Mobile operators fail to impress Icasa
IT HAS always been a bit of a chicken-and-egg situation when it comes to telecoms operators and their networks.
Do you first invest heavily in your network and then aggressively go for customers as Neotel did, or first acquire subscribers and then invest in your network, as Cell C did?
The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) recently released its quality of service report for Johannesburg and Pretoria, which showed that Vodacom performed slightly better than MTN and Cell C.
The report showed that in the Johannesburg central business district, every 16th call on the Cell C network was dropped. In Centurion, every 21st call on the MTN network was dropped. Vodacom met most of the targets, except in Alexandra township.
As connectivity in Africa grows, network quality has become more of an issue. According to a report by UK research firm Analysys Mason released in July, mobile penetration in Africa rose from 29% to 69% in the past five years.
“This growth has been driven by the issue of new licences: the average number of GSM [global system for mobile communications] licences in African countries is 3.8 per country, and at least 13 countries have four or more GSM operators,” the report said.
In many African countries, it is common for regulators to fine operators that have not reached the network quality target.
MTN, for example, was fined 90million naira (about R5.7-million) in March for poor service quality in December. In Zambia, the Information and Communication Technology Authority has taken legal action against specific mobile service providers for poor service.
But in South Africa, Icasa does not fine the operators that do not meet the targets.
However, Icasa told Business Times that steps “will be taken against operators who fail to meet the required standards” once it has finalised the methodology for measuring service quality.
Icasa spokesman Paseka Maleka said: “There are fines imposed on operators for failing to meet the standards, but it has been difficult to enforce them due to disagreements in the methodologies used to make conclusions in relation to quality of service, hence engagements are under way to sort the matter out. Icasa continues to publish the quality of service reports to identify shortcomings in the networks and to allow consumers choice of the best networks.”
But operators have questioned the methods used in the study.
Cell C, which came out the worst, said it was not “given an opportunity to comment on the testing methodology used by Icasa or the results” before publication.
“We are, however, engaging with Icasa regarding the testing methodology used by them to ensure that their results accurately reflect our network performance going forward,” said a spokesman.
Cell C also said it had “taken note of the network issues raised in the Icasa report. In some cases, there are issues beyond the company’s control, such as lack of seamless handover when using national roaming, which we are addressing with Vodacom and Icasa.”
Eben Albertyn, chief technology officer at MTN South Africa, also said they were working with Icasa to refine the testing methodology.
“It is vital to state that the tests conducted in this report were completed within a short space of time. They were likely affected by isolated and regrettable incidents which, after being remedied, might not show in the final test results.”
Icasa’s report said: “The test methodology adopted provides a snapshot view of the operator’s quality of service, giving a realistic picture of network performance from a user’s point of view.”