ITU-MOIC-NTA Welcome to Workshop on Quality of ICT Services in Nepal
Approaches to Quality of Service Kathmandu, Nepal 21 March -2013 Sameer Sharma Senior Advisor ITU Sameer.sharma@itu,int
Agenda Project Introduction What is QOS and its importance QOS Strategies How to improve QOS in Nepal Conclusions 3
Background Many significant changes have taken place in Nepal s telecommunications sector, with the continual expansion of cellular services throughout the country. While the Government of Nepal is committed to improving the penetration of wireless services, it is in the process of formulating effective Quality of Service (QoS) regulations for the country. MOIC / NTA has sought technical assistance of International Telecommunications Union (ITU) to provide recommendations on appropriate QoS regulation in Nepal, including the preparation of draft QoS Regulations. 4
Objectives 1. Stock taking of current QoS standards, measurement techniques and enforcement procedure adopted by the Regulator and operators for different Telecommunication services. 2. Assessment of current requirements for Quality of Telecommunication Service Indicators for taking informed regulatory decisions. 3. Stocktaking of international best practices including examples from National Regulatory Authorities from the Asia Pacific Region and International Telecommunications Union. 4. Utilise previous ITU studies which included market situation in Nepal as background to the planned project to measure the quality of Telecommunication services. 5. Present case studies on how such studies on performance and quality of telecommunication services have been carried in other countries especially those with markets similar to Nepal. 6. Recommend parameters that need to be measured which can be part of Telecommunication Quality of Service Parameters for NTA. 7. Suggest (i) available tools and recommend a tool or set of tools suitable for the measurement of QoS for NTA Nepal and (ii) suitable reporting formats for measuring QoS of different Telecommunication Services and enforcement mechanisms. 8. Prepare draft QoS Regulations for NTA Nepal. 9. One day workshop for capacity building of stakeholders in Nepal on QoS best practices, indicators, reporting formats and enforcement mechanisms. 5
Deliverables Concrete deliverables for the ITU/NTA: 1. Report containing detailed outcome addressing items listed above. The report should include separate documents as applicable, such as separate draft QoS Regulations. 2. Recommended tools for measuring QoS for different telecommunications services. 3. Outline of the parameters, formats and regulations for QoS. 4. Training material for capacity building workshop on QoS. 6
Methodologies Nepal s QoS requirements Assess Nepal s current QoS framework Assess Nepal s current quality of telecommunications services Understand needs and priorities of NTA and broader sector policy Global best practice Assess regulatory best practice in Asia- Pacific and other exemplar markets Summarise QoS parameters, measurement and monitoring procedures in exemplar markets Strategic advice Develop recommendations on appropriate parameters for QoS Develop recommendations on QoS measurement, monitoring and reporting Develop recommendations on optimal approach and regulatory glide path Key outputs Prepare final report for NTA Prepare draft QoS Regulations Prepare training material for capacity building and conduct workshop 7
Timeline March 2013 Weeks 1 2 3 Mission to Kathmandu / Nepal Stocktake of Nepal s current QoS framework Assessments of Nepal s QoS requirements and quality of telecommunications services Analysis of international best practice for QoS regulation, including case studies, and analysis of available tools Recommendations on necessary QoS parameters and appropriate tools and reporting formats for NTA Nepal Draft QoS Regulations for NTA Nepal Workshop for stakeholder capacity building Collaboration with NTA and other stakeholders Draft final mission report In Country visit 18-23 March 2013 Workshop - Deliverables - 8
What is QOS and its Importance 9
QoS Definition Totality of characteristics of a telecommunications service that bear on its ability to satisfy stated and implied needs of the user of the service. (E.800) 10
Quality Objectives To maintain a basic minimum level of quality To use competition to improve quality To promote consumer choice over quality vs price To ensure quality choices are available for all groups of consumers 11
User Perception Influenced by Much More trends advertising tariffs, costs customer expectation of QoS customer satisfaction QoS (technical) QoS (non-technical) Network Performance Terminal Performance Point of Sale Customer Care 12
92% Majority feel that quality of service monitoring is required ITU ASP RO 13
Quality of service monitoring is required for what type of operators 21% ITU ASP RO 14
Quality of Service monitoring is required for what type of services ITU ASP RO 15
How countries are measuring quality of service? 16
Quality of Service Strategies ITU ASP RO 17
A snapshot of global ICT development Why mobile QoS is important? Source: ITU World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators database 18
Quality of Service Framework License Regulation KPI Measurement Techniques Monitoring Survey Enforcement Periodical Review 19
