NCA Publishes Quarter Two Quality of Service Monitoring Results for Five Regions New Article Page

The National Communications Authority (NCA) has published the Mobile Network Quality of Service (QoS) Monitoring Results for five regions. These results cover 96 district capitals within five (5) regions namely Central, Brong-Ahafo, Volta, Upper East and Upper West Regions that were not covered in the earlier 2018 Quarter One (Q1) monitoring. In addition, the voice quality for 28 district capitals in the Ashanti Region that were not monitored in Q1 are also included; results for only two (2) Districts were made available after Q1 monitoring for the Ashanti Region.

Service attributes monitored included coverage obligations, voice quality and data quality as stated in the Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) licence conditions and with specific Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). All MNOs are 3G Licence Holders; and are required to provide service in all 216 District Capitals. MNOs are expected to meet and exceed the KPIs stated in their licences. The number of districts covered within the second quarter monitoring totaled 96. These excludes 28 districts in the Ashanti Region where the voice quality was monitored.

KEY HIGHLIGHTS OF MONITORING

Results of 3G Coverage Obligations as at Second Quarter 2018

Summary of the results are as follows;

Table 1 – MNO 3G Coverage Obligations

MNO	MTN	AirtelTigo	Glo	Vodafone
Number of District Capitals  to Cover	96	96	96	96
Number of District Capitals Covered	96	90	18	93

Results for Voice Quality (Voice Quality and Technical Parametres)

The voice quality measurement is based on Mean Opinion Score (MOS). MOS is a quality measure that is used to assess the human user’s opinion of call quality, testing of quality of voice transmission and measuring voice degradation. The standard for measuring MOS is an ITU accepted standard. The MOS is expressed as a single number in the range 1 to 5, where 1 is lowest perceived quality, and 5 is the highest perceived quality.

Per their 3G licence conditions, MNOs are required to meet a score of minimum MOS score 3.5 for more than 95% of calls.  An example of the results is captured in Table 2 below:

Table 2 – Voice Quality (MOS) of Selected District Capitals

Region	Ashanti	Brong Ahafo	Central	Upper East	Upper West	Volta
District	Mampong	Sunyani	Cape Coast	Bolgatanga	Wa	Ho
Airtel	% of calls >3.5	76.5	37.26	67.15	82.38	61.87	37.53
Compliance Status	Fail	Fail	Fail	Fail	Fail	Fail
Tigo	% of calls >3.5	70.78	68.42	54.17	12.25	44.56	46.72
Compliance Status	Fail	Fail	Fail	Fail	Fail	Fail
Glo	% of calls >3.5	0.51	16.97	No Coverage	No Coverage	No Coverage	36.77
Compliance Status	Fail	Fail	Fail
MTN	% of calls >3.5	13.38	56.12	27.46	43.31	58.77	25.69
Compliance Status	Fail	Fail	Fail	Fail	Fail	Fail
Vodafone	% of calls >3.5	52.53	26.02	46	39	47.52	44.39
Compliance Status	Fail	Fail	Fail	Fail	Fail	Fail

To see the full MOS quality results, visit www.mos.nca.org.gh.

Results of Data Quality

NCA measures Data Drop Rate, Data Access Success Rate and Data Throughput, which determines the speed at which consumers are able to use data services.

The details of the Second Quarter 2018 QoS Monitoring results are available on our website: http://localhost/assets/Uploads/QoS_Test_Results_for_MNOs_v2.pdf

Other Highlights

AirtelTigo:

• Passed all data KPIs
• AirtelTigo met the speech quality (MOS) obligation in one (1) District Capital of the 124

Glo:

• Glo failed at least one (1) KPI in four (4) of the five (5) regions tested.
• Glo had no successful Data session in the Central Region.
• Glo failed the speech quality (MOS) obligation in all tested District Capitals.

MTN:

• MTN failed Call Setup Time in the Central Region.
• MTN met the speech quality (MOS) obligation in five (5) District Capitals out of the 124
• Passed all data KPIs

Vodafone:

• Passed all data KPIs
• Vodafone met the speech quality (MOS) obligation in four (4) District Capitals out of the 124

Regulatory Actions after Monitoring

• Based on the results, the NCA has engaged and notified Operators of the findings and relevant directives issued to improve their performance in localities monitored within three months.
• The Authority will in October conduct monitoring of the same Districts, which were monitored in Q2 to determine if the situation has been resolved or improved following which MNOs who have not resolved or improved their performance from the Q2 monitoring would be sanctioned.
• In August, the NCA will conduct another QoS Monitoring in the first five regions (i.e. Greater Accra, Ashanti, Eastern, Western and Northern Regions) to determine if the MNOs have improved their performance from the initial monitoring this year, failing which they would be sanctioned.