The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) on Sunday launched a state-of-the-art benchmarking system to strengthen the commission's capacity to monitor quality of service (QoS) of Mobile Network Operators (MNOs).
German electronic capital goods firm Rohde & Schwarz installed the system.
Post and Telecommunications Minister Mustafa Jabbar inaugurated the system at BTRC office.
The benchmarking system includes modular Benchmarker II systems and R and S Freerider 4 backpacks for in-field data collection.
In addition, its Smart Monitor solution supports remote data collection management and visualisation, and Smart Analytics provides deep data analytics and reporting based on the QoE centric network performance score (NPS).
BTRC was earlier dependent on only one set of equipment to check the service quality of patrons. The equipment purchased in 2016 is naturally not suitable for current needs.
Therefore, BTRC has purchased this high-tech benchmarking equipment to continuously and quickly check the quality of service outside or inside the country.
The control organisation has already trained the manpower in the experimental use of these machines and their operation.
Speaking at the inaugural programme, Mustafa Jabbar said even though the spectrum was auctioned in 2018, the mobile operators could not fully roll out it in 2022.
"Operators have been instructed to roll out that wave by 2022," he said.
The minister also mentioned that the steps taken by BTRC for customer satisfaction are milestone for developing countries.
He said customer growth is a temporary business tool, while customer satisfaction is important for long-term and sustainable business.
"In this era of changing technology, if service quality is not looked at, it will be difficult to keep hold of customers," he said adding that customers can change operators with the service of MNP.
The BTRC a year ago conducted a six-month drive test in 300 upazilas across the country to measure the quality of services of the mobile operators.
According to the BTRC policy, an operator's call success rate should be 97 per cent or more, call drop should be less than 2.0 per cent, and call setup time should be completed within seven seconds.
Besides, the minimum speed of 3G data should be 2.0 megabits per second (mbps) and that of 4G data should be 7.0 mbps.
The regulator came up with the decision to install QoS benchmarking system against the backdrop of severe problems related with call drop and poor mobile services in the country, as it received around 6,00,000 complaints in 2020.
The test will produce monthly reports, and the companies concerned will be notified if they cannot meet the service quality standard set by the commission.
In a QoS test, the BTRC sets parameters for assessing call quality, call drop rates, connection times, and upload and download speeds of 4G internet for serving the clients better.
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