connect, the international telecommunication medium, has tested the performance of mobile and fixed networks in the Netherlands. All analyzed providers perform on a high level. The 2023 connect Mobile Network Test and the 2023 connect Fixed-Line Network Test provide comprehensive insights into the users’ experience. They were conducted by infrastructure and benchmarking specialist umlaut, part of Accenture.
2023 Mobile Network Test Results
KPN is “Best in Test”, receiving the overall grade “outstanding” and scoring 980 out of 1,000 points possible, the highest score an operator ever achieved in a connect network test. The operator leads in the Data, Crowdsourced Quality and Reliability categories.
T-Mobile ranks second with a score of 969 and the overall grade “outstanding”. The operator shares the lead position in the Voice category with KPN and is second in Data and Reliability. T-Mobile achieved the shortest call setup time on roads.
Vodafone is on a strong third place with 963 points, also achieving the overall grade “outstanding”. With a plus of 25 points over last year’s result, Vodafone improved most of all analyzed providers. It leads in the HD Voice category and ranks second in Crowdsourced Quality.
Hannes Ruegheimer, editor at connect, said: “KPN defended its 2022 number one position with the highest score an operator has achieved in our assessments so far. Overall, each analyzed operator showed an excellent performance.”
The results are based on drive tests, walk tests and analyses of crowd-sourced data, conducted and collected in January 2023. Drive tests and walk tests took place in inner-city areas, outer metropolitan and suburban areas, smaller towns and cities along connecting highways. Two drive test cars traveled 18 cities and 14 towns covering 7,262 kilometers. The selected areas covered 5,9 million people, representing approximately 34% of the Netherlands’ population. The crowd-sourced analysis covers 461,032,355 samples from 123,690 users, representing approximately 99,1% of the built-up area of the Netherlands. The weighed results of all three measurements provide a realistic and conclusive assessment of each network’s performance.
2023 Fixed-Line Network Test Results
KPN was named “Best in Test” with 944 points and the overall grade “very good”. Scoring high in all categories, the operator leads in Latency category and performed slightly better than Ziggo in Upload Speed.
Ziggo came in second with a score of 936 and the overall grade “very good”. The operator has the highest scores in actively and passively collected Download Speeds and passively collected Upload Speeds. Furthermore, Ziggo shows strong performance in all other assessment categories.
T-Mobile Netherlands ranks third with 927 points and the overall grade “very good”. With a plus of 17 points, the operator shows the highest score improvement compared to 2022. T-Mobile achieved strong results in actively determined Upload Speeds. In passively observed Download Speeds, T-Mobile is closely behind Ziggo and on a par with KPN.
“All three nationwide fixed-line operators in the Netherlands show very good results well above 900 points. This reflects a high level of performance. In addition, the high scores for Stability are good news for Dutch fixed-line customers,“ Hannes Ruegheimer states.
connect also evaluated fixed-line networks in the larger Dutch provinces. KPN leads in most areas, ranking first in Drenthe, Flevoland, Gelderland, Utrecht, Limburg and Noord-Brabant. Ziggo is ahead in Friesland, Groningen and Noord-Holland. The local operator DELTA/Caiway leads in Overijssel, Zeeland and Zuid-Holland.
The assessment of the Netherlands’ fixed-line operators is based on a crowd-sourced analysis of 18,063,894 data samples captured from 83,024 different connections between August 2022 and February 2023.
connect’s independent mobile network tests, conducted by umlaut, provide a fair, transparent and neutral assessment and comparison of the networks' capabilities to customers, management and supervisory boards of mobile network operators. First conducted in Germany more than 20 years ago, the assessment has then been extended to Austria, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, The Netherlands and the United Kingdom. It has become the de-facto industry standard for customer-perceived network quality.