Keysight Technologies Nemo Solution Enables Nationwide Mobile Network Benchmarking in Germany

Keysight Technologies announced that IMTEST, Germany's largest consumer testing magazine, has published the results of another important nationwide drive test project in Germany using Keysight's test solutions in collaboration with zafaco GmbH, a leader in broadband network testing technology and market in Germany.

Keysight Technologies Nemo Solution Enables Nationwide Mobile Network Benchmarking in Germany

The purpose of the test is to select the best mobile network in Germany by comparing the three major mobile operators in Germany - Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone and Telefónica. The main results of this year's test show that all tested operators performed well overall, Germany's network coverage is constantly improving, and there are almost no areas with poor mobile connectivity. According to the test results, Deutsche Telekom ranked first with a "very good" score of 1.4, Telefónica ranked second with a "good" score of 1.8, and Vodafone ranked third with an overall score of 2.1.

Zafaco conducted extensive investigations in the IMTEST mobile network test, using a unique combination of data collection methods to reflect network performance and user experience. This included a drive test project to evaluate voice quality between mobile and fixed networks and between different mobile networks. In addition, user data was evaluated through "crowdsourcing" on download and upload data transfer rates, and the relationship between these transfer rates and the network availability of mobile network operators.

The drive test used Keysight’s Nemo Backpack Pro portable network benchmarking solution and Nemo Outdoor software, as well as the optional test automation application for Microsoft Teams.

"The collaboration with Keysight has enabled us to use innovative measurement methods in our testing activities, such as testing Microsoft Teams and WhatsApp, as well as testing the latest technologies such as 5G SA and VoNR," said Christoph Sudhues, founder and managing director of zafaco GmbH. "We especially felt the excellent support from Keysight's Nemo team throughout all the testing phases. We are already looking forward to future projects."

During the five-week campaign, test engineers drove 10,000 kilometers through thirty major cities, country roads and highways, covering an area with a population of approximately 15 million people, and collected data from approximately 160,000 test connections. The measurements covered the regions of Hamburg, Berlin, Thuringia, Braunschweig and North Rhine-Westphalia, and the results published by IMTEST include both individual results for each region and comprehensive results for the whole of Germany.

"We are pleased to collaborate with experts from IMTEST and zafaco to support this testing campaign using the latest capability of our solutions - Application Test Automation (ATA)," said Jagadeesh Dantuluri, general manager of Network Wireless Solutions and Private Networks at Keysight Technologies . "ATA is a unique approach for testing the real user experience of mobile applications, such as Microsoft Teams, and this is a great opportunity to provide German consumers with reliable and comprehensive results on network quality."

In recent years, there has been a significant increase in the use of mobile applications to access digital content, participate in social media platforms, and role-play in online games. IMTEST and zafaco have expanded the scope of the test to cover important trends in how consumers use the mobile web and, for the first time, to test the quality of service of social media applications.