NTC releases results of evaluation of 3 mobile networks' services

The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) has just released the results of a benchmarking or evaluation of the country’s top three mobile operators’ network performance in terms of quality of service.

All three got perfect scores in terms of network accessibility. For service accessibility, Globe got the highest mark at 97.98 percent followed by Smart with 96.24 percent and Sun with 83.02 percent. In terms of call completion rate circuit switch, Smart and Globe were tied at 98.55 percent followed by Sun with 97.65 percent.

As for parameters effecting network performance, in terms of receiving signal level, Smart was rated at 91.81 percent, Globe at 86.58 percent, and Sun at 84.48 percent. For signal quality performance, Globe was higher at 93.79 percent, Smart at 93 percent, and Sun at 84.47 percent. In terms of hand over success rate, NTC rates Smart at 99.03 percent, Globe at 98.27 percent, and Sun at 96.72 percent.

As for call set-up time based on the 2475 sample calls, Smart got an average rating of 95.76 percent while Globe had 97.29 percent. Sun’s was placed at 80.12 percent.

For average blocked calls (also based on 2475 calls), Smart was rated at 93 or 3.79 percent, Globe at 49 or 1.99 percent and Sun at 779 or 17.05 percent. In terms of dropped calls, Smart and Globe both got 35 (1.42 percent) and Sun at 48 (1.95 percent).

A lower percentage of blocked and dropped calls is desirable to ensure higher quality of service and therefore, the operator with a lower percentage was given a higher ranking. In terms of the average of both blocked and dropped calls combined, Sun got the highest ranking at 19 percent, Smart at 5.21 percent, and Globe at 3.41 percent.

The occurrence of blocked and dropped calls is due to a number of reasons, such as network congestion and system failure.

Test were conducted last Sept. 17 to Oct. 6 to determine the quality of service offerings and ascertain that the operating standards issued by the NTC have been met by three cellular mobile telephone service (CMTS) operators, namely Smart Communications, Globe Telecom, and Sun Cellular, in 13 cities in Metro Manila.

Data were obtained on quality of service indicators, parameters affecting network performance, and subscribers satisfaction as reflected by percentage of good calls, blocked calls, and dropped calls.

Rankings among the network operators were also generated based on the total percentage of blocked and dropped calls from a total of 2475 calls to measure the quality of service they render to subscribers.

To measure the quality of service indicators, three areas were reviewed namely network accessibility (circuit switch), service accessibility (telephony), and call completion rate circuit switch (telephony).