There’s a million dollars for whoever would have predicted this time last year how the next twelve months would unfold. In January, we were looking out for new opportunities associated with the development of mobile technology and the planned large-scale rollout of 5G. Although the implementation did take place and many countries took a significant step forward in this matter, this topic was lost in the maze of other media reports.

We are well aware that our memories of 2020 are centred around the COVID-19 pandemic and the changes that the epidemic state has forced on the entire society. We analysed, among other things, the decline in the mobility of Poles during the first lockdown, and we also dared to check the state of 5G deployment in Poland.

Now the time has come to present our big round-up of 2020 with regard to the quality and speed of mobile Internet in Poland.

In total, our twelve monthly rankings are based on 2,614,898 measurements! Most of them took place within 4G coverage (90.31%). Therefore, the tests carried out using 2G technology did not exceed 10% (9.60%).

Considering the operators, most of our users were Play (34.1%) or Orange (30.95%) subscribers. The rest of the tests were conducted using the Plus (19.35%) and T-Mobile (15.61%) networks.

Quality and speed of mobile Internet in Poland in 2020

Average data download speed: Orange

From the very beginning, our rankings have been characterised by fierce competition between Orange and T-Mobile. The category of average data download speed is particularly important in this battle. 2020 belonged to Orange, which after a year’s break (in 2019, T-Mobile proved to be victorious), regained the title of the best operator in this category.

Orange took first place with an annual average data download speed of 26.64 Mbps. The aforementioned T-Mobile came in second with a result of 25.84 Mbps. Play was in the third place (22.16 Mbps), while Plus closed the list (21.23 Mbps).

It is worth noting that Orange achieved a better result than last year’s winner of our annual ranking (T-Mobile could then boast an average data download speed of 26.09 Mbps). For the record, in 2019, Orange reported an average speed of 25.33 Mbps.

Average data upload speed: Orange

For many market observers, the average data upload speed category is like a fortress that is closely guarded by Orange, and 2020 was no different. Once again, Orange proved to be triumphant after achieving an average speed of 11.84 Mbps. However, other operators’ results show that it was a very close competition.

The second place in our annual ranking was taken by T-Mobile with a result of 11.29 Mbps, while Play defended its third place on the podium (11.08 Mbps). Yet again, Plus had to settle for fourth place (10.96 Mbps).

We can observe a decrease in the average data upload speed as compared to our 2019 ranking. Last year, Orange won in this category with a result of 12.49 Mbps.

Lowest ping value: T-Mobile

In the last category, T-Mobile broke Orange’s domination and won a consolation prize. The subscribers of this mobile operator can enjoy the lowest ping value of 36.59 Mbps.

T-Mobile was followed by Orange (38.42 Mbps), Play (39.67 Mbps), and Plus (42.53 Mbps).

How did we collect data for the ranking?

Analytics are collected from the different users using the RFBenchmark mobile application. The mobile application allows the analysis of various radio parameters and test the internet speed of technologies such as: GSM, 3G and 4G-LTE. The Interactive map available on website provides the Quality of Service (QoS) and the corresponding ranking of different mobile operators based on the analytics collected by the application users.

Whenever the RFBenchmark application registers a low-quality voice connection, a sudden reduction in the internet connection speed or any other malfunction, it has the ability to report the current location of the user, where the disruption in the service has occurred.

Do you want to help us create a report on the quality of services and the speed of mobile Internet in Europe?

Join our Community! Check Radio Coverage and Internet Quality in Your Neighborhood!!