4G LTE coverage signal strength vs signal quality

 

Corona Virus (COVID-19) has put enormous pressure on telecommunication operators as companies adopted remote work model following the lockdown imposed by the government to control the spread.

Now, Quality of Service (QoS) has been on the frontburner as more users work from home thereby putting telecom network infrastructure in the country to test.

The serious of the situation caused telecom companies under the umbrella of Association of Telecommunication Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) to request for temporary spectrum to rave-up service delivery to the subscribers.

So, what is the state of 4G LTE coverage signal strength versus signal quality?

‘Emetrics’ result released by Enextgen Wireless Limited shows the coverage quality of 4G LTE in Nigeria.

The result made available to TechEconomy.ng shows this is a measure that is not readily available or necessary elsewhere in the world.

In many countries, excellent coverage results in excellent coverage quality.

“Not in Nigeria. In many cases in Nigeria, excellent signal coverage results in marginal signal quality. Since the quality of the signal determines the throughput available, very low throughput is experienced even in areas with excellent signal coverage.

“This leads to disappointing mobile internet experience as some applications require a minimum throughput to function smoothly. Low throughput often leads to disappointing mobile internet experience”, said the President of Enext Wireless Inc. Engr, Remi Adeyeye.

The report

This report focuses on Victoria Island (VI) and Lekki Phase 1 in Lagos.

In these two regions, all four major national mobile network operators – MTN, Glo, Airtel and 9Mboile – provide very good 4G LTE signal coverage (signal strength).

However, only MTN provides coverage quality that is anywhere near what is typical for such good signal strength.

The poor coverage quality reduces downlink throughput offered by the networks in most of the covered area.

9Mobile has the strongest coverage (signal strength) of the four. However, the quality of its coverage is rather patchy, particularly in Victoria Island.

Figure 1 below shows a map of 9Mobile’s coverage.

Mobile network operators can and should provide better service with the 4G LTE infrastructure they already have in place.

Figure 1: Very good 4G LTE coverage (Signal Strength) from 9Mobile

Enextgen Wireless can be reached via [email protected]