Quality of Service Regulation

Transcription

1 Quality of Service Regulation Helani Galpaya Taungoo, Myanmar 28 Sep 2 Oct 2013

2 WHAT, WHY & HOW

3 Trade off: price vs. quality A consumer buys a price-quality bundle High quality high price bundles: luxury travel, first class air tickets Low cost Low quality bundle: travel on budget airlines Budget telecom network model: Very low cost, problematic (low) quality Quality costs money

4 Quality is important to consumers Ability to get dial-tone Ability to complete a conversation without the call dropping Ability to move around with a mobile phone, and complete a conversation, without dead spots Ability to download a song in reasonable time Etc Impacts take-up to an extent But so does price

5 Quality is important to operators An operator intentionally misroutes calls from another operator Incumbent operator who runs internet (data) exchange chokes the data connections from competitors? Etc.

6 Concepts of quality extend beyond call quality and data speeds Service provision Waiting list for a service Faults Call drops/data connection unavailable; voice/data quality Fault clearance How long it takes to correct faults in service when reported Billing Accuracy, corrections when reported, refunds

7 ITU has limited list for voice quality indicators Trying to develop data quality indicators

8 How to monitor quality: traditionally Operators have most/all information about performance Reports to regulator Regulator analyzes

9 Changes to quality monitoring approaches Involve users Crowdsourcing Example in Broadband, 2 nd half of this talk Monitored not just by the regulator Other interested parties: e.g. civil society Also a change of indicators from hard soft Hard: data on actual network performance Soft: data on user satisfaction

10 Quality impacts the user-experience and may impact adoption of a service by users Some consumers may not take up a service if quality is low But others may be willing to put up with bad quality for lower prices Poor quality, but affordable is better than high quality but unaffordable Early days: let operators roll out networks services; let consumers get connected

11 Regulator does not punish low quality (only monitors). But others can In a market with comparable mobile prices If customers know operator A gives less call drops, they will choose A and not B If customers knows B gives better data download speeds than A, people who value data will choice SIMs from B Normally, only regulator knows performance data But regulator should strategically release this data So media can write about it Operators (the good performers ) start using it in their advertising When there is CHOICE, people vote with their feet

12 In the long run, increase competition (i.e. get more operators) With increasing competition prices keep coming down penetration increases Early days, operators focus on gaining market share Just being there is enough to get new customers But as market saturates, operators need to differentiate themselves To get customers to move from network A to B, based on better quality Creates incentives for increasing quality

13 A concrete example from LIRNEasia s research/work MEASURING BROADBAND QUALITY

14 What to measure? Think beyond download speed Service Download (kbps) Upload (kbps) Latency (Round Trip Time, RTT) (ms) Jitter (ms) Packet Loss (%) Browsing (Text) Browsing (Media) Downloading Transactions Streaming media VOIP Games Highly relevant; ++ Very relevant; + Relevant; - Irrelevant User s ISP - RTT has implications on client-server interactive systems - Jitter adds to the noise of the transmission - Packet Loss affects streaming media Source: Gonsalves, T.A & Bharadwaj, A. (2009) 14

15 WHERE the data is hosted makes 3 Domains a difference. We focused on 3 domains Internet Yahoo.com Servers of the User s ISP ISP First 1st entry Entry point point to the to US cloud (US/UK/China/..). Outside country User Server National of another Server operator, in the country

16 Software based, new testing methodology Developed methodology and software in partnership with Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras Testing in multiple domains - ISP, National and International (yahoo) Multiple broadband packages or links 256kbps 2Mbps Multiple times a day 6 times a day; ranging from peak to off peak Multiple Locations (cities)

17 Quality testing can be done by different parties Diagnostics conducted by Service Providers (ISPs/operators) Pros Easy to implement Cons Results based on equipment placed in the most optimized points of the network Not representative of the actual speeds Users National Regulatory Authorities (NRAs) Represents actual user experiences In a position to request operator involvement when necessary Assumes user s PC is virus-free, with no parallel process running etc. Dependant on user s willingness to participate Large files impact user s data limits Known test locations will prompt operators to optimize networks in selected areas 17

18 We tried different approaches First, crowdsourcing Blogger and telecenter operator meet-ups+ training; Small community; High transaction cost abandoned after 1 or 2 rounds But worked in Africa: different incentives? Then (and now) test it ourselves researchers spread across Asia (cover their cost) Successful; but limited to where we can find a tester Given free to regulators. Got them to adopt ICTA (Mauritius), BICMA (Bhutan), CAM (Maldives), Fiji and Pacific Islands

