BTRC plans QoS drive

The telecoms regulator is planning to run a drive test in 12,000 kilometres countrywide in six months to measure the quality of telecommunication services.
The quality of service (QoS) test will begin later this month.
The test will be run in all divisions, said Brig Gen Md Ehsanul Kabir, director general (engineering and operations division) of Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) on Thursday.
"We purchased some equipment and services to run QoS tests across the country to check the services provided by mobile phone operators," he cited.

"We've already identified the spots for the drive test which would cover the entire networks of the country."
The test will produce reports monthly and we'll ask telecoms operators to improve their network quality and services accordingly," Mr Kabir mentioned.
Earlier, the BTRC did QoS tests on a limited scale.
The BTRC came up with the decision against the backdrop of a massive problem of call drops and poor quality of services in the country.
Over the past two years, network towers could not be installed due to tower-sharing guideline complexities and 10-million new subscribers were added, bringing intense pressure on networks.
But the telcos did not invest much to improve service quality against this massive rise of new subscribers.
BTRC chairman Shyam Sunder Sikder said the regulator has received 550,000 complaints in 11 months of 2020.
The telecoms carriers' quality of services is quite bad in Bangladesh, he commented.
Mr Sikder said such huge amounts of complaints prove that the services are poor and clients are really irritated about it.
He said the operators were recently warned of facing stern action unless they improve services.
In a QoS test, the BTRC set new parameters for assessing call quality, call drop rates, connection times, uplink and downlink speeds of 4G internet for better serving the clients.
Last February, the regulator invited applications from interested firms to carry out the nationwide QoS drive.
It has already appointed a firm to run the tests.
In 2019, the BTRC conducted a test drive in Dhaka and Barishal to assess the quality of 4G internet service as per the BTRC benchmark of 7.0 Mbps download speed.
All the four cellphone operators were found providing 4G services below the BTRC benchmark.
In Dhaka, Grameenphone and Robi met the benchmark while Banglalink was providing service at 6.49 Mbps and Teletalk at 4.85 Mbps.
In Barishal, all the four failed to meet the 4G internet speed as per the BTRC benchmark.
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