Johannesburg, 23 Jan 2015
South African consumers who are fed up with poor network quality and dropped calls are set to smile, as the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) has unveiled an amended version of its Service Charter for network operators and service providers.
The charter seeks to prescribe the minimum standards for services to end-users and subscribers to electronic communications network and services licensees, and also seeks to ensure the service was offered in accordance with established service parameters.
In the document, published in the Government Gazette, the body lays out several targets for network and service providers. Mitchell Barker, founder of WhichVoip, says these include network and services uptime, fault clearance rates, and call centre response times. "Icasa has also stipulated refunds that apply when a fault has been reported but remains unresolved for more than three days."
"In addition, the charter also specifies that ECNS and ECS licensees must provide their end-users and subscribers with critical information, as well as protect the confidentiality of their clients. Critical information includes all the relevant details of tariff plans, and international roaming charges upon arrival in a foreign country."
He lists additional benefits to subscribers: "Icasa also stated that subscribers should be given the opportunity to opt into international roaming, and should a user have a fault pending with a fixed wireless or wireline service provider for more than three days, Icasa has specified rebates. Also, fixed and mobile users should be given a pro-rata rebate on service activation for the time the services were not activated, and dropped calls on mobile services should be reconnected at no cost, with providers being unable to charge for the first minute after reconnection."
Barker also says that should users continue to experience dropped calls and service interruption, which severely impedes their quality of experience, the service provider must cancel the contract on request with no early cancellation penalty. "The end-user must maintain a history of poor quality service reported to the service provider."
In terms of contraventions and penalties, he says the draft regulations stipulate that ECNS and ECS licensees will have contravened its provisions should they fail to perform and submit quality of service measurements reports as prescribed by the regulations, or fail to achieve the targets as set out in the service parameters in these regulations. In addition, should they fail to submit information requested by Icasa in terms of the regulations in the prescribed format or fail to provide accurate information to Icasa about their quality of service, they are also in contravention of the provisions. "Licensees that are held to be non-compliant with the regulations are liable to a fine of up to R1 000 000."
According to Barker, repeat offenders will be handed the fine and are subject to publication of the non-compliance on Icasa's Web site, as well as their own Web site.
However, he says over and above a bad connection from your service provider, there are other issues that can cause poor quality calls, and several other ways to overcome them.
"Jitter is one very common hiccup. Because the packets of info travel by a different path from sender to receiver, they can arrive in a different order, resulting in poor or scrambled sound. Jitter buffers will solve this issue, as they temporarily store incoming packets in order to lessen delay variations."
Another frequently experienced issue is VOIP delay or latency. "Often sounding like an echo, this is the length of time it takes for speech to leave the speaker's mouth, and reach the listener's ear. There are several types of delay - propagation delay, handling delay or queuing delay, and all can be dealt with by prioritising VOIP traffic over the network."
He says policy-based network management, bandwidth reservation and similar can be used to prioritise VOIP traffic.
He says bad equipment can also cause hassles. "An inadequate router will not do the job. Install a specialised VOIP router that is configured for packet prioritisation, to lessen the impact on call quality caused by other users on the network."
Another common issue, Barker points out, is the incorrect configuration of the internal network. "VOIP, as far as communication technologies go, is in its infancy. Many organisations have not thoroughly thought about the higher quality demands of VOIP. Businesses who opt to route both voice and data over the same network, without properly configuring it for VOIP traffic, will have serious call quality issues."
Here again, he says, a proper business VOIP-capable router that is properly configured will fix the issue.
Ultimately, he says the root of poor quality VOIP calls is easy to find. "Your VOIP service provider should be able to identify and fix any problems, and these problems should not be ongoing. If your service provider is unable to do so, it's time to change provider."
Share