P3 communications and the magazine 'connect' have published the results of network quality testing in Austria, Germany and Switzerland. The winners of the test are the operators A1 in Austria, Deutsche Telekom in Germany and Sunrise and Swisscom in Switzerland.
In Germany, Telekom was able to improve compared with 2016. With 901 points and the grade 'very good', the operator receives first place and is the test winner for the seventh time in a row. Vodafone Germany follows with only 25 fewer points. O2, with 553 points, is ranked third and lost points compared with the test in 2016. This might be the result of the ongoing network merger with E-Plus.
In Austria, all the mobile networks received the grade 'very good'. The 2016 winner A1 receives 941 points and leads in the voice as well as in the data discipline, with a 'very good' result. Hutchison Drei Austria secures a 'very good' second ranking with 906 points. The Hutchison company manages to improve in the important data tests. T-Mobile Austria also improves compared with 2016, particularly in data. The operator ranks third and gets the grade 'very good' with 891 points, which reflects the very high standard of the Austrian mobile networks.
Switzerland surprises with a double victory at the highest level. The 2016 winner Sunrise and market leader Swisscom come together on the podium with 973 points each. For the first time in the history of the mobile network test in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, the magazine 'connect' awards the grade 'outstanding' to two operators from the same country. The smallest Swiss operator Salt loses some points in the voice category and receives 845 points and the grade 'good'.
According to Bernd Theiss, Head of Test and Technology at 'connect', testing methodology and scoring models were adapted to technical developments, continuously increasing the thresholds and requirements. If, despite of that, already very good candidates manage to improve their performance even more, it shows that the challenging network test contributes to making networks better, to the benefit of customers.
P3 has extended its testing schedule by a crowdsourced component. Also, over the top content services, new services like carrier aggregation and voice over LTE will become more important in 2018, said Hakan Ekmen, Managing Director at P3 communications.
