Mobile Broadband Performance Evaluation: Analysis of National Reports

Electronics

Yalew Zelalem Jembre¹  Beomjoon Kim¹  Woon-young Jung²  Rajib Paul³  Muhammad Attique⁴ 

[1] Department of Electronic Engineering, Keimyung University, Daegu 42601, Korea;Department of ICT Infrastructure & Platform, National Information Society Agency (NIA), Daegu 41068, Korea;Department of Software and Computer Engineering, Ajou University, Suwon 16499, Korea;Department of Software, Sejong University, Seoul 05006, Korea;

关键词: performance evaluation;    mobile broadband;    network operators;    regulators;    metrics;   

DOI  :  10.3390/electronics11030485

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Five decades have passed since the first bit was transmitted over the internet. Although the internet has improved our lives and led to the digital economy, currently only 51% of the world’s population have access to it. Currently, consumers mostly access the internet via mobile broadband, 2G, 3G, and 4G services. Regulatory bodies such as the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) of the US are responsible for ensuring that consumers receive an adequate service from Mobile Network Operators (MNOs). Usually, regulators evaluate the performance of each MNO in terms of service quality yearly and publish a report. To evaluate performance, metrics such as coverage, download/upload speed, and the number of subscribers can be used. However, the evaluation process and the metrics used by each regulatory body are inconsistent, and this makes it hard to determine which nations are providing adequate services to their citizens. Furthermore, it is not clear as to which performance evaluation is the right path. In this case study, we analyzed the reports released from eight nations (United States of America, United Kingdom, France, South Korea, Japan, Singapore, and Australia) as of the year 2020. We then point out the advantages and the drawbacks of the current evaluation process and metrics. Furthermore, a discussion on why the current methods are not sufficient to evaluate 5G services is presented. Our findings indicate that there is a great need for a unified metric and that this process becomes more complex with the rollout of 5G.

【 授权许可】

Unknown