NCC Survey records Glo
Mobile best GSM network
By Basil Okafor
Monday, March 28, 2005
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Engr. Ernest Ndukwe,
Exec. V.C. NCC
Photo: Sun News Publishing |
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Glo Mobile, the mobile telecommunications arm
of Globacom, the Second National Operator, has been adjudged
to have the best performing GSM network in a network quality
of service and performance audit conducted by the Nigerian
Communications Commission (NCC).
According to the report published in national dailies last
week, Glo Mobile came top in most of the categories. The network
provides the better overall quality of service. It also achieved
a better overall result of 94.1 per cent on call setup success
rate; achieved a better overall result of 91.8 per cent on
call success rate and in terms of billing accuracy, Glo Mobile
scored better result than the other three networks.
MTN achieved a better overall result of 93.3 per cent on call
completion rate while Glo Mobile scored better result in terms
of successful recharges compared to the other three networks
tested. However, the balance enquiry result shows an almost
even spread amongst the networks, hence no network can be
singled out in terms of major discrepancies.
The quality of service audit conducted by ARIT Solutions and
ATIO Corporation, on behalf of NCC, took place in Abuja, Port
Harcourt and Lagos, arguably the most mature GSM markets in
the country. The audit was conducted over a period of 21 days,
from 21st September 2004 to 11th October 2004. Both location
and inter-location tests were conducted.
According to the report, the survey was focused on testing
from subscribers’’ perspectives. Therefore, prepaid
SIM cards were used in both the originating and terminating
test units. “As such, the results obtained represent
a true reflection of the subscribers’ experiences of
the operator’s networks.”
The key indicators measured were: call setup success rate,
call setup failure rate, call success rate, call drop rate
and call retention rate. Others are system response time,
handover statistics, number of handovers per call, voice quality
as a Mean Opinion Score( MOS) value and air-time recharge
performance.
The System Response Time
This is a measurement of the time taken from the time the
dial button is pressed until the connect message. This gives
an indication, from the subscriber’s perspective, of
the time it takes for a ringing tone to go through and the
other party to successfully answer. However, most of the system
response times for all the four network operators fell within
the 13-18 seconds response time.
Total Handover Statistics
This is derived from the number of handover request commands,
handover failed and the handover release messages from each
of the networks audited. In this category, MTN recorded the
lowest failure rate of three per cent of the total attempt,
while Vmobile recorded the highest failure rate of 8.30 per
cent of the total attempts.
Total Voice Quality Statistics
Globacom achieved the highest result of 3.2 for overall voice
quality on the downlink and 3.5 on the uplink. Vmobile and
Mtel achieved the lowest result of 1.4 for overall voice quality
on the downlink, while Vmobile achieved the lowest result
of 1.7 for overall voice quality on the uplink.
Total Recharge Statistics
The Vmobile network achieved the highest overall result of
91.60 per cent of successful recharges, while Glo Mobile achieved
the lowest overall result of 64.53 per cent for successful
recharges. However, all the networks recorded low results
in terms of successful recharges in Lagos, inter-city Port
Harcourt to Lagos. Glo Mobile and Mtel experienced failures
in all of the locations.
Balance Enquiry Results
Nationally, the MTN network achieved the highest overall result
of 99.26 per cent for successful balance enquiry while Vmobile
achieved the lowest overall result of 98.97 per cent for successful
balance enquiries. But within the cities, the results indicated
that all the networks achieved lower recharge results in Lagos,
Abuja and inter-city Abuja to Port Harcourt.
Opening and Closing Balance Result
All the four operators achieved a 100 per cent success
rate for opening and closing balances. This indicates that
the operators prepaid billing platforms are deducting the
correct credits, according to the billing rules.
Billing Accuracy
Glo Mobile achieved the highest overall result of 99.93 per
cent for billing accuracy while Vmobile achieved the lowest
result of 94.97 per cent.
Drawback of the Survey
Though, the regulatory body has received applause
from industry watchers over the publication of the quality
of service performance of the GSM operators, some of the observers
were at a loss over the relevance of a survey carried out
in September last year, to the present situation. NCC also
acknowledges this fact in a statement that accompanied the
report. A weekly assessment of the quality of service would
be more productive to the industry than a delayed option.
Another drawback of the survey is that NCC only gave the public
a comparative assessment of the network performances without
telling the public its minimum quality of service standards.
NCC equally acknowledges this fact in the report, “the
overall performance of the networks is far from being satisfactory.
These results only present a comparative study of the network.”
But what is the satisfactory level NCC is talking about?
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