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| The old Globe corporate logo. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
The country’s largest telecom companies vowed yesterday to provide better service to subscribers upon the completion of their respective network modernization after failing to meet the service standards set by the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC).
In a press conference, Globe Telecom Inc. president Ernest Cu said subscribers would enjoy better service once the first phase of the company’s $700 million is completed by March 1.
“As soon as we fully fire up our brand new network, our subscribers and the entire nation will enjoy a whole new mobile experience that is once again pioneered by Globe Telecom,” Cu stressed.
He pointed out that the network modernization program started last March 28 is already 50 percent complete and the change-out completion nationwide is expected to be within the first quarter of next year.
He reiterated that the Ayala-controlled company is building a new network that is future-proof resulting in higher quality call, pervasive 3G and 4G coverage, and faster mobile internet experience.
Despite the ongoing network modernization program, Cu said the legacy network of Globe outperformed that of Smart Communications Inc. of dominant carrier Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) based on the network benchmark test conducted by NTC for the second quarter.
However, he explained that the company’s service in areas such as the Makati City central business district encounter congestion in certain times of the day.
“I am saying that our service is not perfect. There is no perfect network, if someone is telling you their network is perfect then they are lying,” Cu said.
On the other hand, Smart said the second quarter Quality of Service Benchmarking Conducted on Mobile Network Service Providers of NTC confirmed the company’s network superiority over that of Globe.
Smart spokesperson Ramon Isberto said in a telephone interview that the company outperformed Globe in four out of the five categories used by the NTC in the benchmarking test.
“In four out of those five categories used in the NTC test, we are saying that we are doing better. It is better to have four out of five than one out of five,” Isberto stressed.
He added that the NTC quality of service benchmarking showed that Smart’s network is better even though the company was in the middle of its P67 billion modernization program that was recently completed.
Smart vowed to work hard in order to provide its customers superior service despite the validation by the NTC test that its network was superior than that of Globe.
“By completing our network transformation in mid-2012, we are now moving on to deliver to our subscribers next generation services such as the Long Term Evolution. This is vital because we realize that, in the end, it is the satisfaction and judgment of our customers that really matter,” Smart said in a statement.
Globe and Smart failed to pass the standard for Grade of Service of four percent set by the NTC. The monitoring showed that Smart scored 9.95 percent while Globe had 4.45 percent. The Grade of Service or blocked calls refer to the percentage of calls that were not given access by the network.
