TRA issues a decision to monitor quality of internet services

Muscat: Eng. Salim al Aufi, chairman of the board of directors of the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) has issued a regulation to monitor the quality of telecommunication services in the country.

According to the regulation, the licensee must announce the data speed for each fixed broadband service package (wired and wireless) and must publish details of the quality of communications services, packages, and offers.

As per the decision, the licensee shall submit reports on the established performance indicators of the quality of telecommunications services within a period not exceeding 30 days from the end of the monitoring period and must publish those reports in the form and within the period specified by TRA.

The licensee must declare the data speed for each of the bandwidth packages – fixed broadband (wired and wireless), and it is also committed to providing high-speed data for broadband services.

The actual speed of the fixed wired broadband service provided to the beneficiary shall not be less than 90% of the maximum data speed limit announced by the licensee according to the beneficiary’s subscribed package.

The actual speed of a fixed wireless broadband service shall not be less than 70% of the highest data speed announced by the licensee according to the subscribed package.

The licensee must publish sufficient details about the quality of telecommunications services and packages and the offers on its website, to ensure that the beneficiary is aware of the quality of the telecommunications services it provides.

The licensee must design wireless communications networks to provide communications signal strength) that will ensure the ensures the best telecommunication services to the beneficiaries,

The licensee must design wireless communication networks taking into account the continuous increase in the use of mobile broadband services.

Role of the authority:

The authority will review the reports submitted by the licensee, audit its records and systems, and the authority may seek the assistance of a consultant or auditor to review the details submitted by the licensee at t the expense of the licensee.

The authority measures the quality of telecommunications services as follows:

1 Conducting field surveys directly or through a third party to measure service quality provided, whether for mobile or fixed telecommunications services, and preparing

comparative reports for the quality of the service of each licensee.

It will use data measured from a third party, through the collection of random samples from users to obtain information related to the quality of telecommunications services, which will reflect the experiences of the beneficiaries of the quality of the service provided by the various licensees.