Dakar, Dec. 9 (APS) – A national campaign to assess the quality of telephone coverage and mobile networks has revealed difficulties in the transmission of calls, as one moves away from Dakar, and a coverage rate “not in line” with the norm, the Telecommunications and Posts Regulatory Authority (ARTP) said Thursday.
The results of this campaign have shown that the further away from the capital, Dakar, the more difficult it is to make calls or to use telephone services,” said Mana Aïdara, Director of Networks and Services at ARTP.
She was speaking at the presentation of the results of the campaign.
In some regions, including Kédougou (southeast), Sédhiou, Ziguinchor (south) and Matam (north), the coverage rate is “almost not in line” with the required standard.
The inconveniences noted concern all mobile operators and all services, according to Prisma, the firm that led the evaluation campaign.
On the roads, it is often impossible to make a call when you are in a car, said Hamdi Zghal, a technical expert and consultant of the firm.
Inside the buildings, communication is very difficult in some parts of the country,” he said.
ARTP Director General Abdoul Ly urged mobile operators to “continue to ensure the quality of their networks, in order to meet the needs of the population”.
Electronic telecommunication networks are important levers for inclusion and development,” said Mr. Ly during the presentation of the evaluation results.
Therefore, the quality of cell phone services must be improved, according to the Director General of ARTP.
The monitoring of the quality of services is part of the missions of the regulatory body of telecommunications and post, he recalled.
The purpose of the evaluation, said Mr. Ly, is for the ARTP to ensure compliance with the obligations of the specifications of operators and the satisfaction of consumer expectations.
It is with this in mind that the ARTP, in accordance with its new strategy, conducted this year a campaign to measure the quality of services and coverage of mobile networks 2G, 3G and 4G throughout the national territory,” added Abdoul Ly.
According to him, the evaluation was made in the 46 departments of the country, on the main roads and some strategic sites, including airports, the island of Goree, the urban pole of Diamniadio (west), some hotels and shopping centers.
The tests concerned all the operators’ services: telephony, voice, Internet data services, SMS messaging service, etc.
The campaign lasted thirteen weeks. It allowed us to have the real state of mobile network coverage and the quality of services offered to consumers,” said Abdoul Ly.
The Executive Director of the Pan-African Institute for Citizenship, Consumers and Development (CICODEV), Amadou Kanouté, was pleased with the campaign and its results. He believes that the ARTP takes into consideration three rights that telephone service operators must guarantee to consumers: information, quality and equality of citizens before the services.