The objective of this circular is to ensure the public that quality service is delivered by mobile phone operators to their subscribers.

Just recently, a friend of mine forwarded me a CMTS (GSM) monitoring report made by NTC dated November 14, 2005.  This report contains the GSM/CMTS quality service of the Three (3) mobile operators in the country: Globe Telecom, Smart Communications and Sun Cellular.

The actual daily monitoring was conducted from October 17, 2005 to October 28, 2005.  Monitoring was conducted along the major roads and highways in Metro Manila, one hour-period each in the morning, afternoon and evening for the first three days and one-hour period each in the morning and afternoon for the succeeding days.

Philippine Chamber of Telecommunications Operators (PCTO) present during the test are: Arnold Armeza (ETPI), Vincent Macute (PT&T) and Brian Lerlon (CRUZTELCO).  Members of the NTC Monitoring team are: Engrs. Samuel S. Sabile, Policarpio G. Tolentino and Rolando San Luis.

The average values of the measured parameters are as follows:

Call Setup Success Rate: 98.51%(Globe); 97.82%(Smart); 66.61%(SunCell)
Call Completion Rate: 97.29% (Globe); 97.06% (Smart); 94.22% (SunCell)
Drop Call Rate:  2.71% (Globe); 2.94% (Smart); 5.78% (SunCell)

The data presented is based on random sampling and due to the limited period of monitoring, it does not reflect 100% accuracy.

Formula Used:

Call Attempts - Event Outgoing Call OK + Event Outgoing Call Fail
Call Setup Success Rate - (Event Outgoing Call OK / Call Attempts) * 100
Call Completion Rate - ((Event Outgoing Call OK - Event Call Dropped)/Event Outgoing Call OK) * 100
Drop Call Rate - (Event Call Dropped / Event Outgoing Call OK) * 100

Call success rate is defined as the total number of calls successfully routed to their corresponding destinations or the ratio of established calls to call attempts.  Call Completion Rate is the total number of calling attempts answered by the called parties divided by total number of calling attempts.  Drop Call Rate is the ratio of the calls that are irregularly terminated to the total number of calls made during the measurement period.

The report although non-conclusive, showed usage behaviors among mobile users.  Mobile traffic is heavy during lunchtime (11:00am - 1:00pm) and during night-time (5:00pm onwards).  I am sure mobile operators is very much aware of this and I expect that their infrastructure should be able to accommodate this traffic if they adhere to Total Quality Service and Total Customer Satisfaction.

Comparing the report to car performance, out of your 100 attempts to start your engine - 98.51% was successful on your first try and you're able to reach your destination 97.29% if you're driving a "Globe car".  "Smart Car Engines" starts 97.82% on its first try and 97.06% of the time, you will reach your destination.  "SunCell Car Engines"  starts 66.61% on its first try, and out of that 66.61%, 94.22% of the time, you will reach your destination.  In other words, Globe and Smart cars are more expensive but they are more reliable and efficient.  Sun Cellular cars are more affordable but you should drive it at your own risks.  No pun intended.

The network performance of Globe and Smart are way above the NTC prescribed quality service, the same cannot be said with Sun Cellular network.  Out of 100 calls, only 66 to 67 calls were successful but only 63 were completed without being dropped by the network. 

This brings back the complaint filed by Globe and Smart when SunCellular introduced their 24/7 Unlimited service, case in point - poor performance.  NTC requires all mobile operators to have a 93% successful calls at the very least.  With a 66.61% CSSR rating, does this adhere to the Grade of Standards (GOS) of 7% set by the NTC?  If not, what is NTC doing about this?

It is good and commendable that NTC is doing such monitoring work to make sure mobile operators follow NTC rules.  Monitoring will be effective if appropriate actions are taken after each report.  What is the use of monitoring reports if it will just remain printed in a piece of paper.  A lion or a tiger without their sharp teeth are nothing, they will just be like kittens purring and begging for food and affection everytime.

Quality Of Service (QoS) is all about providing guarantees on the ability of a network to deliver predictable results. For mobile operators, it's all about availability (uptime), bandwidth (throughput), latency (delay), and error rate.  Customer Satisfaction on the hand is the fulfillment of customers' requirements/needs.  The NTC report gives us an indication on which company provides better quality of service and delivers customer satisfaction.  The power to choose is in your hands my dear readers.

By the way, the Vice President - Customer Relationship Management of Digital Mobile Phils. Inc. (SunCelluar) Mr. Reuben Pangan sent me an email last week.  SunCell will be giving their official statement regarding our "Dark Side of the SUN" article soon.  I will keep you posted.

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Announcement: Attend the Powertips 2006 "Security Secrets and Strategies" conference on March 16, 2006 at the Grand Ballroom of Dusit Hotel Nikko. Tickets are available at all SM TicketNet outlets or call 911-5555. You can also register online at www.infochat.com.ph

For your questions, comments, suggestions, press releases and stories, simply e-mail techtvhost@yahoo.com or visit www.infochat.com.ph for more articles.  God Bless us all!

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A Secret No More
Who is this I.T. Company (ITE) who is playing pirated DVDs during their product demonstration?  I was in Makati and saw the movie "Jarhead" playing in this ITC product.  The movie was just showing then so curiosity got me.  I approached the man (in company uniform with logo) manning the company's shop and asked where they got the DVD copy of the said movie.  The guy whispered to me: "Sir, it's a pirated copy hehehe".  To this ITC, you said during your press conference that you are strongly supporting the anti-piracy campaign.  Let me ask you again:  Did you say anti-piracy or piracy campaign?  You showing the movie in public using your huge screen was an attention grabber, that is why your secret is a secret no more.

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