News Release - Archive

Vodafone Albania Opts for 'All-in-One' Network Quality Solution

Major Albanian Service Provider Chooses Ascom's QVoice Benchmarking and Optimisation Tool to Ensure Mobile Network Quality and Performance.

Vodafone Albania is the latest service provider worldwide to announce the purchase of Ascom's market-leading QVoice solution for the monitoring and optimisation of mobile network quality.

Gjergj Shalesi, Vodafone Albania's manager for quality and regulatory affairs, said: "We chose QVoice because it is the tool that best suits our needs to manage network quality and performance."

"The product portfolio provides the right configuration and functionality to meet our network environment and specific testing applications – benchmarking, end-to-end QoS control and optimisation. Furthermore, the system was proposed by a reputable supplier and was offered with a variety of options and reasonable financial terms."

Mr Shalesi added: "Ascom QVoice sales and support staff helped very much in a very short time to install the system and carry out all acceptance tests and field surveys, as well as developing basic training procedures for quality department staff."

QoS measurement, monitoring and evaluation activities are the responsibility of the company's quality department, which employs a special mobile unit to assess overall network performance by carrying out drive test surveys to measure call success ratios and voice quality.

The measurement equipment is mounted on a vehicle and performs a series of dial-up and measurement activities throughout the drive test period. The QVoice Field Analyser is used for rapid analysis of measurement data collected by the system during surveys of intercity highways, urban, suburban and rural areas. The QVoice Portable system is for measurements indoors and in more isolated areas.

Data analysis results are used for both benchmarking and troubleshooting purposes. Simultaneous measurements of different networks give an accurate picture of how networks actually perform under the same conditions, in comparison with industry best practice/criteria and based on accepted quality indicators.

QVoice reports are then used by Vodafone Albania's radio engineering and network implementation departments as a starting point for devising and implementing strategies to optimise network quality generally.

QVoice, which first hit the market in 1993 as the first system able to accurately measure and assign quantitative value to voice quality, now has hundreds of customers in more than 80 countries. Building on its early success, QVoice is also now leading the way when it comes to testing and monitoring 'third-generation' (3G) networks.

In addition to being the recognised world leader for benchmarking purposes, QVoice meets all the needs of radio (RF) engineers, with their specific focus on optimising performance and quality of individual networks while simultaneously identifying and solving specific problems as quickly and effectively as possible.

About Vodafone Albania

Vodafone Albania is part of the international Vodafone Group – the largest mobile telecommunications network company in the world. Vodafone Albania has been operating GSM services in Albania since August 2001. As of end May 2004, it had a customer base of nearly 550 000 – corresponding to a national mobile market share of nearly 46%.

About Ascom Carrier Products

For over 10 years, Ascom Carrier Products - a full ISO 9001:2000 certified strategic business unit of the Swiss company Ascom – has been the acknowledged leader in the innovative development of mobile network testing equipment. From 2G to multimedia 3G services QVoice, the company's flagship product, is used by telecom operators worldwide in order to maintain network quality and optimized performance.

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