{"id":102671,"date":"2014-05-22T15:35:11","date_gmt":"2014-05-22T13:35:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=102671"},"modified":"2014-05-22T16:55:01","modified_gmt":"2014-05-22T14:55:01","slug":"is-sas-mobile-network-quality-good-enough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/cellular\/102671-is-sas-mobile-network-quality-good-enough.html","title":{"rendered":"Is SA’s mobile network quality good enough?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa<\/a>) published its quarterly Quality of Service (QoS) Monitoring Test Reports<\/strong><\/a>, which showed that Vodacom<\/a>, MTN<\/a> and Cell C<\/a> failed numerous quality tests in the Western Cape and Kwazulu-Natal.<\/p>\n

The focus of the drive-test was on network performance in terms of accessibility and retention of voice calls. The metric used to measure the above were Call Setup Success Rate (CSSR) and Drop Call Rate (DCR).<\/p>\n

Vodacom\u2019s network had the best CSSR, while MTN\u2019s network had the best results in terms of DCR. Overall the Vodacom network performed the best.<\/p>\n

Vodacom planning big investment<\/h3>\n

Vodacom, which fared the best in Icasa\u2019s QoS testing, said that they have seen an improvement in the testing methodology from the regulator.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe continue to support ICASA on refining the testing process in conjunction with the SABS,\u201d said Vodacom.<\/p>\n

Vodacom said that it is \u201cnot ideal\u201d to see issues highlighted by these trials, but added that the company is using the data to pinpoint problem areas and make changes.<\/p>\n

\u201cLooking into the results, some of the problematic areas are in a nature reserve where no operators are allowed to build base stations,\u201d Vodacom said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn one specific case (Worcester), the dropped call rate was 10x higher than recorded in the same site a day later and well outside the normal performance in that area, so we\u2019re working on tracing the fault on that particular day.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m pleased to say that our overall network performance is running well ahead of the targets set by ICASA, and also ahead of our competitors,\u201d said Vodacom spokesperson Richard Boorman<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Vodacom is protecting its network quality lead by ramping up its network investment.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe aim to increase spend on the network in South Africa from an already high R6.9 billion in the last financial year to around R9 billion in the current financial year,\u201d said Boorman.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s an increase of roughly 30% and will have a significant impact on the reach, capacity and quality of our services.\u201d<\/p>\n

There was a problem with test monitoring system: MTN<\/h3>\n

MTN said that it has noted Icasa\u2019s concern regarding the network performance by MTN in the test areas.<\/p>\n

\u201cMTN has established that there was a problem with the IVR test monitoring system which is managed by MTN and used by Icasa to run the QoS tests,\u201d said Robin Maduray<\/a>, MTN SA\u2019s transmission planning and optimisation GM.<\/p>\n

\u201cMTN had informed Icasa of this test environment problem prior to ICASA publishing the report,\u201d said Maduray.<\/p>\n

MTN said that Icasa\u2019s report does not necessarily reflect the true overall end-user experience currently being experienced by their customers in those areas.<\/p>\n

\u201cMTN would like to assure our customers that this was a test environment error only and it has been resolved,\u201d said Maduray.<\/p>\n

MTN said that it will continue to explore ways of improving the service they provide to subscribers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis year alone MTN is investing approximately R7.5 billion on infrastructure upgrades so as to further expand our network,\u201d said Maduray.<\/p>\n

Cell C comments on report<\/h3>\n

Cell C said that they are busy with the process of finalising an industry developed OoS monitoring methodology with Icasa, SABS and interested parties.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the absence of an industry recognised testing methodology, it is difficult to confirm the accuracy of the results,\u201d said Cell C.<\/p>\n

\u201cFurthermore, the information related to these QoS reports has yet to be analysed before any further comments are made. Cell C has on previous occasions questioned the results of the Icasa reports due to the methods adopted by ICASA which are not yet SABS approved.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cell C said it continues to make intensive investment in its network with a planned R2.3 billion for CAPEX spend in 2014.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe company has 318 additional sites planned for 2014. Additionally, Cell C is in the process of swapping the RAN equipment of around over 1,000 sites from NSN to Huawei in a three-phase process, which should see the first two phases conclude by November this year,\u201d said Cell C.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will bring more stability into the network and increase the coverage. Transmission projects are also underway.\u201d<\/p>\n

More on network quality<\/h3>\n

ICASA QoS results: Vodacom vs MTN vs Cell C<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Vodacom, MTN, and Cell C fail quality tests<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mobile operators respond to Icasa\u2019s Quality of Service report which shows that local networks failed many quality tests<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":102227,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[355,35,533,42,20935,41],"class_list":["post-102671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cellular","tag-cell-c","tag-headline","tag-icasa","tag-mtn","tag-network-quality","tag-vodacom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102671"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102671"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102671\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":102701,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102671\/revisions\/102701"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}