Bahrain institutes system to measure telecommunication service quality

Bahrain’s Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) held a workshop last weekend with the theme of “Service Quality Measurement Reporting” for delegates of telecommunications operators within the Gulf nation; the workshop was held at TRA headquarters in the Seef District and was aimed at measures to improve telecom services for consumers.

TRA Director of Technical and Operations Mohammed Alnoaimi said the workshop is in line with the TRA’s strategy to continually improve consumer quality of experience by monitoring and reporting the telecommunications service quality provided by operators in Bahrain.

To that end, TRA has deployed stationary probes in some of the nation’s major cities to test the quality of telecommunications services offered by fixed and mobile service providers.

“The probes are automated to regularly generate tests to measure internationally recognized key performance indicators and to be published to the general public,” Alnoaimi said. “The TRA will, through its plan aiming at developing this platform, introduce more KPIs which are currently being considered by the TRA to publish for consumer empowerment in choosing telecommunications services suiting their needs.”

TRA’s new service quality diagnostic platform has been purchased from Ascom Solutions. The system design was based on ITU network testing standards and global best practices with the aim of benchmarking telecoms quality of service.

That is meant to give Bahrain’s consumers information on which telecom operators offer the best services to both business and residential markets. This will enable the TRA to continue publishing Quality of Service Analysis reports with enhancements to further empower consumer knowledge when choosing services.

TRA also has an online portal in the works to provide consumers with simplified and updated information about the quality measurements.