Mobile operators have received poor evaluations in the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission’s (BTRC) recent drive test, which aimed to assess service quality, corroborating users’ complaints about substandard service.
The drive tests were conducted between February 14 and June 5 across various locations, including Dhaka city corporations, Narayanganj, Keraniganj, and Savar upazilas, utilizing a newly acquired testing system from Germany, which cost 1.5 million euros.
Maintaining quality of service (QoS) is a fundamental requirement outlined in telecommunications licenses, according to telecom sector expert Abu Nazam M Tanveer Hossain. He stated, “Since 2011, licensees have negotiated these standards through consultation and negotiation. If the recent report is accurate, it highlights a significant failure to uphold the commitments made upon accepting these licenses.”
Among the operators, Robi, which had 58 million customers as of August, performed the best, failing in only five key performance indicators (KPIs) out of 40 across four areas. Market leader Grameenphone, with 85 million subscribers, failed in six KPIs, while Banglalink fell short in 14, and Teletalk struggled with a staggering 26 failures, according to the test results.
For internet services, only the state-owned Teletalk did not meet the BTRC’s benchmarks, with Robi achieving the best results. In Dhaka city, Banglalink, with 42 million customers, performed the worst among the three private carriers, failing to meet five of the ten KPIs. Notably, the operator’s call drop rate exceeded the BTRC’s threshold of 2 percent, reaching 2.59 percent in Dhaka city.
In Keraniganj upazila, all operators had call drop rates above the BTRC’s ceiling of 2 percent for 2G voice calls, with Banglalink again performing the worst at 4.25 percent. Conversely, for 4G voice calls in the same upazila, only Banglalink passed the test, while Robi had the lowest performance at 3.98 percent.
All four operators failed to meet the BTRC’s maximum call setup time of 7 seconds for 2G voice calls in Savar. Banglalink and Teletalk also fell short in Keraniganj, while Teletalk missed the mark in Dhaka and Narayanganj.
For the call setup success ratio, which should not be less than 97 percent, all operators except Grameenphone failed in Keraniganj. Only Robi met the call setup success ratio in Dhaka and Narayanganj for 2G voice calls.
