The quality of telecommunication services offered by mobile network operators have improved in seven states out of 26 states with poor communications standards, a latest data on quality of service from Nigeria Communications Commission has shown.

The PUNCH had reported last year that poor quality of telecoms services were being rendered by MNOs in 26 states as of May 2019.

The affected states, according to the May QoS report were Bauchi, Benue, Ekiti, Gombe, Jigawa, Kano, Katsina, Kwara, Nasarawa, Niger, Ondo, Osun, Oyo, Plateau, Sokoto, Taraba, Yobe and Zamfara states.

Others were Adamawa, Borno, Delta, Edo, Kebbi, Bayelsa, Kano and Ogun states.

However, NCC data showed that the network operators had been able to meet the four quality parameters and improved communication standards in seven states, five months after, namely: Bayelsa, Benue, Jigawa, Kano, Kwara, Ogun and Oyo states.

Meanwhile, the October 2019 report showed that 19 states were still affected by inadequate communications services.

The report revealed that MTN met all the quality of service standards in all the 36 states and the FCT while Airtel met all the required Key Performance Indicators in 35 states and the FCT.

The data indicated that Globacom and Airtel fell short of the three major Key Performance Indicators – Dropped Call Rate, Call Setup Success Rate and Standalone Dedicated Control Channel Congestion Rate.

Analysis of the Quality of Service report from NCC showed that subscribers experienced dropped calls in 15 states out of the 36 states and Federal Capital Territory in October this year.

The NCC described a dropped call as a call that is prematurely terminated before being released normally by either the caller or the called party and has a performance threshold of less than or equal to one per cent.

Another Key Performance Indicator is the CSSR, which is the fraction of the attempts to make a call that resulted in a connection to the dialed number.

According to the statistics, the telcos failed to meet this parameter in eight states.

The failure to meet the stipulated SDDCH congestion rate, which is the probability of failure of accessing a stand-alone dedicated control channel during call setup also affected subscribers in eight states.

Also, the TCCH, which is the probability of failure of accessing a traffic channel during call setup affected subscribers in one state.

Specifically, the statistics indicated that Globacom did not meet the performance metrics for Dropped Call Rate in Adamawa, Borno, Katsina, Kebbi, Plateau, Sokoto and Taraba and Yobe.

Globacom also did not meet the performance metrics for the CSSR in six states – Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Kebbi, Plateau and Taraba.

Based on the SDDCH congestion rate parameter, Globacom failed to meet the performance indicators in seven states – Bauchi, Borno, Kaduna, Kebbi, Niger, Plateau and Taraba states.

Globacom, however, met the stipulated KPI for TCCH across the country.

According to NCC statistics, 9mobile subscribers experienced dropped calls in Delta, Edo, Ekiti, Kebbi, Nasarawa, Ondo, Osun, Sokoto, Yobe and Zamfara states in October.

For the CSSR indicator, 9mobile was unable to meet the KPI in two states.

The affected states are Kebbi and Sokoto states.

The NCC statistics indicated that Airtel could not meet the KPI for Dropped Calls in Ekiti State only.

Speaking on the telco’s quality of service, the President, National Association of Telecoms Subscribers, Adeolu Ogunbanjo, said that he observed that most operators were not keeping to the call setup success rate metrics.

“Within the first five seconds, a dialled number should have started ringing at the other end but that does not happen often. Also, when you’re talking you hear a voice telling you that you have insufficient airtime despite having sufficient credit balance,” he said.

Ogunbanjo urged the NCC to take necessary action against the telcos as enough warning had been issued to them already.