Telecom regulators or operators, who should take care of QoS and QoE?

The Importance of QoE and QoS in Telecommunications Networks

Everybody should receive a good quality of service as telecommunications networks´ users. However, as we have already discussed, the perceived quality of service considerably differs from the real Quality of Service (QoS). The QoE and QoS  could be defined as how the final user feels his needs are met, from an end to end service level. The QoS however, is the objective measurement of the overall performance of the service. A telecom operator should be typically willing to offer the best QoE and QoS possible. The QoS could be measured through technical indicators, but the QoE is harder to measure, since it is necessary to analyze the user perspective, usually through surveys. However, very often if there is not enough competence in a market, or all the operators are offering an average Quality of Service, there might be no special interest in offering better services for the users. In this case it is the regulators’ task to take the reins. Telecom regulators are the public entities created to make sure that citizens get the best communication services, while ensuring open competition. Therefore, if operators are not offering connections good enough, it is the regulators’ duty to create the framework to solve this problem. When regulation is applied to QoS, ideally it is aimed to help both citizens and industry:

• On one hand, the regulation should keep or improve the quality of service offered to the users, no matter if there is too few or too much competition,
• But on the other hand, regulation also aims to help operators to achieve a fair competition: too much operators might discourage network investments, whereas too few could lead to artificially raise the prices.

Regulation also works to help customers objectively decide which company do they prefer to work with, knowing the real quality each operator can offer them. As for the QoE and QoS, each brand will have to work on their customer journey in order to offer the best possible offer to their clients. In conclusion, all agents are interested in offering a good Quality of Experience in the citizens, so even if there isn’t one clear responsible, the operators should be the first ones to work on this topic, but regulators, helped by Medux, can also guarantee the service that the final users are paying for.  

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