Quality of Service Framework Standards License Regulation KPI Measurement Techniques Monitoring Survey Enforcement Standards e.g. ITU, ETSI, National Standards, Industry Standards, Other standardization bodies License condition e.g. India, Pakistan, France Regulation e.g. India, Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapore, Tanzania Industry guidelines e.g. Australia Technical e.g. Call drop, call success rate, connection speed, SMS quality Customer focused e.g. Billing accuracy, fault Guideline e.g. Measurement methods Technical e.g. Network auditing, drive tests Customer survey e.g. Network auditing, drive tests Regulatory notice e.g. Website, Press release, Directive Publication e.g. Website, newspaper Penalty Dispute 20
QoS Report Dec 2012 NTA 21
Operators Perspective -I Long lead times for lines? Poor speech quality on fixed? Poor speech quality on mobile? Long fault repair times? Network unreliability - outages? Poor call centres? Understand what is wrong and what needs to be done 22
Operators Perspective -II Does top management understand the customer needs? Does top management sample the service offered to customers, eg call their own call centres? Does top management listen to the people who meet customers? Do staff report problems upwards? Do staff propose better solutions to problems? Do telcos continually innovate to improve their service? 23
Service Level Agreements Considered highly important Indication of the level that the supplier aims to achieve Only tangible benefit if there is compensation for failure Is the compensation a token or a rebalancing of the failure A token at least imposes some incentive to perform Tokens are noticed by management 24
Reporting Requirements Reporting to regulator Reporting to customers = publication by regulator Publication of comparative tables by regulator or press? Press has a role in promoting quality Do you need separate reporting for different geographical areas, or for cities and rest of country? Do you need to consider typical performance (centre of distribution) or extreme performance (tail of distribution)? How frequently should results be reported? 25
Penalties Payable to regulator (fines) or to affected customer? Who pays the penalty? Shareholders or other subscribers? - there is no one else! If the operator has little capital and needs to invest, do penalties help or hinder? Penalty to regulator can be based on average performance Compensation to customer needs pass/fail criterion 26
QOS Management by TRAI: India Purpose - To meet License Condition; - To discharge the functions under TRAI Act 1997; - To create conditions for customer satisfaction by making known the quality of service which the service provider is required to provide and the user has a right to expect; - To measure the Quality of Service provided by the Service Providers from time to time and to compare them with the benchmarks so as to assess the level of performance; and - To generally protect the interests of consumers of telecommunication services, Consumer Awareness Customer Perception (Independent Survey) Quality of Service Parameters (Submitted to the Authority) Mobile Quality of Service Record Keeping, Reporting and Auditing Quality of Service Parameters (Monitored by Service Providers) Publishing and Enforcement Customer Disputes
Sri Lanka: Download Speed Test for 3G Mobile Broadband Operator Monthly Monthly Rental Data Volume AIRTEL 600 3GB FUP NO DIALOG MOBILE 2,990 15GB YES MOBITEL 1,290 8GB NO Advertised Bandwidth Excess data will be Speed Up t0 3.6Mbps billed PER/MB Excess data will not be billed Will not be reduced Speed will be reduced Based on the tower This capacity will depend on the area or the tower Up to 3.6Mbps Based on the tower This capacity will depend on the area or the tower Excess data will be billed Speed Up to 3.6Mbps ETISALAT 1.5 12GB NO PER/MB Will not be reduced Based on the tower This capacity will depend on the area or the tower Excess data will be billed Speed Up to 7.2Mbps http://www.trc.gov.lk/broadband/236- broadband-speed-test-results-october- 2011.html PER/MB Will not be reduced Based on the tower This capacity will depend on the area or the tower
How to Improve QOS in Nepal? 29
Steps to Regulate QoS in Nepal Select parameters for reporting Results should be published Decide whether to set targets now or possibly later can increase target level over time Decide whether to have penalties if targets are not met what form of penalty is best? Review other measures that improve quality eg requirements on transparency 30
Steps to Regulate QoS in Nepal-II Separately for PSTN, mobile, broadband Internet Key considerations Is it of high importance AND high risk of poor performance? Can it be defined clearly for nearly all customer situations? Can it be measured accurately and easily at low cost? Consumer awareness & empowerment Regular Press Release in easy to understand form 31
Conclusions QOS is a real challenge faced by consumers in Nepal especially for mobile services! Concerted efforts both from NTA and operators are required to improve the quality of service NTA needs to establish a complete framework for ensuring Quality of Service :Standards /measurements /enforcement /regular press releases/ Strengthen consumer awareness and customer grievance redressal mechanisms Create incentives for good quality and disincentives for poor quality Call for NTA for ACTION! 32
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