NTA publishes the latest quality of service of Mobile networks in Nepal

NTA has published the Quality of service of the mobile service providers, Ntc, Ncell, and Smart Telecom in some areas. The regulator had performed a drive test for the different areas on the month of Poush and Magh. The results are based on the analysis of the same drive test of the mobile operators (wherever available). Find the details of the Mobile network quality test performed by NTA below.

This is the second time NTA performed the drive test and published the report. Find the report of the first drive test here. This time, they visited different routes in Bhaktapur city, Pokhara city, Baglunj bazar and Prithvi Highway (Kathmandu to Kaski).

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Drive Test

Drive test is a method in which testing tools (mostly mobile handsets) mounted on a moving vehicle collect some metrics of the cellular network by repeatedly making voice or data calls. They performed the measurement of all the mobile service providers (wherever available) at the location at the same time. They configure the Drive test tools in such a way that the testing tools select the mobile network (2G/3G/4G) for the operators as per availability.

The analysis of the measured data during the drive test provides the quality of service (QoS) report of the mobile operators. NTA published the same report in a tabular format for several areas where they performed the drive test.

Mobile network quality

From the Drive test report, NTA found the network metrics to cross the thresholds. They found a more or less similar quality of service of Nepal Telecom and Ncell. In the city areas, NTA found the better Call connection time and call drop in Ncell. Whereas HTTP Browsing delay, Ping test is better with Nepal Telecom. Nepal Telecom has a better quality mobile network in the Prithvi highway in terms of Call setup success rate, Call drop rate and Ping test.  NTA also found Smart Telecom to be the poorest among the three Telcos.

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Major parameters

NTA took the following major parameters out of the drive test, to measure the mobile network quality.

Call connection time: The time it takes to make a call which is measured in seconds. The lower the value of connection time, the better the experience of the calls to the user.

Call setup success rate: The ratio of success calls to the total no of call attempts, in percentage. Higher the value, better the experience to the user.

Call drop rate: The ratio of dropped calls to the total no of successful calls, expressed in percentage. Lesser the value of call drop rate, better the experience of the voice call.

Ping test: Ping is the time a data packet takes to travel from the user equipment to the server, expressed in mill seconds. Lower the value, better the experience of data.

Http browsing delay: The time or delay it takes to display a web page while browsing, expressed in seconds. The lower the value, the better the experience of browsing.

Download and Upload throughput: The amount of data transferred through the network in uplink and downlink in a second. Expressed in Mbps. Higher the value, better the experience of data. The latest test report finds Ncell to have the fastest mobile internet in Nepal.

Bhaktapur

Call setup success rate, call drop rate, Call connection time and download/upload speeds is found better in Ncell.

Pokhara

Call setup success rate, Ping test, Ping success rate, HTTP browsing display success rate is found better with Nepal Telecom.

Prithvi Highway (Kathmandu to Kaski)

The highway test only includes the Nepal Telecom and Ncell as Smart doesn’t have continuous signal availability there.

Call setup success rate, call drop rate, Ping test, browsing delay is better with Nepal Telecom mobile network.

Baglung bazar

For Baglung bazar, call setup success rate, ping success rate, and HTTP browsing display are better with Ncell.

Verdict

From the QoS report, most of the mobile network metrics are below the benchmarks set by NTA itself for good quality. If we compare the metrics, there is no clear winner among the Telcos either NTC or Ncell. In some metrics and areas, Ntc is found better while the same with other metrics and areas in Ncell. Smart Telecom is found the poorest as before. Ntc, Ncell has more or less similar quality of service. For the mobile network test in the highway, Ntc is found a little better for the quality of service of the Mobile network.

However, NTA puts a remark that the report presented is just a sample of the network conditions of the operators on the specified places during the period of the drive-test. NTA also indicate that the mobile network quality and condition may differ in other areas.

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