Bharti Airtel, India's largest telecoms services provider, and Viavi Solutions announced at MWC 2017 that they have jointly conducted measurement and analysis of 4G and 3G smartphone performance-representing over 8,000 smartphone models-crowd-sourced using a big data approach from the live Airtel network, with help of location intelligence platform.
The analysis was intended to evaluate variation in key performance indicators (KPIs) impacting user experience in various smartphone models, to develop a process for smartphone qualification using real-world quality of experience samples, and to provide manufacturers with data to improve future products.
This initiative would shed light on smartphone quality and its impact on user experience, especially in an open market for devices. The study is available in a white paper co-authored by the two companies, and available at www.viavisolutions.com/sites/default/files/technical-library-items/bhartiairtel-wp-maa-nse-ae.pdf.
A set of KPIs were selected to represent user experience based on smartphone performance. Viavi's location intelligence platform recorded measurements of these KPIs from smartphones representing 2.2 million unique subscribers in Delhi, capital city of India.
For each KPI, a benchmark was set to indicate the minimum performance expected. For a 4G smartphone to qualify, it should meet set threshold in 8 out of 12 parameters or KPIs (at least four each for 4G & 3G). 3G only smartphone would qualify upon meeting set threshold in 4 out of 6 KPIs.
Of the 8,000 unique smartphone models that were part of the study, 300 models accounted for 80 percent of the total smartphone population. Amongst the top 128 smartphone models, around 23 percent of 4G smartphones and 13 percent of 3G only smartphones did not meet the qualification benchmarks.
The analysis confirmed that there is variation in smartphone types, and corresponding variation in user experience under the same network conditions.
"Airtel is committed to delivering an exceptional experience to our customers," said Abhay Savargaonkar, Director - Network Services (India & South Asia), Bharti Airtel. "Given the massive scale of customers served by our network, this study provides a 360-degree view on customer experience and generates insights for collaborating with device OEMs to serve the customer even better."
