I recently presented the LIRNEasia methodology for measuring the user experience of broadband quality at the ITU World Telecom Indicators (WTI) meeting held in Marutitius, 7-9 December 2011. Measuring broadband quality in a comparable manner is a challenge faced by many. Regulators and policy makers are now increasingly engaging in broadband quality measures. As such it was a key topic discussed at the WTI meeting. The presentation addressed the issues a user may face while accessing the Internet and the quality indicators that contribute to an online experience.
Finally! After years of LIRNEasia‘s efforts in promoting broadband QoSE monitoring the Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (TRC) of Sri Lanka unveils its diagnostic tool to the public. It’s a shame the press release says (among other things), “There were no facilities available for subscribers to check and verify whether the operators were providing the internet services at speeds advertised by them.”, despite LIRNEasia‘s efforts and offers to adopt our free-to-use, free-for-all tool (beta version). I just used the TRC software.
One aspect that we tend to use frequently is advertised vs. delivered performance of broadband packages. This year LIRNEasia tested broadband packages in 10 cities across 6 countries, out of which the worst three in terms of offering far less than promised were India’s Airtel 2 Mbps packages (tested in Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore) and SLT’s 2 Mbps package tested in Colombo. When it comes to USB dongle based packages we noticed a difference in advertised speeds with most operators quoting the dongle speed or (more often than not) ‘up to’ 3.6 Mbps.
Following research conducted by Dr. Harsha de Silva on the potential techniques of introducing electronic bus passes, the Private Bus Owner’s Association of Sri Lanka scheduled the launch of its implementation for the 24th of September 2011. The solution however, has multiple aspects that need to be considered. The immense cash flow brought upon such a service for instance, calls for at least one bank to be involved, without which this solution will not work. The technical side there are 2 potentials: the use of NFC (Near Field Communication) enabled mobile phones or smart cards.
The purpose of SAARC is defied, in terms of electronic connectivity. The lack of uniformity and transparency in international voice tariffs has been ongoing despite the Colombo Declaration of the 15th SAARC summit. The disparity is more so for international roaming. The most recent benchmarking report published by LIRNEasia demonstrates the inconsistencies. On average Indian roamers are offered some-what low tariffs while roaming within South Asia.
LIRNEasia COO, Helani Galpaya was recently invited by the ITU to present LIRNEasia‘s proposed methodology for measuring Internet users of the world (WSIS Target 10). The current methodology measures the Internet users as a multiplier of the number of Internet subscriptions. At present, the multiplier is an arbitrary number proposed by national administrations. As a result, there is a wide range of unjustified multipliers even between countries that are of a similar status. The proposed methodology developed by Prof.
In its latest QoSE report, LIRNEasia compared download speeds, Round Trip Time (RTT, or the time delays in data transfer), Jitter (the variation in time between the arrival of data packets) and Packet Loss (the percentage of data packets that did not reach its destination) of broadband packages in 11 cities across 7 countries in South and Southeast Asia. RTT is a particularly important measure in systems that require two-way interactive communications and the methodology sets the threshold at a maximum of 300 ms. A high RTT means performance degradation in some of the Internet’s most popular applications such as the World Wide Web (www) and e-mail. Both packages tested in Manila, Philippines Smart’s 2 Mbps and BayanDSL’s 768 Kbps perform badly in this regard, with the latter going up to 570 ms RTT – the worst among the packages tested in the region. Access the QoSE and price benchmark reports here.
Recent Quality of Service Experience (QoSE) tests carried out by LIRNEasia show that BSNL’s 256Kbps package (offered in Chennai) delivers more than promised in download speeds when compared to a 512Kbps package offered by the same operator in Bangalore. It also performs better in comparison to similar offerings by Airtel and MTNL in Chennai, Bengaluru, Delhi and Mumbai, including 512 Kbps and 2Mbps packages. Although most Indian packages we tested offer better value for money than similar offerings in neighboring Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Bhutan, there are significant quality differences among the eight Indian packages that were subject to this year’s QoSE testing. The majority of the packages tested within India failed to deliver even 80% of the advertised speeds, with Airtel’s 2Mbps package (tested in Mumbai) coming in last, being able to deliver a mere 20% of what was advertised. Access the QoSE and price benchmark reports here.
LIRNEasia‘s recent Broadband QoSE tests report Dialog Telekom’s 1Mbps postpaid broadband package (HSPA) delivers higher download speeds than what was promised in comparison to similar offerings by Mobitel and SLT. However, it does not maintain this trend in measures for latency and jitter. Although there is a difference in underlying technology which most certainly impacts performance, the focus here is on the comparison between what is promised (advertised) versus the actual speeds delivered by the operator, among other important quality indicators. The latest QoSE report compares three similar broadband packages in Sri Lanka: Dialog Telekom’s postpaid broadband (1Mbps); Mobitel’s Zoom890 (1Mbps); and SLT’s Office (2 Mbps). The results can also be used for regional comparison as these tests were carried out across 11 location in 7 countries.
Make one from North Korea and you will!Make one from North Korea and you will! In a rare occasion where international journalists were invited to North Korea to cover a week long celebration commemorating the 65th Anniversary of the Workers Party, CNN correspondent Alina Cho got a chance to speak to the public, albeit being watched 24/7. She says, “Most notably, in a country closed off to the rest of the world, North Koreans are now talking on cell phones. This girl says everyone in her family has one.
We would like your comments and suggestions in helping us define a methodology for benchmarking ILC prices. As part of our annual international voice and broadband price benchmarking reports (Indicators continued) we have decided to include ILC prices for selected countries within the region (Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Thailand, Philippines and Indonesia). The first step was to compare available ILC benchmarking methodologies and use this comparison study as a base to create our own. The lack of freely available information on the same (Sources explored were OECD, ITU, APCC and TeleGeography), prompted us to define a methodology irrespective to what may be available elsewhere. What we’d like to compare are leased line prices for given speeds (E1: 2Mbps, DS-3: 45 Mbps or STM-1: 155Mbps, where applicable) from the cities LIRNEasia works in, to cities around the world based on traffic flow – another data set that is not freely available.
___________________________________________________ Mobile 2.0 describes the next wave of applications and services – the use of mobiles for more than voice. On the 26th and 27th of April 2010, LIRNEasia together with the PTA co-hosted a successful expert forum in Islamabad, Pakistan. A multitude of themes were discussed over the four sessions, when the experts presented their research and cases to an audience that consisted of those representing regulators, mobile operators, government agencies and the media from nine countries of the Asia Pacific region. Day 1: Opening Session Welcome Speech I: Prof.