Smart, Globe pass NTC benchmarking tests for Q1

Smart Telecommunications, Inc. and Globe Telecom, Inc. both passed all of the 2013 Quality of Service benchmarking tests conducted by the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) for the first quarter of the year, with Smart outperforming Globe in all five of the measures, according to the results released by the NTC on Monday. In terms of grade of service—the percentage of calls that were not able to go through—Smart's 0.87 percent was better than Globe's 2.60 percent, and both were well below the 4-percent industry standard (i.e., four blocked calls for every 100 call attempts). In terms of dropped call rate—the percentage of on-going calls that were involuntarily terminated—both were again below the 2-percent standard: Smart with 1 percent and Globe with 1.53 percent. In terms of average receive signal level—the signal strength provided by the serving cellsite during an ongoing conversation—Smart's -65.90 dBm was superior to Globe’s -71.14 dBm, and both were again better than the industry standard of -85 dBm. In terms of average signal quality—the quality of voice transmission—Smart took first place with 0.77, with Globe coming in second with 0.91. The acceptable range for the signal quality is 0 to 4, with 0 being the optimum score. And in terms of Call Set-Up Time—the time elapsed from the moment the user starts dialing a number to the first ring—Smart's 11.06 seconds and Globe's 12.20 seconds were both better than the industry standard of 14 seconds. NTC conducted the tests one week per month from January to March in the National Capital Region using post-paid Globe and Smart SIM cards subscribing to regular services. — BM, GMA News