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Throughout 2007 Ditech Networks, a provider of voice quality solutions globally, conducted an audit to measure the level of mobile phone voice quality that currently exists. The audit was first to quantify a subscriber's actual calling experience rather than relying on subjective surveys from polling companies or data from the network. Poor voice quality is causing mobile phone users to churn (find another vendor) at alarming rates. Until now, however, carriers had little means to identify how bad the situation really is.
Voice quality audits spanned 16 mobile service providers operating in 12 countries. The goal of the audit was to quantify the impact of mobile devices as well as environmental factors on the user's call experience. The audit employed Ditech's Experience Intelligence (EXi) technology solution in the voice stream in TDM and IP networks. The solution quantified the impact of voice quality impairments caused by the places where calls are made, codec impairments, and the wide variety of mobile phones and headsets. Data was obtained from an exhaustive 630 million live mobile calls originating in a general mix of urban and rural areas.
The report combines North America and Europe, defining the combination as mature markets. South America, Asia, North Africa and the Middle East are referred to as "rapid growth markets." Statistics include the percentage of calls with an R-Factor or less than 50% which are rated "unacceptable," and calls with "objectionable" noise and echo--where there is ambient noise exceeding 40dBm or a SNR below 25dB.
According to Ditech, a whopping 39% of all calls were deemed "unacceptable" or likely to cause churn to another carrier. In mature markets, 23% of all calls fell below industry minimums and in rapid growth markets, 59% of calls fell into the same category.
Issues include:
- Ambient Noise--affected up to half of all calls in some regions.
- Acoustic echo from headset or phone affected 11% of calls and results from calls being made in such small spaces as automobiles.
- Voice level mismatch, where volume is set too high or too low causing one caller to shout while another is whispering, happens in 28% of all calls.
The full report is available from Ditech by callilng 650-623-1365 or by going to Audit Report. In September 2007 Ditech released a report on the global impact of dissatisfaction with mobile call quality. Poor voice quality is, according to Ditech, believed to have caused more than 182,420 mobile subscribers to leave their service providers each day during 2007. The cost of the churn is estimated at $23.6 billion.
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