Despite incessant complaints by telecom subscribers over poor service, data released by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) shows that the four mobile network operators, MTN, Globacom, Airtel, and 9mobile, are meeting their Quality of Service (QoS) Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
According to the Nationwide QoS data released by the Commission, the telcos met their KPIs between July 2022 and June 2023.
The operators’ performances are measured by the regulator based on parameters such as Call Setup Success Rate (CSSR), Drop Call Rate (DCR), and Traffic Channel Congestion (TCH CONG).
According to NCC, these QoS standards ensure that consumers continue to have access to high-quality telecommunications services by setting basic minimum quality levels for all operators.
How they performed
Based on the latest report, all the mobile operators crossed the threshold of 98% call setup success rate in the 12-month review period.
The Call Setup Success Rate (CSSR) is calculated by taking the number of unblocked call attempts divided by the total number of call attempts.
In terms of drop call rate (DCR), which is fixed at 1% or less, all the operators performed well as they recorded less than 1% drop calls in the period, according to NCC’s record.
A dropped call is a call that is prematurely terminated before being released normally by either the caller or the called party.
In terms of Traffic Channel Congestion, (Standalone Dedicated Control Channel Congestion SDCCH), all the operators also met the KPI as they all recorded less than 2% congestion within the period.
The regulator’s parameter in this regard is that the congestion rate for the networks should be equal to or less than 2%.
The Traffic Control Channel Congestion Rate is the probability of failure to access a traffic channel during call setup.
Subscriber experience
The technical result of operators’ quality of service may, however, be different from the reality based on subscribers’ experience in the period covered by the report and even now.
The President of the National Association of Telecoms Subscribers (NATCOMS), Mr. Deolu Ogunbajo disagreed with the regulator.
According to him, NCC is looking at the quality of service from the technical aspect and not from the subscribers’ angle.
- “From the subscribers’ point of view, this is not correct because we still have a lot of issues. The KPIs are measured technically and are far from the reality of what the subscribers are experiencing. We disagree with NCC on this. There are lots of complaints on Dropped calls, and even the call setup success rate is nothing to write home about. There are times you want to call and the call is not just connecting, the call set up rate is poor, all is not well in terms of quality of service as the report suggests” he said.
Based on the huge number of mobile subscriptions in the country, the minute percentage of errors allowed the operators might cover a large number of subscribers facing the quality of service challenge.
Meanwhile, some of the service quality situations also have to do with the quality of phones being used by the subscribers, as substandard phones are believed to affect the quality of services the users receive from network operators.