19 SOME RESULTS

20 Ratio, actual to advertised(%) Ratio, actual to advertised(%) Actual performance differs from advertised. In surprising ways Bhutan: Delivered (actual) as % of advertised, from international server India, Sri Lanka, Thailand: Delivered (actual) as % of advertised, from local server Time 0 08:00 11:00 15:00 18:00 20:00 23:00 Druknet Leased line (512 kbps) Thimphu Tashi InfoComm Leased line (256 kbps) Thimphu Druknet (prepaid) ADSL (256 kbps) Thimphu Druknet (prepaid) ADSL (256 kbps) Paro Bhutan Telecom 3G (550kbps to 1Mbps) Thimphu BSNL (512 kbps) Bangalore, IN SLT (2 Mbps) Colombo, LK BSNL (256 kbps) Chennai, IN 3BB (5 Mbps) Bangkok, TH 3BB (5 Mbps) Chiang Mai, TH

21 Download speed per Dollar (kbps per USD) South Asian users get low value for money compared to N American counterparts Package per month in USD 80 Sirius (256 kbps) Dhaka, BD SKYbd (256 kbps) Dhaka, BD 15 BSNL (256 kbps) Bangalore, IN 16 Airtel, (256 kbps) Delhi, IN 16 SLT (2 Mbps) Colombo, LK 48 Dialog (2 Mbps) Colombo, LK 44 Bell (6 Mbps) Ottawa, CA 60 Rogers (10 Mbps) Ottawa, CA 45 Verizon (3 Mbps) Buffalo, US 30 All high values for kbps/usd from N America Comcast (6 Mbps) Denver, US 60 Source: LIRNEasia, 2009

22 Download speed (kbps) Download speed (kbps) Indian users get lower speeds when downloading international content India - Download from ISP server 5000 India - Download from International server Time Airtel (512 kbps) Bangalore, IN BSNL (512 kbps) Bangalore, IN Airtel (512 kbps) Chennai, IN BSNL (256 kbps) Chennai, IN Airtel ( 2 Mbps) Mumbai, IN MTNL (512 kbps) Mumbai, IN Airtel (512 kbps) New Delhi, IN MTNL (2 Mbps) New Delhi, IN Time Airtel (512 kbps) Bangalore, IN BSNL (512 kbps) Bangalore, IN Airtel (512 kbps) Chennai, IN BSNL (256 kbps) Chennai, IN Airtel ( 2 Mbps) Mumbai, IN MTNL (512 kbps) Mumbai, IN Airtel (512 kbps) New Delhi, IN MTNL (2 Mbps) New Delhi, IN

23 Download speed (kbps) Download speed (kbps) as do Sri Lankan users Sri Lanka - Download from ISP server Sri Lanka - Download from International server Time Time SLT (2 Mbps) Colombo, LK SLT (2 Mbps) Colombo, LK

24 RTT (ms) RTT (ms) Round trip time deteriorates (increases) also when going international from India.. India - RTT when pinged to ISP server 800 India - RTT when pinged to International server Time Airtel (512 kbps) Bangalore, IN BSNL (512 kbps) Bangalore, IN Airtel (512 kbps) Chennai, IN BSNL (256 kbps) Chennai, IN Airtel ( 2 Mbps) Mumbai, IN MTNL (512 kbps) Mumbai, IN Airtel (512 kbps) New Delhi, IN MTNL (2 Mbps) New Delhi, IN Time Airtel (512 kbps) Bangalore, IN BSNL (512 kbps) Bangalore, IN Airtel (512 kbps) Chennai, IN BSNL (256 kbps) Chennai, IN Airtel ( 2 Mbps) Mumbai, IN MTNL (512 kbps) Mumbai, IN Airtel (512 kbps) New Delhi, IN MTNL (2 Mbps) New Delhi, IN

25 RTT (ms) RTT (ms).and from Sri Lanka Sri Lanka - RTT when pinged to ISP server Sri Lanka - RTT when pinged to International server Time Time SLT (2 Mbps) Colombo, LK SLT (2 Mbps) Colombo, LK

26 SO WHAT? DID ANYTHING CHANE?

27 Published ads in newspaper during SATRC meetings In the newspaper delivered in conference hotel Followed by other publicity about advertising untruths of operators Delivering well beyond advertised Advertising theoretical maximum speeds, not actually possible

28 At least one operator stops advertising theoretical speeds. Within 4 months, TRCSL starts its own testing. Source:

29 THANK YOU