InterAksyon.com means BUSINESS
MANILA - (UPDATED 4:30 p.m.) The country's two largest telecom companies are both falling short of regulatory standards for service quality, the National Telecommunications Commission said on Wednesday.
In its second quarter Quality of Service Benchmarking Conducted on Mobile Network Service Providers, the NTC said Smart Communications Inc. and Globe Telecom Inc. did not pass the standard for Grade of Service, which is 4 percent.
The NTC said Smart scored 9.95 percent, while Globe had 4.45 percent. Grade of Service refers to the percentage of blocked calls or those not given access by the network.
"Though both of them did not pass the standard for Grade of Service which is at 4 percent, Globe's performance has an edge over Smart in this area," the NTC said.
In terms of dropped call rates, the NTC said both companies were within the 2 percent minimum standard. Smart registered a 1.53 percent call rate, while Globe, 1.66 percent.
"Smart's performance is better than Globe in this item," the NTC said.
For average received signal level, Smart had an edge with -62..63 dBM compared to Globe's -63.83 dBM. The NTC said the minimum acceptable average received signal is -85 dBm.
The average received signal level refers to the signal strength provided by the serving cellsite to the mobile handset of the subscriber while a conversation is on-going. This can be seen from the signal bar of a subscriber's handset.
In terms of average signal quality, which is the quality of voice transmission while a subscriber is using their handset, Smart registered 0.63 and Globe, 0.72.
"The minimum acceptable range for this item is from 0 to 4; the closer to 0, the better. An average signal quality of 0 indicates that there are no errors in transmission," the NTC said, adding that voice transmission should not be choppy or garbled.
In terms of call set-up, the NTC said Globe and Smart were within the acceptable industry standard of below 14 seconds. Smart registered 11.74 seconds, establishing an edge over Globe's 11.90 seconds by 0.16 seconds.
Call set-up refers to the time required for the network to activate the called party, or the period required from the time a subscriber finished dialing to the time of the first ring.
The monitoring teams conducted tests during the last week of April, May and June this year.
The monitoring teams initiated a total of 1,506 on-net calls per network. The initiated calls were simultaneously done for Globe and Smart.
The NTC said it already called the attention of both telcos regarding the results of the monitoring.
"The telcos informed the NTC that they are already addressing the matter. Globe said that they are implementing an expansion and upgrading of their network. Smart stated that they are continously rehabilitating their network," the NTC said.
The regulator also ordered the telcos to inform the public of their ongoing efforts to improve their services.
"The NTC will continously monitor the service performance of the telcos to ensure the quality of services that telcos provide to the public," the regulator said.
The benchmarkring tests on the network of Globe and Smart were conducted in all of the 16 cities and one municipality of Metro Manila.
The tests were conducted using prepaid Globe and Smart SIM cards subscribing to regular services and not unlimited services. Sun SIMs, Talk and Text SIMs, Red Mobile SIMs and Touch Mobile SIMs were not used.
The NTC monitoring team made sure that the mobile phone numbers used and the locations where the tests were conducted were not known to anyone except to the members of the monitoring team.
InterAksyon.com is the online news portal of TV5, which is a unit of Smart parent PLDT.
InterAksyon.com means BUSINESS
BUSINESS NEWS
