SMS and cellular services offered by operators are below standard, reveals PTA survey

The latest Quality of Service (QoS) survey conducted by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has revealed a damning, if somewhat unsurprising, piece of insight: services offered by cellular operators in the country are not keeping up with the license standards. 

As reported by Mashable Pakistan, the QoS survey was conducted in 12 cities and 12 motorways/highways/inter-city roads of Punjab, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan with the aim to measure the performance and service quality of Cellular Mobile Operators (CMOs). 

The statement issued by the authority said that the survey activity is part of the plan for QoS Surveys 2021 and is a continuous exercise in-line with the vision of Prime Minister of Pakistan to provide quality services to public/subscribers. 

The authority checked the licensed KPIs of voice, network coverage, SMS and mobile broadband/data, during the survey by using automated QoS Monitoring & Benchmarking Tool “SmartBenchmarker”. “The Drive test teams selected survey routes in such a manner to cover main roads, service roads and majority of sectors/colonies in surveyed areas”, the statement added.  

The authority ranked the CMOs between 1st to 4th position based upon the compliance level of each KPI as compared to the threshold defined in their respective licenses and QoS regulations. The categories in which they are ranked include Mobile Network Coverage, Voice service and SMS service in surveyed cities and motorways/highways. 

Similarly, in the Mobile Broadband Speed segment, the ranking is with respect to the highest data download speed. 

To take a closer look at the results of the survey and the rankings, head over to PTA’s official website.