3G and 4G services cross minimum speed threshold

Signal strength leaves much to be desired, reveals PTA’s quality of service survey

KARACHI:

All cellular mobile operators (CMOs) exceeded the minimum threshold speeds for their third-generation (3G) and 4G services with significant margins, but none of them was able to meet the minimum signal strength, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority revealed in its first quality of service (QoS) survey for mobile broadband technology on Friday.

According to the QoS survey, all five CMOs boasted more than 1 megabit per second (Mbps) download speed in both hyper-text transfer protocol (HTTP) and file transfer protocol (FTP).



However, none of the five operators was able to produce signal strength of 100 dBm, the minimum threshold for signal power set by the regulator, show survey results - dBm is shorthand for power in decibel relative to 1 milliwatt, measuring the signal strength for telecom network in this case.

Expert’s opinion

The weak signal, according to Information and Communications Technology expert Parvez Iftikhar, reflects that either the point of sample was away from mobile tower or the number of users on that particular cell site was very high - the higher the number of users per site the weaker the signal.

Iftikhar said this might be an indication that there is a need for new cell site in that particular vicinity.

The PTA had been waiting for the CMOs to complete the initial phase of 3G rollout before it could conduct its first QoS survey of next-generation mobile networks. The cellular service providers were supposed to ensure at least 20% coverage of a minimum five cities including federal and provincial capitals by January 2015 - the industry’s deadline for first phase of rollout obligations.

The purpose of the QoS survey is to monitor licensed key performance indicators (KPIs) - network downtime, user data throughput (download speed), signal strength and service accessibility to name a few - of 3G and 4G networks to ensure that quality standards are met and users get the services at anticipated quality standards.

While the PTA’s official survey was delayed, cellular service consumers who had been waiting for 3G technology for years expressed lack of satisfaction regarding their networks’ speed.

Consumer response

According to a recent poll by ProPakistani - Pakistan’s most popular blog for IT and Telecom news - only a quarter of 5,440 respondents expressed satisfaction with their network speeds.

Of the total participants, 2,355 or 43% said they were not satisfied with the speed at all; 1,768 or 32.5% said they were somewhat satisfied and 1,317 or 24% said they were pleased with the speed, according to the poll.

DESIGN: NABEEL AHMED

Though industry experts say Pakistan is still in the early phase of 3G rollout and it will take a while before the quality of service and user experience can be improved, they insist lack of spectrum is also a problem.

In many countries regulators offer up to 40 megahertz (MHz) per operator for 3G services while in Pakistan operators were offered 5 MHz and 10 MHz only, say critics. The government should bring more spectrum and auction it to the CMOs to cater to the growing demand for mobile broadband, they say.

The country now boasts almost 16 million 3G and 4G users, up 220% from 5 million of July, 2015.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 10^th, 2015.

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