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Smart beats Globe in NTC service quality test

Aya Lowe

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Smart comes out on top in the NTC's latest service quality test which measured several parameters including block and drop call rates and signal strength

PASSING MARKS FOR BOTH. But Smart and Globe are warring over who performed better

MANILA, Philippines – Smart Communications Inc. has come out on top in the fourth quarter 2012 Quality of Service (QoS) benchmarking test conducted by the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC).

Smart, the mobile network of dominant telecommunications firm Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co., and rival Ayala-led Globe Telecom Inc. both passed the QoS test.

“Both Smart and Globe got passing marks in the test conducted last December, involving postpaid subscribers,” said NTC Commissioner Gamaliel Cordoba.

However, Smart performed better in all 5 parameters of the test which include the following:

1. Blocked call rate or the percentage of calls that were not given access by the network

Both telcos passed NTC’s 4% limit which required no more than 4 blocked calls for every 100 call attempts. Smart had an edge over Globe, measuring 1% against the latter’s 2%.

2. Dropped call rate or the percentage of ongoing calls that were involuntarily terminated

Both Smart and Globe passed the 2% cap imposed by the NTC. Smart ranked first with 1%, while Globe measured 1.2%.

3. Signal strength provided by the serving cell site to the mobile handset of the subscriber while a conversation was ongoing

Both networks passed the Average Signal Quality level of -85dBm. A lower grade signified better performance. Here, Smart scored -64.49dBm, while Globe registered -71.78dBm.

4. Signal quality or the quality of voice transmission during a call

The minimum acceptable range for this item was 0 to 4. The closer to 0, the better. A signal quality of 0 meant calls were not choppy or garbled. Smart again scored with 0.67, against Globe’s 0.94.

5. Call set-up time or the period from the time a subscriber finished dialing to the first ring

Call set-up time for both telecom service providers were within the acceptable industry standard of below 14 seconds. Smart however registered at 11.12 seconds, establishing an edge over Globe, which registered at 11.98 seconds.

The QoS test was conducted on Globe’s and Smart’s postpaid Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards with customers subscribed to regular services and not unlimited services. Sun SIMs, Talk and Text SIMs, Red Mobile SIMs and Touch Mobile SIMs were not used because these SIMs were sharing the networks of either Globe or Smart.

The NTC monitoring teams randomly surveyed 1,000 calls per network across all of the 16 cities and one municipality of Metro Manila.

The test was conducted for over a week in December 2012, one of the busiest seasons for the telcos because of the Christmas holidays.

Smart and Globe have been making moves to improve their signal and coverage over the last year.

Smart completed its P67-billion network modernization program, while Globe is expected to complete its $700-million upgrade in the first quarter this year. – Rappler.com

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