Nielsen Announces Top U.S. Markets for Mobile Voice and Data Service
San Francisco, CA, April 2, 2008 - U.S. mobile subscribers in West Palm Beach, Florida enjoy the best voice network service in the country, while St. Louis, Missouri has the fastest 3G data networks, according to The Nielsen Company. (For all tables referenced in this release, please view Full PDF Download of release).
Nielsen Mobile released the findings as the wireless industry gathered in Las Vegas, Nevada for the CTIA WIRELESS 2008® trade show.
San Antonio, Texas; Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas; Atlanta, Georgia; and Chicago, Illinois were also among the top five cities with the highest call success rates. Salt Lake City, Utah; Phoenix, Arizona; San Diego, California; and Indianapolis, Indiana rounded out the top five cities with the fastest 3G data networks. (See tables "Best Voice Network Cities" and "Fastest 3G Data Cities" in Full PDF Download version of release.)
Cities with top ten voice networks averaged a 99.2% successful call rate; on average, 0.3% of all calls in these cities were dropped. Network performance varied across the top 50 U.S. cities, with an average successful call rate of 97.2%. Numerous variables, such as topography, zoning, carrier investment, and subscriber growth, impact network quality.
At 807 kilobits per second (kbps), St. Louis’s average download speed was 17% faster than ninth-ranked Washington, D.C., where the average speed was 688 kbps. Among the cities with top ranked 3G data networks, the average download speed for a 4 megabyte (MB) file was 727 kbps—an increase of more than 100 kbps over the top market average measured during the second half of 2006.
“Carriers continued to expand their 3G data network footprints in 2007, while maintaining the high level of voice service that subscribers have become accustomed to,” said Mike Greenawald, Vice President, Consumer Experience, Nielsen Mobile. “That trend will continue in 2008, as carriers continue to enhance their 3G service offerings.”
Nielsen defines a “successful call” as one established and maintained for at least two minutes. These findings, based on an average of over 15,000 calls per market across the top 50 cities, also take into account the number of ineffective call attempts, in which a customer hits send but can’t get on the network, and calls dropped within two minutes of being established on the network.
Nielsen evaluates data markets by calculating average data transaction speeds for a 4 MB file downloaded in a mobile environment. These findings are based on an average of 4,100 3G data downloads per city across the top 50 cities.
Data for this analysis was captured by Nielsen’s fleet of 25 vans, which log more than one million drive-test miles, place over four million calls, and set up over 1,250,000 data sessions each year. The data they collect is integrated with Nielsen’s consumer research to provide complete understanding and measurement of mobile consumers. Nielsen’s fleet—the largest independent mobile testing unit in North America—is expanding globally, starting with India in 2008.
About Nielsen Mobile
The Nielsen Mobile unit of The Nielsen Company is the world's largest independent provider of syndicated consumer research to the telecom and mobile media markets. The Nielsen Mobile unit focuses exclusively on tracking the behavior, attitudes, and experiences of mobile consumers; their reports provide up to seven years of data on internet, video, gaming, audio, and advertising trends for mobile phone users. Nielsen’s technology-driven research provides unique and holistic insight into how mobile customers use their devices and what they think about brands, devices, and services. For more information, please visit www.nielsenmobile.com.
About The Nielsen Company
The Nielsen Company is a global information and media company with leading market positions and recognized brands in marketing information (ACNielsen), media information (Nielsen Media Research), online intelligence (NetRatings and BuzzMetrics), trade shows and business publications (Billboard, The Hollywood Reporter, Adweek). The privately held company is active in more than 100 countries, with headquarters in Haarlem, the Netherlands, and New York, USA. For more information, please visit www.nielsen.com.
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