Communications Authority has warned Telecommunications companies Telkom and Airtel over substandard services noncompliance with the Quality of service (QoS) to consumers on their network. According to the communications Authority, the two telcos failed to meet their targets on coverage and Unsuccessful call ratio among others.
On the Key Performance Indicators, Communications Authority focused on Volume; Unsuccessful call ratio. Dropped call ratio Call set up time and Voice quality. SMS; Successful SMS Ratio Completion Rate for SMS End-to-end delivery time for SMS and Data.
Under the Data Internet Key Performance Indicators, Internet availability, accessibility and coverage also came up as some of the targets not reached. The report goes further to highlight Latency (delays and buffering), Data transfer failure ratio-Throughput of successful data transfer, HTTP set-up failure ratio and HTTP setup time, HTTP Completion Failure Ratio and HTTP Completion Time, as well as HTTP generic scenario availability.
Airtel Kenya Networks and Telkom Kenya failed to not only meet their coverage targets but also a number of the most critical QoS KPIs, particularly the âUnsuccessful Call Ratioâ and Data Internet KPIs, which are indicators for coverage and internet availability/accessibility, respectively. Ageing Base transceiver stations (BTSs) and sparse deployment of BTS are most likely the major contributing factor to the failure of Airtel and Telkom Kenya to meet the KPI thresholds. The two operators showed good performance in urbanized areas while having below-average coverage in rural areas and far-flung areas.
The Authority also surveyed the consumer experience while using the mobile networks in the country to ascertain their satisfaction level with mobile communication services. Under subscription level, Telkom scored 9.9%, Airtel 24.2% and Safaricom 64.9%. pertaining Connectivity challenges, Telkom, Airtel and Safaricom recorded 20.2%, 16.8%, and 7.9% respectively. The overall Consumer rating for the three mobile networks according to the report indicated that Safaricom led with 89.4%, Airtel following with 87.2% and Telkom at 84.8%.
The report further revealed that the County with the best QoS is Nairobi, scoring 93.9 per cent, while the County with the lowest QoS is Laikipia, at 54 per cent. The Authority had targeted conducting the QoS inspection and monitoring in all 47 counties; however, due to insecurity, the Authority did not conduct the QoS tests in Wajir, Mandera, and Garissa counties.
These scientific measurements and analyses are aimed at providing a broader view of the quality of service offered by mobile service providers. Section 23 of the Kenya Information and Communications Act, 1998, mandates the Authority to ensure that licensed telecommunications operators and service providers offer good quality services in line with the license conditions.