WASHINGTON-Osiptel, Peru’s regulatory agency, has released service quality levels to be achieved by the country’s mobile operators.
The agency defined three quality indicators: grade of service (ratio of non-completed calls to all call attempts due to technical or operational causes); radioelectric coverage (minimum acceptable signal intensity), and communication quality (ratio of interrupted calls to completed calls).
According to the new rules:
The percentage of non-completed and interrupted calls must be lower than 5 percent during peak hours-for 90 percent of all cases until 31 December, 2001, 95 percent of cases by 2002, 97 percent by 2006 and 99 percent by 1 January, 2008.
During non-peak hours, the percentage of non-completed and interrupted calls must be lower than 10 percent for 95 percent of cases until 31 December, 2001, 97 percent of cases by 2002, 98 percent by 2006 and 99.5 percent by 1 January, 2008.
For radioelectric coverage, the agency expects a minimum signal intensity of -90dBm for 90 percent of calls until 31 December, 2003, and for 95 percent of calls by 1 January, 2004.
Non-compliance will result in fines, for each percentile point missed, of between US$18,220 and US$27,330. Mobile operators have 60 days as of 1 June, 1998, to adjust their equipment to these standards.
According to Osiptel, mobile communications in Peru experienced a growth of 585 percent in the past few years and had 480,000 subscribers as of December 1997, much of the growth attributed to the introduction of Calling Party Pays.
