IDT_ _short Final- 15102015 Comp

7/25/2019 IDT_ _short Final- 15102015 Comp

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Comparative Analysis of Network Performance of the Telecom

Service Providersin Mumbai and Delhi

Background

1.TRAI is regularly monitoring the performance of Telecom Service Providers (TSP)

against the benchmarks for the various Quality of Service (QoS) parameters laid down

by the Authority. TSPs submit Performance Monitoring Reports to TRAI every quarter.

2.TRAI also undertakes audit and assessment of Quality of Service through independent

agencies to verify the Quality of Service claimed. The Audit agencies conduct sample

Drive tests across various cities all over the country as part of audit and assessment

of the TSPs performance. The audit reports of these agencies are published on thewebsite of TRAI.

3.In view of complaints on call drops and other network issues, on behalf of TRAI, an

independent Drive Test (IDT)was conducted and uploaded in the website, on

a.23rdand 24thJune 2015 covering various locations in South and Central

Mumbai. The performance of Idea, Airtel, Vodafone, Reliance (GSM),

Aircel& Tata(GSM) was monitored;

b.9thto 11thJuly 2015 covering various locations in South Delhi, Central

Delhi and West Delhi. The performance of Idea, Airtel, Vodafone, Reliance

(GSM), Aircel & Tata (CDMA) was monitored.

4.Subsequently another independent drive test was conducted in the same route on 27th

and 28thSeptember 2015 to assess the improvements in the network quality. The route

was defined on the basis of several factors that include - areas from where call drop

complaints are commonly received; areas of heavy usage; residential areas away from

arterial roads; office areas; areas where previous Drive tests showed network issues;

etc.

5.A team from the TRAI HQ was present for these Drive tests during these days.For thepurpose of these tests, only2GBTSwere covered.

6.The test results obtained from thesedrive testswere conducted to assess the network

condition more specifically in terms of Radio Frequency (RF)Coverage; Rx Quality; Call

setup success rate; call drop rate, voice quality; blocked call and Carrier to

Interference ratio.However some of the important parameters are compared below.

IDT Report

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Target Network in Mumbai:

1.Total 6 Operators were benchmarked which is shown as below:

General information about the network of the cellular mobile service providers:

Operator Technology Band (MHz) BTS Count Subscribers*

(Prepaid +

Postpaid)

Subscribers

/ BTS

Idea GSM 1800 3477 4010062 1153

Airtel GSM 900 & 1800 4025 4700857 1168

Vodafone GSM 900 & 1800 4543 8609116 1895

Reliance

(GSM)GSM 1800 2178 2780944 1277

Aircel GSM 1800 1869 2536925 1357

Tata(GSM) GSM 1800 2887 2851020 988

*Subscriber and BTS count details of Mumbai circle are taken from QoS audit data (QE June

2015).

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Ghatkopar

Govandi Station Rd

Peddar Road

Navy Nagar Colaba

3

Drive Test Route

2.The total Drive test route covered over the two days was approximately300 kms.

Major areas covered includedColaba, Churchgate, Andheri, Malad, Ghatkopar,

Lokhandwala & Juhu. The map below depicts the route that was followed during the

Mumbai Drive test.

A.RFCoveragerate

3.Radio Frequency (RF) Coverage relates to the geographical footprint within an area that

has sufficient RF signal strength to allow for a call/data session. The RF Coverage rate of

an operator is calculated on the basis of % of samples in which the receive level (Rx) is

better than-85 dbmat street level. The test results obtained in Mumbai on the drive

test route (approx. 300 km) are as follows:

IDT Report

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KPI Aircel Idea Vodafone Airtel Reliance(GSM) Tata (GSM)

Coverage %

(Sep-15)

90.02% 95.00% 88.65% 91.10% 87.30% 94.92%

Coverage %

(Jun-15)93.63% 95.40% 91.08% 95.13% 89.49% 97.07%

4.As per the drive test report, the coverage along the selected route ofall the

operatorsdropped during this period, but was found to be satisfactory.

B.Accessibility

5.Accessibilityis the ability of a user to obtain the requested service from the network.

6.Accessibility is monitored by measuring the Call Setup Success Rate (CSSR).The

CSSR is defined as the ratio of Established Calls to number of Call Attempts.

When a user A initiates a call to user B in the same network, a Stand Alone

Dedicated Control Channel (SDCCH)is allocated for setting up the call. Once the

call is setup, a Traffic Channel(TCH) is allocated for the call. Non availability of

control channel or traffic channel will lead to congestion which is measuredthrough the SDCCH congestion and the TCH congestion.The SDCCH congestion

and TCH congestion are monitored through the Blocked Call rate parameter in the

Drive test.

