# Mobile Broadband Performance Evaluation: Analysis of National Reports
###### Abstract  
Five decades have passed since the first bit was transmitted over the internet. Although the internet has improved our lives and led to the digital economy, currently only 51% of the world's population have access to it. Currently, consumers mostly access the internet via mobile broadband, 2G, 3G, and 4G services. Regulatory bodies such as the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) of the US are responsible for ensuring that consumers receive an adequate service from Mobile Network Operators (MNOs). Usually, regulators evaluate the performance of each MNO in terms of service quality yearly and publish a report. To evaluate performance, metrics such as coverage, download/upload speed, and the number of subscribers can be used. However, the evaluation process and the metrics used by each regulatory body are inconsistent, and this makes it hard to determine which nations are providing adequate services to their citizens. Furthermore, it is not clear as to which performance evaluation is the right path. In this case study, we analyzed the reports released from eight nations (United States of America, United Kingdom, France, South Korea, Japan, Singapore, and Australia) as of the year 2020. We then point out the advantages and the drawbacks of the current evaluation process and metrics. Furthermore, a discussion on why the current methods are not sufficient to evaluate 5G services is presented. Our findings indicate that there is a great need for a unified metric and that this process becomes more complex with the rollout of 5G. performance evaluation; mobile broadband; network operators; regulators; metrics +
Footnote †: journal: Electronics Letters  
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Y.Z. ; [PERSON], W.-y. ; A.  
expand its internet access. Following this recommendation, many countries are conducting a yearly service quality assessment. Currently, there are multiple options to deliver internet to users such as wired (copper or optical) and wireless (cellular/mobile broadband (for the rest of this report, cellular and mobile broadband are used interchangeably), or satellite). As can be seen from Table 1, provided by ITU, mobile broadband connections have become the main choice to access the internet and this trend is only going to continue thanks to the falling price of subscriptions. In addition to the lower cost, public support and ownership are also other important factors to the success of the mobile broadband connection [5]. Mobile broadband services are provided via 2G, 3G, 4G, and 5G technologies. Until being overtaken by 4G in 2018, 2G was the most prominent mobile broadband technology. Currently, 4G connects over 45% of the total mobile broadband connections and it is expected to continue to grow up to 62% in 2023. Although 5G and its attractive applications such as IoT, autonomous cars, virtual/virtual reality, and smart home/cities are projected to overtake 4G by 2025, it might be a little delayed due to the delay of other technologies and the unprecedented pandemic in 2020. Furthermore, both nations and MNOs are still examining the economic impact or growth that will come together with faster broadband access [6]. Additionally, researchers fear that applications that require such speed are not here yet, which might render 5G a fancy privilege for a selected few [7]. Nevertheless, the deployment of 5G is still underway in countries such as Korea, the United States of America (US/USA), the United Kingdom (UK), Australia, Singapore, Germany, and France. Furthermore, over the next 5 to 10 years, mobile network operators (MNOs) all over the world are planning to spend about USD 1.5 trillion on infrastructure, which will facilitate the prominence of 5G [8]. Therefore, in this paper, we compare the mobile broadband quality assessment results obtained by regulators of countries such as the US, UK, Australia, Singapore, Germany, Japan, South Korea, and France. These nations are OECD members and reflect different parts of the world.