Ministry Seeks to Raise Mobile Quality Requirements
Colombia's communications ministry plans to ratchet up the current 3% maximum dropped call rate permissible for mobile operators to 0.5%, reported local daily La República.
Colombia's three mobile operators - Comcel, Movistar and Ola - met the 3% requirement in the most recent study, which began in December 2004 and was published in May 2005.
But deputy communications minister Germán González said it is time to raise the bar, which was set in 1993 when the ministry signed concession contracts with the first two mobile operators, Comcel and Celumóvil (now Movistar, a unit of Spain's Telefónica). The country's mobile industry now has three operators competing and a 50% penetration rate.
Increasing the mobile service quality standards will not be easy, however, as the requirements are not part of a law or ministerial decree, but rather are codified in the concession contracts, which expire in 2013 in the case of Ola and in 2014 in the case of Comcel and Movistar.
As a result, any improvements will depend on the parties reaching a mutual agreement. Ola's contract was recently modified in order to bring the quality standards it must meet into line with those of the other two operators, and Movistar and Comcel are expected to begin talks with the government this week.
The communications ministry's goal is to implement four new quality standards based on variables that are not currently measured - zone-based quality, calls dropped when changing cells, post-dial delay and post-termination wait.
BNamericas.com"
Posted to the site on 24th January 2006