7.TRAI has laid down the QoS benchmarks forCSSR >95%; SDCCH congestion at

1% and TCH congestion at 2%respectively [theblocked call rate at 3%].The test

results obtained are as follows:

Operator BlockedCall Rate

(%) [June

2015]

CSSR (%)[June

2015]

BlockedCall Rate

(%) [Sept

2015]

CSSR (%)[Sept

2015]

Aircel 4.36% 95.64% 4.63% 95.37%

Airtel 3.02% 96.98% 3.02% 96.98%

Idea 10.00% 90.00% 2.19% 97.81%

IDT Report

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Reliance (GSM) 31.13% 68.87% 7.44% 92.56%

Tata(GSM) 4.58% 95.42% 4.84% 95.16%

Vodafone 3.93% 96.07% 2.61% 97.39%

8.As per the drive test report,most of the operatorshave shown improvement inQoS

benchmark for blocked call rate.M/s Reliance, M/s Tata and M/s Aircel are having

relatively higher blocked call rate.

C. Retainability

9.Retainability is the ability of a service, once obtained, to continue to be provided under

given conditions for a requested duration.During the Drive test,Retainability is

measured by making a call from user A to user B and after the call is successfully

setup, holding the call for a duration of 90 sec/ 120 sec. If the call drops during this

period it is considered to be a dropped call. The Call Drop Rate (CDR) parameter gives

a reliable measure of the ability of the mobile network to maintain a call once it has

been correctly established.TRAI has laid down the QoS benchmarks forcall drop

rate to be less than2%.The test results obtained for this parameter are:

Operator Call Drop Rate%

[June 2015]

Call Drop Rate%

[Sept 2015]

Aircel 3.19% 2.94%

Airtel 0.97% 2.68%Idea 5.56% 2.64%

Reliance (GSM) 2.29% 3.24%

Tata (GSM) 5.51% 5.47%

Vodafone 4.83% 5.51%

10. As per the drive test report,nooperator is meeting the prescribed

benchmark. However there is marginal improvement in the performance of some

of the operators.

D. Rx Quality

11.For measuring voice quality, Rx Qual samples on a scale from 0 to 7 for GSM operators

are measured. As per the TRAI QoS norms, Rx Qual between 0- 5 for GSM operators

is considered to be good, whereas Rx Qual beyond this benchmark is considered to be

IDT Report

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poor. TRAI has set down the QoS norm requiring connections with good voice quality

to be >95%. Accordingly the RxQuality is determined and as can be seen from the

table below:

Operator

Rx Quality

Samples(0-5)% [June 2015]

Rx Quality

Samples(0-5)% [Sept 2015]

Aircel 85.60% 91.34%

Airtel 91.11% 95.13%

Idea 86.46% 94.22%

Reliance (GSM) 85.53% 91.68%

Tata (GSM) 89.50% 93.95%

Vodafone 89.56% 94.13%

12.As per the drive test report, all theoperators have improved their performance

during this quarter.

Overall Operator Analysis

KPI Aircel Idea Vodafo

ne

Airtel Relian

ce

(GSM)

Tata

(GSM)

Call Attempt (Sep-15) 497 502 498 464 497 455

Call Attempt (Jun-15) 550 570 535 529 575 546

Blocked Call Rate (Sep-

15)4.63% 2.19% 2.61% 3.02% 7.44% 4.84%

Blocked Call Rate (Jun-

15)4.36%

10.00

%3.93% 3.02% 31.13% 4.58%

Call Setup Success

Rate Sep 15 (95%)95.37%

97.81

%97.39%

96.98

%92.56%

95.16

%

Call Setup Success

Rate Jun 15 (95%)95.64%

90.00

%96.07%

96.98

%68.88%

95.43

%

Call Drop Rate Sep 15

(2%)2.94% 2.64% 5.51% 2.68% 3.24% 5.47%

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Call Drop Rate Jun

15 (2%)3.19% 5.56% 4.83% 0.97% 2.29% 5.51%

Rx Quality (0-5) Sep

15 (95%)91.34%

94.22

%94.13%

95.13

%91.68%

93.95

%

Rx Quality (0-5) Jun

15 (95%)85.60%

86.46

%89.56%

91.11

%85.53%

89.50

%

13. The comparison of the Drive test results revealed that most of the

operators have marginally improved the network quality.

IDT Report

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Target Network in New Delhi:

1. Drive tests were conducted for total 6 Operators as shown below:

General information about the network of the cellular mobile service providers:

Operator Technology Band (MHz) BTS Count Subscribers*

(Prepaid +

Postpaid)

Subscribers /

BTS

Idea GSM 1800 4804 6019476 1253

Airtel GSM 900 & 1800 5988 12548419 2096

Vodafone GSM 900 & 1800 6115 9688516 1584

Reliance GSM 1800 2494 5130967 2057

Aircel GSM 1800 3749 5306870 1416

Tata CDMA 800 1466 2658454 1813

*Subscriber and BTS count details of Delhi circle are taken from QoS audit data (QE June

2015).

