We're seeing something of a rebalance of power in Argentinian mobile, after our award table was largely dominated by two operators in our last Mobile Networks Update report. Claro's performance has been the highlight of our analysis this time around, as the operator has come from a fairly distant third place to win two of our national awards, while it showed the greatest improvements of the operators across most of our other categories. But its rivals Movistar and Personal have also made gains, notably in 4G availability where all three operators have now passed the 75% milestone.

For this report, OpenSignal analyzed 933 million measurements collected from 73,143 mobile devices between August 1 and October 29, 2018. We used that data to compare the 3G and 4G services of the big three operators in Argentina on the national level, and we drilled down into that data on the regional level, examining 4G download, 4G upload and overall speed, 4G availability and 4G latency metrics for the country's three biggest cities: Buenos Aires, Córdoba and Rosario. Let's start by looking at our download speed metrics.

Personal still way ahead in 4G and overall download

Personal's 4G download speed score has stayed fairly static over the past six months at 16.9 Mbps. But the operator remains nearly 5 Mbps ahead of its rivals, as Movistar's score stayed virtually stagnant at 11.9 Mbps. Claro saw the greatest improvement in its average 4G download score, which grew over 1 Mbps to 12 Mbps, meaning there is now hardly any light between the two runners-up in this category.

This pattern was repeated in our overall download speed metric, which factors in the combined speeds of operators' 3G and 4G networks and the level of access to each technology. Personal kept its lead with a slight rise in its average speed to 14.1 Mbps, while Claro and Movistar remained over 4 Mbps behind the leader. Movistar saw an incremental increase in its overall download score, while it was Claro who again saw the best growth of close to 2 Mbps. Both operators are now within striking distance of the 10 Mbps mark in our measurements.

Personal also dominated both our 4G and overall download analysis of Argentina's cities, where it won all six awards in these categories in Buenos Aires, Córdoba and Rosario. In the capital, Personal's 4G download score showed little increase since our last report at 17.8 Mbps, while it was Movistar who saw the biggest growth in our Buenos Aires results of over 2 Mbps to close the gap on the leader.

Claro shines to grab the 3G download and 4G upload medals

In our last report there was less than 0.5 Mbps separating all three of Argentina's operators in our 3G download analysis, with Claro and Personal scoring a draw. But Claro has now pulled ahead of the pack with a sprint of over 13% to reach 4.6 Mbps and gain our award. Personal and Movistar both grew their own average 3G download scores by at least 0.2 Mbps, but Claro has now won this category for the first time.

Claro also pulled off an impressive coup in our 4G upload speed analysis, grabbing our award away from previous winner Personal. Claro only saw incremental growth in our measurements to reach 6.2 Mbps, but Personal saw its score fall by nearly 14% to 5.5 Mbps, allowing its rival to steal its crown. Movistar also saw a drop of more than 0.2 Mbps in its average 4G upload score to come in third place on 4.7 Mbps.

Personal wins 4G availability as all three operators pass 75%

Personal remains in the lead in our 4G availability analysis with an impressive score of 84%, an increase of nearly 2 percentage points in the last six months. Movistar showed a slight growth to score 77.4%, while Claro increased its score by nearly 8 percentage points to reach 76.9% — meaning all three of Argentina's operators have now passed the 75% mark in our 4G availability analysis.

In Argentina's two biggest cities Buenos Aires and Córdoba, all three operators have passed the 80% mark in our 4G availability metric, with Personal winning in both cities and passing the 90% threshold in Córdoba. Our LTE availability scores were slightly lower in Rosario, where we saw a three-way draw.

Movistar keeps its latency awards

Movistar kept our two latency awards, seeing a slight improvement in its 4G latency score to reach 47.8 milliseconds. Claro also saw a small boost in its score, but Personal saw a depreciation of over 8 milliseconds to fall some way behind the other two in our 4G latency measurements. Personal performed better in our cities analysis however, holding Movistar to a draw in Córdoba and winning in Rosario. In our national 3G latency analysis, Movistar kept its award, while we saw considerable improvements of around 10 milliseconds from each of the three operators.

Despite the improvements in our scores, ongoing economic uncertainty in Argentina is casting a shadow over the telecoms sector. Personal owner Telecom Argentina has delayed planned investment, while Movistar parent Telefónica has reportedly cancelled a planned IPO of its fixed-line unit in the country. Nonetheless, Movistar has recently signed a deal with Ericsson for a network modernisation program, with one eye on a forthcoming 5G launch. Personal recently shone in our video experience analysis, and the operator is expected to beef up its video content as it gains access to Cablevision's content following the merger of Telecom Argentina and the cable TV provider. And we'll be including further analysis of consumer video experience and more in our upcoming analysis of the Argentina mobile market in 2019.