NTC test shows congestion between Smart, Digitel

**silver_corolla** · April 13th, 2005 02:26 PM

SMART Communications Inc. may be blocking calls coming from the networks of Gokongwei-owned Sun Cellular and Digital Telecommunications Philippines Inc.
According to a voice traffic monitoring report from the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), congestion does exist between Smart's mobile phone network and those of Digitel and Sun Cellular.

The voice traffic monitoring was conducted on the Gokongwei firms' end, with technical staff from the NTC's common carriers authorization department and Digitel doing the required tests.

On the landline side, the test was done on March 31 from 10:30 p.m. to 12 a.m. the next day. For Sun Cellular, the monitoring activities were conducted on April 1 from 12 a.m. to 3 a.m.

Results of the Digitel-to-Smart test indicated that out of 185 switches present, only 17 were occupied at around 11:30 p.m. This means that there were 168 idle switches.

Despite this, only 13 calls out of a total 44 came through successfully, the report stated.

"Based on the foregoing results, it appears that there is call congestion in the interconnection link between Digitel and Smart. Considering the average number of available devices out of the total of 185 available devices, call congestion should not have existed," it said.

For Sun-to-Smart calls, the results were the same.

At 1 a.m., out of 48 call attempts, only 10 calls were successfully connected.

Despite proving that congestion did exist between Smart's network and those of Digitel and Sun Cellular, the NTC report said this did not prove that Smart was actually blocking calls coming from the Gokongwei firms' networks.

"Congestion may either be due to several factors such as call blocking and restriction. However, it is not conclusive to state that the calls are actually being constricted. This requires that tests must also be conducted on the other end of the interconnection link," the NTC report said.

Smart legal and carrier business group head Rogelio Quevedo said in an earlier statement that Sun Cellular was just using those allegations of call blocking as a "scapegoat,'' considering that Sun Cellular's call connection rate was way below the NTC-mandated 93 percent.

**av8or5** · April 13th, 2005 02:54 PM

hmmmm

**mazdamazda** · April 13th, 2005 03:00 PM

kaya laging maingay ang katabing kong dep't (carrier business)... nagaaway pa nga minsan... ;)

**BlueBimmer** · April 13th, 2005 03:20 PM

hirap naman ata matrace kng talagang may deliberate blocking

**boybi** · April 13th, 2005 03:30 PM

OT: for av8or5, silver_corolla and mazdamazda.

recently kasi, nagkabit ng antenna ang isang telco sa isang building dito owned ng isang kakilala ko. nakausap nung kakilala ko yung technician/engineer na nagkakabit, sabi sa kanya, single bandwidth lang daw ang ginagamit nung telco dito sa area namin. kaya minsan meron congestion or mahirap tumawag. ang tanong ko sa inyo, ilan bandwidth ba dapat? ilan simultaneous calls ba ang kaya ng isang bandwidth?

**mazdamazda** · April 13th, 2005 03:39 PM

Originally Posted by BlueBimmer

hirap naman ata matrace kng talagang may deliberate blocking

yan ang umuugong na rumor ngayon dito...

**silver_corolla** · April 13th, 2005 04:21 PM

Originally Posted by boybi

OT: for av8or5, silver_corolla and mazdamazda.

recently kasi, nagkabit ng antenna ang isang telco sa isang building dito owned ng isang kakilala ko. nakausap nung kakilala ko yung technician/engineer na nagkakabit, sabi sa kanya, single bandwidth lang daw ang ginagamit nung telco dito sa area namin. kaya minsan meron congestion or mahirap tumawag. ang tanong ko sa inyo, ilan bandwidth ba dapat? ilan simultaneous calls ba ang kaya ng isang bandwidth?

It is not the question of "ilan bandwidth ba dapat?" kasi isa lang naman talaga ang bandwith ng isang antenna (its either 1800MHz or 900MHz). So a single bandwidth has nothing to do with "congestion or mahirap tumawag". Congestion has something to do with the configuration of a cellsite (how many TRX per sector/site of the antenna). If it is not properly optimized, this will cause congestion, channel blocking, etc. For a fact, a sector of a site can handle simultaneous calls in a given time.

**boybi** · April 13th, 2005 05:52 PM

nawala sa isip ko, yan nga pala yung single/dual band ng cellphones ! ang pumasok kasi sa isip ko nung una yan yung kung ilan ang kayang simultaneous calls na kayang i-handle. thanks for clarifying.

yung isa ko pang kakilala, upon hearing it, gusto na agad mag text brigade para tumawag sa CS pa i-complain kung bakit single bandwidth lang ang ginamit dito sa amin

**beeper0358** · April 13th, 2005 06:03 PM

Dati nang style sa magkakaaway na carriers yan, i limit lang nila yung incoming capacity mula sa kabila sa existing trunk nila de mag que na ng mahaba pag simultaneous madaming incoming calls. Tapos gaganti naman yung isang carrier para masaya :lol: Pero on some equipments may record yan at puwedeng ma trace kung gusto ng engineer involved.

**1D4LV** · April 13th, 2005 06:09 PM

Originally Posted by boybi

nawala sa isip ko, yan nga pala yung single/dual band ng cellphones ! ang pumasok kasi sa isip ko nung una yan yung kung ilan ang kayang simultaneous calls na kayang i-handle. thanks for clarifying.

yung isa ko pang kakilala, upon hearing it, gusto na agad mag text brigade para tumawag sa CS pa i-complain kung bakit single bandwidth lang ang ginamit dito sa amin

.

yup. smart and globe runs on 900/1800 bandwidth, while sun is on 900/1900. so technically, yung mga triband phones lang ang uubra sa Sun ng maayos,although, tatakbo pa naman sya sa 900 mhz lang. yun nga lang, at certain places, talagang mahina signal.

pero i really doubt if there are deliberate blocking involved. in the first place, why will Smart do that? tsaka ang hirap i-prove nun, unless yung magiinspect eh knowledgable dun sa mismong equipment and software na ginagamit ng smart.