Independent Survey Rates Glo 4G LTE Best in Lagos

By Emma Okonji
The National Independent Wireless Broadband Quality Report (NIWBQR) has rated Globacom the best in terms of 4G LTE services in a recent survey.
NIWBQR, an organisation, which specialises in providing national broadband industry report on mobile wireless telecom services explained that the survey took into cognisance the experience of customers and the technical quality of all the 4G LTE networks in Lagos before arriving at Globacom’s position as the best. Smile and nTel came second and third respectively according to the report.

The body said the methodology applied in the survey include the purchase of SIMs with unlimited data and unlimited throughput from the five service providers in the report in order to perform simultaneous FTP data transfers and Pings on all their networks.
“The throughputs and other performance measurement indicators recorded are therefore those that any customers with similar subscriptions are likely to experience,” the survey report revealed.

Tools and equipment including mobile phones, scanners, GPS Receiver and loggers were used during the driving tests around Lagos. Among the data collected are latency, continuous uplink file transfer and continuous downlink file transfer.
Globacom’s services were outstanding in uplink and downlink application layer throughput when the exercise was completed. Throughput refers to the amount of data moved successfully from one place to another in a given time period, measured in bits per second (bps), megabits per second (Mbps) or gigabits per second (Gbps).
NIWBQR revealed that Globacom had excellent RF coverage and quality, without any common Radio Frequency (RF) performance issues – RRC Call Drops, RRC Connection Failures, Handoff failures, excessive call setup delays and so on.

The second in the rating, Smile, had lower uplink and downlink application layer throughput than most due to an undeclared throughput. The body said Smile was ranked higher than MTN and because it has a higher service accessibility rate than MTN and better coverage than nTel.
NIWBQR said that it was observed that MTN lacked contiguous LTE service along the driven route.
“As such, some of the application layer throughput recorded for MTN was in 3G”, the body stated. NIWBQR is an offshoot of Enextgen Wireless Limited.