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    HomeNewsSFR comes top for quality of service

    SFR comes top for quality of service

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    NMS Communications announced today that SFR, the number one private mobile operator in France, with voice quality systems from NMS installed in its network, has outperformed its key competitors in an annual quality of service survey of mobile telephone operators conducted in France by that country’s Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (ART).

    The survey, which evaluates the quality of service under a variety of common conditions of mobile telephone usage, found SFR to provide the best quality mobile communications to users in France’s 12 largest metropolitan areas while aboard
    high-speed commuter trains and while commuting by car along France’s major motorways.

    The 7th annual ART survey has been conducted in France since 1997, and is designed to evaluate the quality of service of mobile telephone networks in metropolitan France as experienced by customers of the three incumbent operators: Orange SA, SFR, and Bouygues Telecom. Calls were tested in the most common user conditions, including: on foot (indoors and outdoors), in cars as passengers (in cities and on
    motorways), and in trains (both suburban trains and high-speed “Train a Grande Vitesse”, or TGVs). SFR led the competition by a wide margin in the survey results for the two places in which voice quality is of most importance to a mobile user–in a car and on a train.
     
    Not coincidentally, SFR has installed in its network voice quality systems from NMS, the leading provider of technologies and solutions for enhanced services and efficient networks. NMS voice quality systems feature Studio Sound(R), the industry’s most advanced and comprehensive voice enhancement technology. Studio Sound delivers noise compensation, noise reduction, and automatic gain control for consistently clear calls, even in the noisiest environments, like those evaluated in the ART survey.

    A study released in August 2004 by J. D. Power and Associates
    cites voice quality as significantly impacting customer usage of and satisfaction with wireless services. According to J.D. Power’s 2004 Wireless Call Quality Performance Study(SM) of typical wireless user calling patterns, such as those measured in the ART survey, three of the top four problem areas impacting overall call quality experience the most are static and interference, voice distortion, and echoes–all of which can be addressed using Studio Sound voice quality technology. By investing in the voice quality improvements offered by
    Studio Sound, SFR has done just this, and the ART survey proves the positive impact of Studio Sound on SFR’s network and its subscribers is clear and measurable.

    “The results of this year’s ART audit do not surprise us one bit,” said Clarke Ryan, VP and General Manager, NMS. “The entire value proposition behind our Studio Sound technology is to improve communications in noisy environments where wireless telephones are most commonly used. Any operator can experience the same quality results as SFR brings its customers by employing our voice quality systems powered by Studio Sound. The results really do speak for themselves.”

    “Overall call quality performance varies based on where a call is placed or received. In order to provide the best possible call quality experience, carriers need to manage their network to reflect their specific customers’ usage patterns,” said Kirk Parsons, senior director of wireless services at J.D. Power, in a press release. “With an increasingly competitive environment and changing industry landscape, carriers that offer superior network quality will increase their likelihood of attracting new customers and will retain more of their existing base.”

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    NMS Communications voice quality