Smart scores NTC benchmarking study

The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) has reported misleading conclusions regarding the results of its own survey on network quality of the country’s three cellular operators, according to the legal counsel of mobile phone leader Smart Communications.

Smart also branded as unfair the benchmarking study conducted by the NTC’s Metro Manila regional office to assess the quality of service being provided by Smart Communications, Globe Telecom and Sun Cellular in 13 cities in Metro Manila.

If all the network quality indicators of the survey were taken into account rather than just arbitrarily selected criteria, Smart’s overall network quality surpasses the two cellular operators, said Eric Espanol, head of Smart’s legal and regulatory department.

“We cannot understand why this didn’t come up in the letter issued by the NTC Metro Manila office,” Smart spokesperson Ramon Isberto said.

In his letter to NTC Commissioner Ruel Canobas, Espanol pointed out that aside from the dropped call rate and blocked call rate, there were seven other indicators of network performance discussed in the summary report such as signal coverage, handover success rate and quality of signal. However, in ranking the operators, the report “surprisingly” arrived at its conclusion that Globe Telecom had superior network quality based only on the dropped call rate and the blocked call rate, he said.

“The fact that the report selected only two network quality indicators as basis for benchmarking begs for an explanation. In the interest of fairness and public service, Smart requests that the overall quality index be made known to the public as well given the incomplete, inaccurate and misleading service quality image engendered by the publication of only two isolated test results,” Espanol added.

Moreover, Smart is questioning the legitimacy and the lack of transparency of the benchmarking test conducted by the NTC’s Metro Manila regional office.

Espanol said Smart is not aware of any circular, regulation or policy issued by the commission which authorizes or sanctions the regional offices – in this instance, the NCR – to conduct benchmarking test drives. The letter issued by the NTC Metro Manila office is not signed or even noted by the NTC.

The Smart official also said that the methodology of the “alleged test” was not made transparent to the entities concerned or even included in the summary report. “In similar benchmarking studies, the methodology is included in the report to enable an independent body to verify the accuracy of the study, or, to test the findings and conclusions contained in the report,” Espanol emphasized.