FEEDBACK ON DISRUPTIONS TO MOBILE PHONES

Mr Chuang Shaw Peng asked the Minister for Communications whether his Ministry is aware of the feedback from mobile phone users of frequent disruption to their mobile phones at certain places in Singapore and, if so, if he will elaborate on the measures taken to rectify the problem.

Mr Mah Bow Tan: TAS requires the operators to regularly monitor the Quality of Service (QoS) of our telephone networks, fixed as well as mobile. It is aware of incidents where mobile phone users experience service disruptions at certain places in Singapore. This is caused by environmental factors such as local obstructions, eg, high rise buildings between mobile phones and base stations, and radio interferences.

TAS has a set of QoS standards that spells out the minimum service levels which both SingTel Mobile and MobileOne are required to comply. These standards are benchmarked against international service levels achieved by service operators in places such as UK, Hong Kong and Australia. Overall, both service providers have been able to meet the standards.

Service providers are also required to monitor users' feedback received and submit the statistics to TAS for monitoring. Both operators have been taking measures to rectify or make good any problems fed back by consumers.