Telecom Lead Africa: Airtel
is the number one quality network in Malawi, according to a quarterly Network
performance assessment report released by Malawi Communication Regulatory
Authority (MACRA).
The MACRA report looks at the performance of the two mobile
phone service providers in the months of October, November and December in 2011
and analyses the Key Performance Indicators which have been achieved by the
Global System for Mobile Communications (GMS) service in the areas of Radio
Network, Call Set up Success Rate, SDCCH congestion, Traffic Channel
congestion, Call Drop Rate, Trunk Congestion, and Mobile Switch Centre
Availability and Intelligence Network Platform availability.
According to the report, Airtel managed to beat MACRA’s call
set up target of 98 percent by posting 98.9 percent in October, 99
percent in November and 99.2 percent in December, 2011, whilst all other
telecom players were below the target set by Macra. Airtel Malawi also
consistently out-performed its competitors as well as MACRA’s targets in the following
areas:-call drops, sms success rate, congestion, internet success rate, call
handover success rate and network availability.
Airtel Malawi Managing Director Saulos Chilima described the
report as a vote of confidence and a result of the company’s investments aimed
at continuously improving its quality of service.
We always strive to maintain high standards so that we
continuously provide an unmatched customer experience. The report covers
the period before we launched our 3.75G network and our customers should expect
improved data services as we now have the fastest internet speeds in Malawi of
up to 21 Mbps. Its super fast,” Chilima said.
