Call drop: Highest in Smart, least in Ncell

Kathmandu , May 17th 2019

A recent study report of Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) has found that call drop, a major problem among different telecommunication networks, is highest in the network of Smart Telecom and lowest in that of Ncell.

The NTA report titled ‘Report on Quality Test (Drive Test) of Mobile Services’ has found that there is no call drop problem in the network of Ncell, while call drop in the network of Smart Telecom is 3.26 per cent, which is the highest among the mobile networks that had been surveyed.

Call drop in the telecommunication sector refers to cut off in phone connections before users themselves hang up phone calls. The telecommunication sector regulator has set a threshold for call drop rate at two per cent or less.

The report is based on mobile service test carried out by the telecommunication sector regulator among mobile networks of Nepal Telecom, Ncell and Smart Telecom in Lalitpur in the months of March and April.

As per the report, call drop in the network of Nepal Telecom is 1.54 per cent.

Similarly, the report shows that all the aforementioned telecom firms have failed to maintain the minimum call set up time and call success rate in their networks as set by NTA.

The NTA set threshold for call set up time at five seconds or less, whereas the threshold for the call set up success rate is 99 per cent.

However, the call set up time in the network of Nepal Telecom in Lalitpur area was recorded at 11.53 seconds, or call success rate of 92.86 per cent.

Similarly, the call set up time in the network of Ncell was found to be 7.68 seconds, or call success rate of 94.74 per cent. Likewise, the call set up time of Smart Telecom was 12.01 seconds — the highest — or call success rate was recorded at 87.62 per cent.

NTA’s threshold for call set up success rate of 99 per cent means that at least 99 out of every 100 calls made by users must be connected in the first attempt. But none of the country’s three major telecom service providers has been able to meet this standard, shows the study conducted by the NTA in Lalitpur.

Earlier, NTA had also conducted a similar survey among networks of telecom firms in Kathmandu, which had shown that the voice and data services provided by domestic telecom companies are not up to the standard of the telecom sector regulator, as network problems have hit call success rate and data download speed.

It is to be noted that though it has been almost a year that NTA made it mandatory for telecom companies to compensate their customers for faulty services, telecom operators are yet to implement this compensatory provision.

Min Prasad Aryal, spokesperson for NTA, said that the authority has directed telecom firms to improve their mobile services. Regarding the compensatory provision for faulty telecom services, Aryal informed that it will be implemented in the near future after necessary discussions with telecom service providers.

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