Cellular mobile operators (CMOs) partially met the key performance indicators (KPIs) set in their licenses and the applicable regulations with respect to voice services, webpage loading, and latency, as revealed by an independent survey on quality of service (QoS) conducted by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA).
The PTA carried out an independent Quality of Service (QoS) survey in 23 cities of Pakistan during the 2nd quarter of 2024. During the survey, the performance of CMOs was assessed in accordance with the Cellular Mobile Network Quality of Service (QoS) Regulations 2021.
The PTA also conducted an independent QoS survey in 16 cities of Pakistan during the 1st quarter of 2024.
The survey drive involved approximately 4000 kilometers of travel per CMO over 83 days to cover the maximum areas of the surveyed cities. During the survey, 0.38 million tests of mobile broadband and 57,500 calls and SMS tests were conducted.
Quality of Service tests were conducted in the areas of voice, mobile broadband (i.e., data in auto mode, data via Ookla, latency via Ookla, and web browsing), and short messaging service (SMS).
During the survey, while conducting data tests in technology auto-detect mode, 4G/LTE signal strength samples were recorded on survey routes. CMOs partially met the KPI, but no operator was compliant in all the surveyed areas.
3G signal strength samples were also recorded on survey routes wherever the network switched to 3G while keeping the mobile handset in technology auto-detect mode. CMOs partially met the KPI, but no operator was compliant in all the surveyed areas.
Latency is a vital indicator of mobile broadband performance as user experience is highly dependent on it. During the survey, network latency was measured by calculating the ping between different websites and Ookla Speed Test servers. However, all four operators missed the KPI and were found non-compliant in most cases.
Web page loading times for different national and international websites were tested, and not a single operator was found compliant in all the surveyed areas. The operators partially met the KPI.
A total of 28,837 call attempts were made, out of which 537 were failed attempts. In 28,300 successful call attempts, 233 calls dropped before completing two minutes, whereas 28,067 calls remained connected for the full duration of two minutes. The five QoS KPIs (i.e., network accessibility, call setup success rate, call setup time, call completion rate, and mean opinion score) were measured while testing voice services in the surveyed cities. The operators partially met the KPI.
A total of 28,713 SMS sending attempts were conducted, out of which 28,626 SMS were successfully transmitted by A-Party, while 28,310 SMS were successfully received at B-Party. The two SMS QoS KPIs (i.e., success rate and delivery time) were measured while testing SMS services in the surveyed cities. The operators partially met the KPI.
In the categorization of CMOs in mobile network coverage, i.e., signal strength of 4G/LTE and 3G networks (in case of fallback) measured in technology auto-detect mode, Ufone was found to be in 1st position, Zong second, Jazz third, and Telenor fourth.
Jazz stands first with respect to download data throughput, Zong second, Ufone third, and Telenor fourth.
Zong stands first in upload data throughput, Jazz second, Telenor third, and Ufone fourth.
Telenor stands first with respect to the categorization of each CMO, as per the maximum compliance of cities in terms of latency, Zong second, Jazz third, and Ufone fourth.
