Telecom authority NTA has released its latest report on mobile voice and data quality services for Kathmandu. The drive test report shows Ntc and Ncell standing out in Voice and data services.
The test was conducted from June 26th to July 6th (Ashar 12 – 22) in Tangal, Handigaun, Sano Gaucharan, Bauddha, Chabahil, Gaurighat, etc., and roads connected to those areas inside Kathmandu.
The Voice and data service quality of all three telcos in Nepal – Nepal Telecom (NTC), Ncell, and Smart Cell were tested.
While previous reports have shown Nepali telcos failing to provide quality services, the latest result marginally shows Ntc and Ncell succeeding in voice and data service quality. NTA regularly conducts drive tests to analyze the mobile services provided by all mobile network operators in Nepal.
NTA report on voice service in Kathmandu
In the latest drive test for voice service, Ncell Axiata came out on top of the operators. The private telco recorded a 100% Call Setup Success rate against the NTA threshold of 99.99%. But the telco couldn’t maintain its success in the other vital indicator. It registered 5.13 seconds for Call Setup Time against the NTA threshold of below 5 seconds.
Similarly, Nepal Telecom (NTC) fell slightly behind in voice performance indicators. The report showed the operator achieving a 95.71% of call Setup Success rate. Meanwhile, the Call Setup Time on the Ntc network stood at 7.27 against the threshold of 5 seconds. The drive test made the report on the basis of 70 call attempts.
Smart Cell’s Call Setup Success rate stood at 94.52% which is just below Ntc. But it fell further short of Call Setup Time by 9.3 seconds.
All the telcos maintained a perfect Call Drop Rate performance.
| NTA Drive Test Performance Indicators (Voice) | NTA preferred Range | Ntc | Ncell | Smart Cell |
| Call Setup Success rate (%) | >=99.99% | 95.71 | 100 | 94.52 |
| Call Setup Time (seconds) | <=5 sec | 7.27 | 5.13 | 9.3 |
| Call Drop Rate (%) | <=2 % | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Also see: NTA’s Mobile Service Quality Report Shows Dismal Performance
Report on mobile data service
Ntc has come top on mobile data service. The network came with 90.8 ms on Ping 32 bytes Round Trip Time. Ncell and Smart Cell also recorded 195.89 ms and 172.93 ms respectively, both within the threshold of 250 ms.
Ntc also maintained a good 90% HTTP Browsing Display Success Rate ahead of Ncell and Smart Cell which recorded 85.71% and 75.76% respectively. More in the table below.
| NTA Drive Test Performance Indicators (Data) | Ntc | Ncell | Smart Cell |
| Ping 32 bytes RTT (Round Trip Time) (ms) | 90.8 | 195.89 | 172.93 |
| HTTP Browsing Display Success Rate (%) | 90 | 85.71 | 75.76 |
| Average HTTP Browsing Delay (s) | 32.34 | 41.5 | 35.03 |
Despite Ntc, and Ncell making a slight improvement in a few performance indicators for voice and data, the overall service quality still falls short of the desired parameters by NTA.
Check out: NTA to monitor mobile service quality with an integrated system
How is the voice and data performance in your area? Is the report here also indicative of what you get on your phone? Kindly share in the comments below.
