Our mobile network has once again been awarded ‘Best in Test’ in Australia

Making sure Australians are connected to the very best network is what drives us every day. And at the core of that, is giving our customers the largest and most reliable mobile network.

Over the past few years, we’ve made significant investments into expanding and strengthening our mobile network and after extensive testing by industry leader umlaut we’ve been awarded their coveted “Best in Test” ranking. 

We also scored wins across the major categories umlaut tested including, Voice, Data, Crowd-sourced quality, and Reliability, which further reinforces our position as Australia’s largest, most reliable, and best mobile network.

How we were tested

This is the important bit. umlaut takes its testing responsibilities very seriously.

Over 55 days, umlaut scoured the country with multiple teams of testers. They performed walking tests and driving tests of the network in and around 15 cities, 27 towns and 30 other locations, along 23,000 kilometres of roadway looking at how every network in the country performs.

In each location, umlaut testers would take multiple samples of voice and data network quality. And to ensure greater accuracy, their drive/walk survey data is supplemented by test data from an army of tens of thousands of ‘crowd’ testers contributing their own samples from an Area of Australia over half a million sq. km. in size. 

Indeed, the benchmark in Australia is the largest annual benchmark in the world now conducted by umlaut.

Here’s where they tested:

All told, 34,833 voice samples and 252,217 data samples were taken over the two months of testing.

And all the tests gave one clear result: we are number 1 overall and in every major category, reinforcing our position as Australia’s Best mobile network.

What does this mean?

All the testing gave us a clear picture of how well our network performs, and what makes it number one in the nation.

Overall, we won:

• Best in test (overall win)
• Best in data
• Best in voice
• Best in crowdsourced quality
• Best in Reliability

And while this isn’t the first time we’ve won these awards, it’s the first time we’ve won them by such a considerable margin, and the first time we’ve ever cracked 900 points – a feat few other operators have achieved globally.

How we did it

We’ve been working hard and investing in our network to make sure Australians have access to the connectivity they need for now and the future.

Currently, over 80% of Australians have access to our multi-award winning 5G network. That means over 4300 5G-enabled sites in more than 400 cities and towns across the nation.

We’re aiming to have 95% population coverage for 5G, and to have more than 80% of all our mobile traffic on 5G by the time we get there.

Moreover, we’re deploying one of the most technically-advanced 5G networks in the nation. That way, everyone can have the capacity they need for the experiences they want. Our most recent innovation was to switch on 5G Standalone, which allows us to carve up the network into slices to serve different types of customers.

We’ve got more to show you very soon, and we can’t wait to bring it to life.