The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has carried out an independent Quality of Service (QoS) Survey in 12 cities and 12 motorways/highways/inter-city roads of Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Baluchistan to assess the performance and service quality of Cellular Mobile Operators.
The automated QoS Monitoring & Benchmarking Tool “SmartBenchmarker.” was utilized during the survey to check the licensed KPIs of voice, network coverage, SMS, mobile broadband/data. and 4G/LTE signal strength samples were also recorded on survey routes. The Drive test teams selected survey routes in such a manner to cover main roads, service roads, and a majority of sectors/colonies in surveyed areas.
Press Release: PTA has carried out an independent Quality of Service (QoS) Survey in 12 cities and 12 motorways/highways/inter-city roads of Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan with the aim to measure the performance and service quality of Cellular Mobile Operators (CMOs). pic.twitter.com/LytG59QIET
— PTA (@PTAofficialpk) August 3, 2021
Based upon the compliance level of each KPI as compared to the threshold defined in their respective licenses and QoS regulations, CMOs have been ranked between 1st to 4th position in each category, i.e., Mobile Network Coverage, Voice service, and SMS service in surveyed cities and motorways/highways. Similarly, in the Mobile Broadband Speed segment, the ranking is concerning the highest data download speed.
According to the survey results, available on PTA’s website, the compliance level in broadband services is better, while some problems have been observed in SMS and voice KPIs. The operators have been instructed to take corrective measures for improving the service quality up to the licensing standards. The motorways/highways /intercity roads where CMOS remained non-compliant of Network Accessibility > 99 percent include – Jazz on three, Telenor on four, Ufone on four, and Zong on three.
As per Next Generation Mobile Service (NGMS) licenses awarded, licenses are required to meet the threshold of -100dBm or above of Reference Signal Receive Power (RSRP) with a 90 percent confidence level. The motorways/highways/intercity roads where CMOS remained non-compliant of 4G/LTE RSRP Signal Strength include – Jazz on five, Telenor on eight, Ufone on seven, and Zong on seven.
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The survey activity is part of the plan for QoS Surveys 2021 and is a continuous exercise in line with Prime Minister’s, Imran Khan, vision to provide quality services to the public/subscribers. By making this survey public, PTA is inciting a contest among the operators to modify their existing infrastructure with an ultimate aim to boost the overall country-wide mobile service quality.
