NTA to conduct quality test of telecom services

KATHMANDU, APR 29 -

The Nepal Telecommunicati-ons Authority (NTA) is preparing to conduct a fresh quality test of the wireless telecom services being provided in the country. The Quality of Service (QoS) survey will examine the services of Nepal Telecom, Ncell and United Telecom in designated areas of 11 districts in the country.

The NTA has invited expressions of interest (EoI) from interested consulting firms to conduct a “performance test and household opinion survey of the wireless telecom service” of the telecom companies. The study has been proposed in response to regular criticism

that the phone companies have

not improved the quality of their service despite repeated directives from the government.

The areas where the survey will be conducted are Kathmandu, Banepa, Birgunj, Dhangadhi, Butwal and Bhairahawa. In 2011, the government had conducted a QoS study in four major cities — Kathmandu, Pokhara, Biratnagar and Nepalgunj — by hiring an independent consultant. The study showed that service quality had not improved since the last test done in 2007. “We had directed the companies to improve their QoS last year, and this study is focused on verifying if they have done so,” said Uday Raj Regmi, deputy director of the NTA. He added that the study would be completed in three months after the agreement is signed. The quality of telecom services has been a major issue for a long time, and the NTA too has not been able

to take action against the service providers with effective regulation. Recently, the International Telecommunication Union of the UN provided technical assistance to the government to formulate an effective QoS regulation.

According to the NTA, the QoS has not improved even though telecom companies have been claiming that their service has become better. NTA officials said that problems such as call drop and service access delay had been eliminated along with a growth in the penetration rate of the companies.

Last Friday, Minister for Information and Communications Madhav Prasad Paudel directed state-owned NT to improve its service at the earliest following increased complaints. NT is planning to replace its old mobile towers in the Kathmandu valley and enhance the QoS by October. The company will replace 262 towers in the valley under this effort.

Meanwhile, the NTA is making final preparations to call global tenders for “Automatic Drive Test Equipment” to monitor the QoS of cellular phone service. “We will soon come up with a final draft to call e-tenders to buy this equipment,” said NTA director Purushottam Khanal. He added that the equipment, estimated to cost Rs 4 million, would help the authority to ascertain the QoS in a simple way.

Source: The Kathmandu Post