MANILA, Philippines–Wireless provider Smart Communications edged out rival Globe Telecoms in the latest mobile network benchmarking of the National Telecommunications Commission but both firms passed all five parameters set by the telecom regulator.
Based on the NTC’s 4th Quarter quality of service benchmarking results for mobile network service providers, both Smart and Globe met acceptable levels in five parameters: blocked calls, dropped call rate, signal strength, signal quality and call set-up time or the time required for the network to activate the called party. The latest mobile tests were conducted in December to determine the quality of service during the holiday season.
On the parameter for blocked calls or grade of service (GoS), which refers to the percentage of calls that were not given access by the network, the NTC said that Smart was measured at 1 percent which was the lowest percentage, establishing an edge over Globe’s 2 percent. The NTC’s performance standard is less than or equal to 4 percent, which means there should be no more than four blocked calls for every 100 call attempts.
On dropped call rate or the percentage of on-going calls that were involuntarily terminated, both companies passed the cap of 2 percent imposed by the NTC. Smart had 1 percent dropped calls, lower than Globe’s 1.2 percent.
For average receive signal level, NTC said Smart had an edge over Globe. Smart was measured at -64.49dBm and Globe registered at -71.78dBm. The acceptable industry level is more than or equal to -85dBm.
Average receive 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 refers to the signal bar of a subscriber’s handset.
For average signal quality, the NTC said Smart likewise had an edge over Globe. Smart was ranked at 0.67 and Globe at 0.94. The acceptable range for this item is from 0 to 4; the closer to 0, the better. Signal quality “0” indicates that there are no errors in transmission.
Average signal quality was defined as the quality of voice transmission while a subscriber is using his mobile phone. The transmission should not be choppy or garbled.
For call set-up time, both telecom service providers were also within the acceptable industry standard of below 14 seconds. Smart registered at 11.12 seconds, establishing an edge over Globe which registered at 11.98 seconds, the NTC said.
Call set-up time refers to the time required for the network to activate the called party. In simple terms, this refers to the period required from the time a subscriber finished dialing to the time of the first ring.
“The NTC will continuously monitor the service performance of the telcos to ensure the quality of service that telcos provide to the public,” the government agency said in the press statement.
The latest benchmarking tests were conducted by the NTC in 16 cities and one municipality of the National Capital Region in December 2012. The purpose was to measure the providers’ network performance and compare the results to the existing NTC prescribed minimum service performance standards.
The tests were conducted using post-paid Globe and Smart’s Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards subscribing to regular services and not unlimited services. The NTC said Sun SIMs, Talk and Text SIMs, Red Mobile SIMs and Touch Mobile SIMs were not used because these SIMs are sharing the networks of either Globe or Smart.
The NTC said its monitoring team made sure that the locations where the tests were conducted and the SIMs were not known to anyone except to the members of the monitoring team.
The monitoring teams conducted tests for one week in December. They initiated a total of 1,000 random calls simultaneously for Globe and Smart. The monitoring team made the calls using “drive test” method (inside a moving vehicle).