Ghana’s National Communications Authority (NCA) has decided to introduce new regulations on the quality of services provided by telecom operators. To this end, it drafted a bill known as the “Quality of Service Act”.
In the interests of transparency and fairness, the telecoms regulator organized public consultations on this draft law with telecom players in Accra on April 30, 2019. Similar meetings were held in Kumasi and Tamale. After consultations, the ministry will forward the bill to Cabinet and then to Parliament for consideration and adoption.
According to Henry Kanor, NCA’s Executive Vice President Technical Operations, the new regulation aims to fill the gaps that have emerged over time in the Key Performance Index (KPI) embedded in mobile network operators. These shortcomings stem from the evolution of technologies that no longer fit the issues of 15 years ago, when the current quality of service regulations were adopted.
“When the current regulations were developed, we did not have WhatsApp, mobile money services, or other mobile apps. As a result, she is silent on these technological advances. We revise it to reflect this so that service providers know what is expected of them and that consumers also know what to expect . “ , He said.
According to the graphic.com.gh news site, the new bill proposes that network availability in terms of calls be 95 decibels per milliwatt (dBm) for the interior, 85 dB in vehicles and 75 dB for outdoor in the city. Milliwatt decibels measure the signal strength of a telecommunication network.
With respect to call service accessibility, NCA proposes that carriers should ensure that the network coverage rate is at least 95% at all times. The call loss rate, which is currently 3%, should be revised to less than 1%. The NCA believes that the new draft law should be adopted before the end of 2020.