Regulator of the telecom industry the National Communications Authority (NCA) has sanctioned telecom operator Tigo for violating its Traffic Channel (TCH) congestion obligation in the Central region.
It’s unclear whether Tigo’s sanction will be in the form of a fine or otherwise.
The latest development follows a report released by the NCA following the testing of all the telcos in the country except Expresso on various quality matters in the Central region in June, 2015.
The test was conducted in 9 towns in the central region Kasoa, Swedru, Winneba, Elmina, Cape Coast, Ajumako, Saltpond, Twifo Praso and Assin Fosu.
The tests bordered on the congestion Rate, Call Drop Rate, Voice Call Audio Quality and Coverage Signal Strength of the various telcos among others.
According to NCA after its findings with regards to the Call Setup Times (CST) all the telcos with the exception of Tigo failed the test.
Call setup time is the period of time between lifting of a handset to make a phone call and the start of voice transmission.
CST should be less than ten seconds in 95 percent of cases.
Tigo was the only telco which was able to meet the parameter threshold in the 9 towns selected in the central region within 6 and 9 seconds.
MTN however was able to pass the test in 8 of the towns except Kasoa where it takes its customers a little over 10 seconds to get a call through.
While Vodafone failed in four towns Swedru, Elmina, Ajumako and Assin Fosu customers in these areas spend between 10 and 12 seconds before a call goes through.
Airtel failed in Kasoa and Swedru while Glo failed in Swedru and Elimia with Airtel customers spent an extra 4 seconds in Kasoa for example before their calls sail through while with Glo customers spend almost 8 seconds before their calls are placed in Elmina.
Tigo despite being the only telco to have passed the CST test failed to pass the call congestion rate test.
It was the only telecom operator to have failed that test.
The NCA’s report revealed that Tigo recorded as high as 6.1 percent and 3.5 percent in Cape Coast and Elmina respectively as compared to the less than 1 percent allowed.
The NCA’s report further reveled that in the Central region Vodafone and Glo provided good speech quality during phone calls while MTN, Airtel and Tigo provided fair speech quality during phone calls.