Ghana Heads Africa QoS Regulatory Compliance Workshop
The ITU-T has completed its workshop on Practical Measurement of QoS/ QoE for Regulatory Compliance in Cotonou, Benin ahead of the 4th ITU-T Study Group 12 Regional Group for Africa meeting. The July 16 to 17 workshop was lead by ITU-T Study Group 12 Regional Africa Chair; Mr. Kwame Baah-Acheamfuor, a Principal Manager at the National Communications Authority.
Attended by over 120 delegates from communications ministries, regulators, operators and vendors from some 30 countries across Africa, the event primarily sought to align the various interests in technical measurement of Quality of Service as well as experience and obligations in African countries. Also present were the CEO of the Ghana Telecom Chamber, delegates from Vodafone Ghana and MTN Ghana.
The presentations lead to discussions on regulatory principles and tools of ensuring QoS and QoE. Even though there was no conclusive choice between self regulation, light regulation or enforcement of QoS obligations, there was consensus on collaboration especially between regulators and operators on the methodology and process of QoS compliance. Morocco presented a case study on how mobile voice and mobile internet services were measured.
Regarding a framework for Mobile QoS, it was established that ITU-T had no detailed standards but that Key Quality Indicators (KQIs) rather than Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) be used to measure the user perspective of service. Various equipment, trigger points as well measurement profiles with scenarios for testing mobile services were presented and discussed.
The Workshop which participants described as insightful and extremely interesting decided on further studies and contributions on a myriad of interests as well as benchmarking of more country case studies and operator contributions for the good of the industry.
