Mobile network benchmarking completes first phase

By entering this partnership with the MTN Group, Rohde & Schwarz underpins its leading role as a supplier of mobile network testing solutions and strengthens its position as a trusted partner for the provision of services, technology and logistics for large-scale measurement campaigns.

In spring 2018, Rohde & Schwarz was selected by the South Africa-based mobile telecommunications company MTN Group as the partner for a multinational benchmarking project extending over three years and 17 countries.

Rohde & Schwarz is supplying all the measurement equipment, technology, testing expertise, analytics services and logistics for the project. In December 2018, the consolidated results of the first phase, based on the Rohde & Schwarz Network Performance Score (NPS), were reported to the management of the MTN Group.

The NPS is a single QoE-centric metric, which characterises the performance and quality of a network and enables operators to identify strategic areas for investment. It has been approved in draft form by ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute) and is integrated into the Smart portfolio of mobile network testing solutions from Rohde & Schwarz.

MTN Group Network Executive, Navindran Naidoo commented, “The quality of experience delivered to our customers is very important to MTN; and the first phase of the benchmarking project with Rohde & Schwarz has provided MTN with insights into the quality and competitive position of our networks across our markets. We look forward to phase two of the project and using the Network Performance Score as the basis to deliver optimal QoE to our subscribers.”

Vice President of Rohde & Schwarz mobile network testing Hanspeter Bobst stated, “We are very pleased to be partnering with a leading multinational operator such as MTN and use our expert knowledge of the execution of large-scale benchmarking campaigns and data analytics. This provides MTN with QoE-centric intelligence and visibility of critical factors influencing network quality and performance. The success of the project further validates the capabilities of our end-to-end Smart solution platform as well as the effectiveness of the NPS scoring methodology.”

Rohde & Schwarz will start the second phase of the project in early 2019 to validate the network improvements identified in phase one. Rohde & Schwarz will also present the integrated Smart solution platform at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona (February 25-28).