The Communications Regulatory Authority (CRA) on Saturday said its audit of mobile networks was not aimed at identifying the best network or doing a comparison between the service providers.
The CRA recently published the findings of an extensive audit of mobile networks, conducted from May to December 2017 to benchmark the coverage of 2G, 3G and 4G networks in Qatar and the quality of service (QoS) levels offered by Ooredoo and Vodafone Qatar.
The audit was conducted in accordance with the CRA’s regulatory powers mentioned in Amiri Decree No.42 of 2014, the authority said in a statement yesterday.
“The CRA notes what has been published recently by the service providers on different media channels and platforms. In light of this, the CRA affirms that the main and only objective of the audit is to ensure that the QoS levels provided by the service providers in Qatar is consistent with the standards and conditions of the licences granted to them and with the applicable regulatory framework,” the statement noted.
The audit benchmarked some of the key performance indicators (KPIs) of the services, such as voice calls, short message service and data service offered by the service providers.
The CRA stressed that the “audit was not conducted to identify the best network or do a comparison between the service providers”. It also noted that the audit’s findings should not be used for any purpose that does not serve the required value of the report, such as promoting the best service provider or taking parts of the report in a way that it may abuse another service provider or to be used for promotional purposes that may be misleading or inaccurate.
To complete the audit, the authority used state-of-the-art measurement tools with the latest post-processing software, devices and smartphones installed on dedicated monitoring vehicles, which are centrally monitored and controlled from CRA’s National Monitoring Centre.
The CRA has said it will continue to monitor the network performance of both service providers on a regular basis in the coming years, and is currently in the process of developing a robust QoS framework that will ensure that the services provided to consumers in Qatar are among the best in the world.
The framework will include certain KPIs to ensure the provision of high-quality and reliable telecommunications services to the people of Qatar and that the service providers are in compliance with the regulatory framework.
