SEVEN mobile phone service providers have been fined 695m/- over failure to meet quality standards of service provision set by the Tanzania Communication Regulatory Authority (TCRA).
The fine came after TCRA conducted a
quality of service (QoS) measurement between January and March, this
year, in three regions -- Dar es Salaam, Mbeya and Iringa.
The assessment dwelt on network
availability, call connection failure rate, call drop rate and call
setup time and service coverage.
TCRA Director General, Engineer James
Kilaba unveiled in Dar es Salaam, yesterday, that the authority
conducted the exercise in the course of employing its regulatory
function in every third quarter for both voice and data services from
the end user viewpoints.
And, according to the quality of
services tests results, all operators have not met some quality of
services parameters contrary to regulation 9, 10 and 11 of the
Electronic and Postal Communication (Quality of Service) regulation of
2011.
“The measurements are carried out in
fulfillment of the requirements of the regulations which aim at ensuring
all operators give their customers quality services as non compliance
to quality of service parameters is material breach of the licence
conditions,” he explained.
Eng Kilaba named the mobile phone
service providers which have been issued the fines and the amount as
Zantel (140m/-), Smart (120m/-), Tigo (120m/-), Vodacom Tz (115m/-) TTCL
(95m/-), Airtel Tz (55m/-) and Halotel (50m/-).
According to the tests performed in the
three regions, ranking them by the amount of fines imposed, Zantel leads
in offering poor services after being charged 140m/- followed by Tigo
and Smart that were charged 120m/- each and Vodacom 115m/-. At least
Halotel and Airtel were better off after being charged 50m/- and 55m-
respectively.
Apart from fining the seven service
providers, TCRA has also ordered each operator to improve the quality of
services offered in their network and ensure that its services are at
all times in compliance with the requirements of the Quality of Service
Regulations.
TCRA has as well requested all operators
to ensure continued improvement in the quality of service in the
country and that the authority will continue to carry out quality of
service tests in different service areas in each quarter.
And, to give emphasis on the matter, Eng
Kilaba said the authority will not hesitate to severely punish any
operator who will fail to comply and legal and regulatory action which
may include revoking of the operators licences will be taken.
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