On Tuesday morning, MTN Uganda Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Wim Vanhelleputte received the telco’s “Highest Network Performance Score” award for its data and voice services from Munich based technology firm; Rohde & Schwarz.
The award was formally presented to Mr. Vanhelleputte by Mr. Shakil Ahmed, Director Rohde Schwarz Africa together with Paul Mwangi, Manager Mobile Network Testing, Rohde Schwarz Africa.
Mr. Vanhelleputte while receiving the awards said, quote; “MTN’s commitment over the years to continuously invest in a wide and quality network.”
“The advantage of using this global standard of measurement is that, it challenges us to not only be the best in Uganda but also benchmark ourselves against leading networks across the world. Our consistent investment in the network over the years is getting us ever closer to the ‘best in class’ global networks,” he added.
Rohde & Schwarz bestowed this award on MTN Uganda following tests conducted on ground in Uganda, during the Q3 of 2019 involving extensive tests of voice calls and internet speed evaluations across over 8500km around Uganda as well as static tests in hot spots.
These independently conducted network quality and performance tests were done on the networks of all mobile operators in Uganda. And benchmarked against leading European mobile telephone operators using the network performance scoring methodology of European Telecommunications Standards Institute.
MTN’s network had the highest aggregated voice performance score across major towns as well as highways. This specifically with regard to placement and quality of calls. In addition, the telco also registered the highest aggregated data performance score in relation to quality of videos and ability to stream.
The Ag. Chief Technical Officer, MTN Uganda; Mr. Samuel Sentongo said, “MTN Uganda’s innovation agenda requires that we constantly invest, upgrade and maintain a robust network, one that can optimally carry and sustain both voice and data traffic as well as the rapidly growing mobile financial services portfolio.”
To-date the telco has more than 13 million customers and has made it a strategic priority to deliver and maintain a positive experience for customers using our network.
Early this year, the telco rolled out a pilot test of the Fifth Generation Network (5G) which the Mr. Vanhelleputte said might be rolled out in the next two years if the necessary infrastructure has been put in place. The telco partnered with Chinese-based technology firm ZTE to make this a success.
MTN Uganda became the first operator in East Africa and the third in Africa to showcase the 5G network to its customers, after MTN South Africa and MTN Nigeria last year. The use case trials demonstrated the capability of 5G, giving customers a glimpse of the benefits, this future technology will deliver.
Rohde & Schwarz is a renown international organization that specializes in auditing 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G performance of mobile networks across the globe using the International Telecommunication Union (ITU)/ETSI standards and methodology.