Drive Test Route

2.The total Drive test route covered was approximately300 kms. Major areas covered

includedConnaught Place (CP) inner and outer circle, India gate, Lutyens Zone,Chankyapuri, South Campus, IIT, AIIMS, Delhi Cantt, Delhi Gate, Daryaganj and

different parts of South and West Delhi.The map below depicts the route that was

followed during the Delhi Drive test.

IDT Report

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Drive Test Schedule

3.The test was performed from 0900 hrs to 2030 hrs, to cover both peak as well as off-

peak hours. In all about 3626 calls were made for all the 6 operators.

RF Coverage rate

4.The test results obtained in Delhi on the drive test route (approx. 300 km) are as

follows:

KPI Aircel Idea Vodafone Airtel Reliance

(GSM)

Tata

(CDMA)

Coverage % (Sep-15) 85.97% 92.74% 84.35% 87.75% 51.53% 82.75%

Coverage % (Jul-15) 74.32% 87.42% 87.29% 91.26% 57.96% 58.07%

5.Asper the drive test report,the coverage for some of the operators have improved.

IDT Report

TRAI

Sadar

Bazar

Drive test route of New


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B. Accessibility

6.The test results obtained are as follows:

Operator

Blocked

Call Rate(%) [Jul

2015]

CSSR (%)

[Jul 2015]

Blocked

Call Rate(%) [Sept

2015]

CSSR (%)

[Sept2015]

Aircel 2.95% 97.05% 5.45% 94.55%

Airtel 8.18% 91.82% 3.53% 96.47%

Idea 26.09% 73.91% 3.65% 96.35%

Reliance 10.45% 89.55% 4.08% 95.92%

Tata(CDMA) 1.11% 98.89% 2.28% 97.72%

Vodafone 4.69% 95.31% 2.60% 97.40%

7.As per the drive test report,some of the operators have shown improvement.

C. Retainability

8.The test results obtained for this parameter are:

Operator

Call Drop

Rate (%) [Jul

2015]

Call Drop Rate

(%) [Sept 2015]

Aircel 5.18% 9.13%Airtel 8.04% 6.58%

Idea 2.84% 0.94%

Reliance 17.29% 1.75%

Tata(CDMA) 0.84% 1.50%

Vodafone 4.28% 4.74%

9.As per the drive test report,some of the operators have shown improvements.

E. Rx Quality

10.The Rx Quality for the operators are as shown in the table below:

Operator Rx Quality Samples

(0-5) % [Jul 2015]

Rx Quality Samples

(0-5) % [Sept. 2015]

Aircel 82.69% 89.14%

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Airtel 84.32% 87.59%

Idea 91.12% 94.33%

Reliance 85.36% 88.53%

Tata (CDMA) 99.68% 98.59%

Vodafone 90.67% 92.89%

11. As per the drive test report,except one,none of the operators are meeting

the prescribed benchmark, though there is a marginal improvement in voice

quality.

Overall Operator Analysis

12.The results of the Key Performance Indicators are summarised in the table below:-

KPI Aircel IdeaVodafon

eAirtel

Reliance

(GSM)

Tata(CDM

A)

Call Attempt (Sep-15) 459 548 576 566 515 613

Call Attempt (Jul-15) 441 782 490 587 603 723

Blocked Call Rate (Sep-15) 5.45% 3.65% 2.60% 3.53% 4.08% 2.28%

Blocked Call Rate (Jul-15) 2.95%26.09

%4.69% 8.18% 10.45% 1.11%

Call Setup Success Rate

Sep 15 (95%)

94.55

%

96.35

%97.40%

96.47

%95.92%

97.72

%

Call Setup Success Rate

Jul 15 (95%)

97.05

%

73.91

%95.31%

91.82

%89.55%

98.89

%

Call Drop Rate Sep 15

(2%) 9.13% 0.94% 4.74% 6.58% 1.75% 1.50%

Call Drop Rate Jul 15

(2%)5.18% 2.84% 4.28% 8.04% 17.29% 0.84%

Rx Quality (0-5) Sep 15

(95%)

89.14

%

94.33

%92.89%

87.59

%88.53%

98.59

%

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Rx Quality (0-5) Jul 15

(95%)

82.69

%

91.12

%90.67%

84.32

%85.36%

99.68

%

13&The Drive test results revealed that most of the operators have marginally

improved.

IDT Report

TRAI

Documents

IDT_ _short Final- 15102015 Comp