viewing pleasure.
Broadband on the highway
There was no avoiding 3 for high-
est data rates on highways: The
specialists from P3 communica-
tions measured more than 11
Mbit/s download speeds. Peak ra-
tings even exceeded the 26 Mbit/s
Notebooks & Data
Notebooks with data sticks can really clog up mobile networks.
Which network operator passed the test with flying colors?
In 2012, A1 Telekom Austria once
again loses out to the much smal-
ler network operator 3. However, they do so
at a very high level. In most parameters, Telekom was
barely behind 3 and in some disciplines such as file
download via smartphone it even led the race. The fact
that A1 Telekom Austria supplies four times as many
customers than 3 is evidence of the high quality of
their network.
We saw T-Mobile
Austrias perfor-
mance leap coming in 2011 - and now it
is a reality.
In terms of telephony, T-Mobile in Austria now even
stands forguaranteed stability, which can be attribut-
ed to its top performance in urban areas. Even in the
data transfer rate segment, T-Mobile is up there with
the very best; just the highways seem to display some
gaps that need closing.
Network Test 2012 has a loser
Orange. The operator took fourth,
strangely enough despite good results.
One could assume that a network operator with
Oranges results would have taken one of the foremost
places in Germany. But only the best is good enough,
and faced with such competition, the network opera-
tor, whom 3 would just love to take over, will have to
be content with last place.
Austrias smallest network opera-
tor 3 wins the Network test in 2012
a second time in a row. Here 3 demonstrated
precisely the characteristics that test winners are made
of: top performance in several individual disciplines,
about six of the eight categories in the area of smart-
phone data transfer are just as important as the a stea-
dy striking distance to the lead position if one of the
other competitors happens to be ahead. Austrias David
is a true Goliath when it comes to mobile networks.
PROVIDER
A1 Telekom
Austria
Hutchison 3G Orange
T-Mobile Aus-
tria
DATA MOBILE BROADBAND (CITIES & SURROUNDINGS)
INTERNET WEBSITE LOADING
Success ratio (%) 99,4 99,8 98,8 98,9
Session time website 1-4 (s) 8,6 11,8 17,6 11,6
FILE DOWNLOAD
Success ratio (%) 99,7 99,7 98,4 97,9
Average session duration (10 MB)/data rate (TE*) (s/kbit/s) 8,9/9324 10,6/8008 28,8/2863 9,3/8976
90% faster than (kbit/s) 5651 4746 1569 6439
FILE UPLOAD
Success ratio (%) 99,7 99,6 98,9 99,1
Average session duration (10 MB)/data rate (TE*) (s/kbit/s) 22,1/1867 16,7/2478 24,6/1672 21,1/1952
90% faster than (kbit/s) 1125 1950 1149 1174
YOUTUBE SD
Success ratio (%) 99,7 99,6 95,7 97,6
Uninterrupted participation/start time (%/s) 99,3/2 98,6/3 92,1/3 96,9/2
YOUTUBE HD
Success ratio (%) 97,8 96,3 64,6 94,1
Uninterrupted participation/start time (%/s) 97,1/3 93/3 54,9/3 92,4/2
DATA MOBILE BROADBAND (HIGHWAYS)
DOWNLOAD
Average data rate (kbit/s) 9201 11733 2626 6540
90% faster than (kbit/s) 3098 3819 470 188
FILE UPLOAD
Success ratio (%) 97,2 97,0 89,6 96,3
Average data rate (TE*) (kbit/s) 914 1693 1065 627
90% faster than (kbit/s) 615 1278 748 351
*
Time equivalent
NOTEBOOK + DATEN
mark and upload speeds still ren-
dered an average of almost 1.7
Mbit/s. A1 and T-Mobile were
forced to surrender in the face of
such results, whereby Austrias
largest network operator grazed
the high 10 Mbit/s mark. A1 lost
out during the upload test by bare-
ly one 1 Mbit/s, whereby 90 per-
cent of the measurements did re-
main above 615 kbit/s.
T-Mobile Austrias result was
probably ruined by the gaps in the
highway network, which will
most likely be closed very soon.
The ten percent of the download
speeds under 188 kbit/s should be
able to be changed with National
Roaming, as even Oranges slo-
west ten percent were considerab-
ly higher despite their clear low
average data rates. In more than
10 percent of the upload measure-
ments, Orange could not upload
any data at all. This is totally un-
acceptable.
The network operators
35
This time around, our network
test routes followed a much more
complex scheme than in the years
before. In the north, west, south
and east, three to four smaller and
larger cities and their surround-
ings were selected in which test
vehicles collected data. In additi-
on, the connecting routes in-bet-
ween were also tested, if possible
on highways and ideally on sepa-
rate routes. Besides the two vehic-
les equipped for voice measure-
ments and one for data measure-
ments via smartphone and the
other via USB data sticks, a third
E-class Mercedes equipped with a
P3 communications measuring
system was used.
