National Regulatory Agency for Electronic Communications and Information Technology of the Republic of Moldova

Providers of public mobile telephone services are obligated to measure and make publicly available the information on quality of services provided to end users, on quarterly and annual basis, in their commercial offices and Internet pages. This is a requirement stipulated by ANRCETI Administrative Board Decision (doc. in state language) regarding quality of public mobile telephony services, issued to amend Board Decision nr.278 of 17.10.2009 establishing quality parameters for public electronic communications services. The Decision became effective October 21, 2011 – the date it is published in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Moldova.

The Decision aims at making the providers ensure the end-user’s right to enjoy high-quality mobile services. It sets out seven quality parameters: network availability, service accessibility, integrity, continuity, reliability, billing complaints and user’s satisfaction with services, methods of measuring the indicators and the recommended parameters for these indicators specified by ANRCETI. The first four parameters reflect the technical characteristics of the service, and the last three - its organizational aspects.

According to ANRCETI recommendations, the coefficient of network availability must not exceed 99,9%, the rate of failed calls – 2% and service accessibility – 5%, whereas the rate of interrupted calls (service continuity) – 2%. The service integrity that reflects the ability to maintain the quality of voice transmission will be measured by the method of estimating the opinions expressed by users in surveys (Mean Opinion Score - MOC). The voice transmission quality level recommended by ANRCETI must be above 3.5 points out of 5 points, and the rate of calls that meet specific quality - 80% out of 100%.

In order to maintain service reliability it is recommended that the duration of network faults and resumption of access to services not exceed 3 hours – for a telephone number and 8 hours – for a base station, whereas the rate of removed within the recommended timeframe – be over 95% of the cases recorded by the provider. For the billing complaints parameter, ANRCETI recommends that the rate of incorrect bills reported by users not exceed 1% of the number of bills issued by the provider in the reporting timeframe. In order to ensure that the user is satisfied with the service, it is recommended that the rate of justified complaints regarding the technical and organizational aspects of the service not exceed 1% of the total number of users, the average response time for operator services be lower than 30 seconds and not exceed 80% of the total number of calls to the given services.

The providers of mobile networks and services shall publish the values of measured indicators in a standard form, approved by the ANRCETI, in a decision amending Decision no. 23 of 03.08.2010, to approve the standard forms used for the presentation and publication of QoS parameters in the provision of public electronic communications services. This decision requires that providers publish quarterly information before the 30th of the month following the reporting quarter and annual information – before the 30th of the month following the reporting year.

The Agency consider that by measuring and publishing these indicators, the mobile telephony providers will seek to take additional steps to improve QoS and will also offer the end users the possibility to make comparative analysis of QoS provided by different providers and choose providers with more convenient offers in terms of price and quality.

Under the legislation, ANRCETI is empowered to establish the quality parameters for electronic communications services, required to be measured, as well as the content, form and manner in which this information is to be published, so as to ensure that end users receive comprehensive, comparable and easily accessible information. In 2009, ANRCETI established quality indicators for five types of public electronic communications services: fixed telephony, Internet access, communication services provided via IP-based networks, services provided via ISDN and leased lines services.

October 21, 2011