Telenor network certified Best in Test by mobile network benchmark company umlaut

Telenor network was named Best in Test in Bulgaria by the leading international mobile networks benchmark company umlaut.

Mr. Hakan Ekmen, umlaut CEO Telecommunications, awarded the certificate to Telenor chief executive officer Jason King at a special event in Sofia today. “This achievement is a recognition for our continuous efforts to make our network better every day and to offer the best possible user experience in a demanding and very competitive market. This Best in Test certification is a milestone that we appreciate but it is also yet another starting point for us to keep improving what we have now, so we can achieve even greater results and provide even better services to our customers”, commented Telenor Bulgaria CEO Jason King.

umlaut is an international consultancy, benchmarking mobile networks in over 120 countries around the globe and it is the de facto industry standard for network quality. In Bulgaria, umlaut analyzed the performance of all three major mobile operators’ networks between May and November 2019.

The tests, with nearly 32 million samples in 94.5% of the urban populated areas and 50.7% of the non-urban areas of Bulgaria, included walk tests in cities, towns and connecting roads across the country.

“In 2019, Telenor had improved the capacity and the user experience quality of its 4G network in more than 600 places of residence across Bulgaria by improving over 1000 of its base stations”, said Telenor Chief Technical Officer Vladimir Radoijcic. “These achievements and the continuous network improvements are part of the company’s long-term development strategy”, he added.

As of end of 2019, Telenor recorded increase of 22.8% of the active 4G data users in its network, compared to the end of 2018, and about 86% of all data traffic in Telenor’s network was carried through 4G. The expanded list of devices that support Voice over LTE (VoLTE) led to almost quadruple increase of the voice call minutes through VoLTE by the end of 2019 to reach above 12% of all voice traffic in Telenor’s network. As of end of 2019 over 50% of the data traffic in Telenor’s network is generated by video and music streaming services.

Telenor was the first major mobile operator in Bulgaria to start a 4G network in 2015 and the first company to offer VoLTE in 2018 and ViLTE (Video over LTE) in 2019 to its customers. In 2019 Telenor also conducted a series of 5G trials encompassing various industries, such as medicine, entertainment, production and education. The Best in Test certificate was awarded to Telenor for reaching 888 of 1000 possible dots, the best overall score from all three operators. Telenor also achieved the highest scores for best coverage for both data and voice as well as best rated coverage for 4G and best rated user download speed.

“umlaut benchmarking methodology is focusing on user experience of every network. In the telecommunications sector, umlaut measures networks worldwide and relies on the expertise of a network of consultancies, engineering companies and more than four thousand experts from 80 nations. Based on the results of our benchmark analysis, we are pleased to award today the Best in Test certificate to Telenor”, said umlaut CEO Mr. Ekmen.