Mobile Broadband via LTE
Instead of voice and data measu-
rements in UMTS and EDGE net-
works, this test involved only
LTE measurements at locations
known to have good coverage. But
connect and P3 communications
were not just interested in an as-
sessment: We were curious. We
wanted to know what to expect
from LTE in comparison to the
established UMTS standard. For
the measurement we use the best
USB-LTE sticks the network ope-
rators had to offer. The respective
network driver dashboards for
control and configuration were
again installed on a Windows 7
industrial PC of the measuring
system. Due to their lacking offe-
ring, Orange did not take part in
the rating.
The success ratio readings may
require some interpretation, as the
invariable 100 percent success ra-
tios may be attributable to the fa-
vorable locations. On the other
hand, perfection means that the
network operators already have a
good grip on the very young LTE
technology. During the web
browsing session, increases in
speed due to LTE were not excep-
tionally high, but nonetheless very
noticeable. In this case, the ser-
vers of the web offerings might
have set the limits. In the upload
and download range, the new mo-
bile network standard clearly de-
monstrated its superiority: The
minimum values of LTE were mo-
re than twice as fast as UMTS, du-
ring uploads the loading times
were reduced to less than a fifth of
the time. The extremely short wai-
ting times on YouTube video vie-
wing increased the appeal of the
new mobile network standard LTE
considerably.
Route & LTE
During the Network Test, P3 communications and connect also put
LTE connections to the test.
ANBIETER
Hutchison
3G
A1 Telekom
Austria
T-Mobile
Austria
Orange
Smartphone telephony max. 170 146 143 148 135
City and surroundings 120 86% 84% 90% 81%
Highways 50 85% 84% 81% 75%
Smartphone data max. 170 165 162 151 147
Internet website loading (city and surroundings) 56 97% 96% 91% 89%
File download (city and surroundings) 28 98% 94% 99% 94%
File upload (city and surroundings) 28 98% 97% 95% 94%
YouTube (city and surroundings) 28 95% 97% 83% 79%
Internet website loading (highways) 12 98% 91% 83% 76%
File download (highways) 6 100% 93% 83% 77%
File upload (highways) 6 98% 93% 83% 73%
YouTube (highways) 6 98% 92% 33% 68%
Mobile broadband max. 160 155 153 140 132
Internet website loading (city and surroundings) 52 99% 98% 96% 93%
File download (city and surroundings) 26 98% 98% 89% 85%
File upload (city and surroundings) 26 98% 97% 94% 93%
YouTube SD (city and surroundings) 20 99% 99% 94% 87%
YouTube HD (city and surroundings) 6 87% 95% 85% 40%
File download (highways) 15 100% 99% 78% 77%
File upload (highways) 15 83% 77% 47% 43%
SCORE max. 500
466
Very good
458
Very good
439
Very good
414
Good
RESULTS NETWORK TEST AUSTRIA 2012
ANBIETER
A1 Telekom
Austria
Hutchison
3G
T-Mobile
Austria
MOBILE BROADBAND LTE
INTERNET WEBSITE LOADING
Success ratio (%) 100,0 100,0 100,0
Session time website 1-4 (s) 7,0 8,9 7,4
FILE DOWNLOAD
Success ratio (%) 100,0 100,0 100,0
Average session duration (20MB)/data rate (TE*) (s/kbit/s) 3,7/44813 4,8/35582 3,9/42781
90% faster than (kbit/s) 39114 28350 26403
FILE UPLOAD
Success ratio (%) 100,0 100,0 100,0
Average session duration (10MB)/data rate (TE*) (s/kbit/s) 4,1/20814 2,5/34748 3,8/22206
90% faster than (kbit/s) 15531 30945 14340
YOUTUBE SD
Success ratio (%) 100,0 100,0 100,0
Uninterrupted participation/start time (%/s) 100/2,1 100/2,4 99,01/2,2
YOUTUBE HD
Success ratio (%) 100,0 100,0 100,0
Uninterrupted participation/start time (%/s) 100/2,2 100/2,9 100/2,4
*
Time Equivalent
LTE
The test routes ran through four-
teen cities in four regions of the
Alpine republic.
Mobile communications
connect 11/2012
36
Our Network Test presents Aus-
tria as a paradise for mobile
network users once again:
Three network operators
battled it out to provide perfection for their customers. In the voice net-
work, T-Mobile Austria managed to outperform the high-quality operators
A1 Telekom Austria and 3 by a hairs breadth but good-quality calls can
also be made in the Orange network.
In terms of data services T-Mobile had to yield to A1 and 3, but has been
making considerable ground since 2011. And once again A1 Telekom
Austria and 3 were the ones competing for the crown, with still a consi-
derable edge in terms of smartphone data and mobile broadband rea-
dings. Here A1 was frequently ahead of the others, e.g. YouTube in the
cities. 3 however managed to score the most points in the individual dis-
ciplines and particularly on highways, where data downloads achieved
the full number of points twice. One good and three very good network
operators finished the comparison, from which 3 emerges as Network
Test Winner Austria 2012. We congratulate you!
Bernd Theiss,
connect-Editor
CONCLUSION