There are more than 35 thousand base stations in Ukraine that provide people with communication. Their coverage is limited, so there are so-called gray spots. These are places where the connection is poor and there are interruptions in the Internet. There are such areas in remote villages, forests, mountains, and on highways. In general, 4G coverage is still far from being continuous.
The National Commission for the Regulation of Electronic Communications (NCRC) constantly checks mobile coverage. However, it takes several years to travel the entire country and conduct an inspection with special equipment. Subscriber feedback and speed tests can help save time and pinpoint problem locations.
This was written by Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine Mykhailo Fedorov.
Quick feedback
Currently, feedback can only be provided in the format of an official appeal to the telecom regulator. It needs to justify how the operator violates the law or consumer rights. The government agency then analyzes the number of complaints, and if there are a lot of them, it can conduct an unscheduled inspection and issue an order to the operator. For users, this is a waste of time.
“We want to remove bureaucracy from this process. We want everyone to be able to respond quickly, do speed tests, and report communication problems without any additional actions,” says Fedorov. – “This will be a legal basis for unscheduled checks of coverage and incentives for operators to improve it.
Based on such data, the regulator and operators will be able to identify and solve problems related to Internet speed and availability of communication. In addition, this will save the state tens of millions of hryvnias. After all, mobile coverage checks with special equipment are expensive and require a lot of resources. In particular, equipment, fuel, etc.
Speed monitoring
According to the government’s action program, the average mobile Internet speed in Ukraine should be at least 2 Mbps. This speed should be available in all settlements and on roads where there is mobile communication. In cities, the actual figure is much higher, but in some villages, on the contrary, it is lower.
Speed is one of the indicators that operators use as a competitive advantage. However, it is not officially recognized as an indicator of communication quality. Therefore, it is not monitored in any way, and the regulator does not have much data on specific locations where the speed needs to be increased.
Now, to measure the speed of communication or the Internet, specialists travel around settlements and highways and make test calls and connect to the network. However, it takes a lot of time and resources to travel all over the country to make measurements.
“After the legislation is amended, residents of such settlements will be able to monitor the Internet speed themselves instead of waiting for specialists to check it. They will be able to conduct speed tests and send the results to the regulator in a few clicks using a smartphone,” the official emphasizes.
This, in his opinion, will allow the government agency to respond quickly to problems and influence their resolution. In addition, mobile Internet speed will officially become one of the indicators of communication quality.
“This will allow the state to effectively check whether the download speed is really sufficient everywhere and encourage operators to improve it. We want to ensure that both cities and villages have fast internet speeds that allow people to use messengers, video chat or share files from their smartphones,” adds Fedorov.
Support for the bill
Therefore, it is important to ensure support for Draft Law No. 9463 in the parliament during its reading.
If the law is passed, subscriber speed tests and speed monitoring will be mandatory for operators.
