Measuring mobile network experience from the customer’s side

What is shaping telecommunications

Telecom operators compete on network experience, price and service across consumer and enterprise markets. Retail and distribution still matter in a digital-first world.

• Network experience drives churn and loyalty
• Data plans and bundles are compared constantly
• Enterprise connectivity needs consultative selling

A mobile network operator, working in India: 40 cities and their rural surroundings. Client identity is withheld to protect confidentiality.

Organisation

A mobile network operator

Sector

Telecommunications

Team engaged

IT & Development

Services

Quantitative research, Offline data collection (CATI & CAPI), Data analytics & dashboards

The operator’s engineering data showed improving coverage and speeds, yet customer complaints and churn were not falling. Leadership wanted to understand how customers actually experienced the network, where it fell short and whether perception matched technical performance.

• Deliver on the brief: measuring mobile network experience from the customer’s side.
• Design around the real needs of subscribers.
• Define requirements and success criteria the solution would be tested against.
• Deliver a reliable, secure solution the team can run and extend.

The work focused on 12,000 subscribers.

• subscribers12,000

Audiences we typically reach in telecommunications

Mobile and broadband subscribersRetailers and distributorsEnterprise IT buyersChurned customersTower and infrastructure partners

Coverage: India: 40 cities and their rural surroundings. Market: India.

• India

An iterative delivery approach: discovery, design, build and test in short cycles, with the client reviewing each step.

1. 1Brief
2. 2Customer survey
3. 3Drive-test comparison
4. 4Circle-level dashboard
5. 5Insight

We surveyed prepaid and postpaid subscribers by telephone and in person, covering call drops, data speeds at home and work, indoor coverage, video streaming and recharge experiences, with quotas by circle, city tier and handset type. Survey results were compared with the operator’s drive-test and network data at a locality level, and differences were mapped on a dashboard for regional teams.

Quantitative researchOffline data collection (CATI & CAPI)Data analytics & dashboards

subscribers

12,000

• Users and stakeholders from every affected team took part in discovery workshops and acceptance testing.

• Requirements were gathered through workshops, process walk-throughs and a review of existing systems and data.

• Peer code review on every change
• Automated and manual testing
• User-acceptance testing with the client
• Release checklist and rollback plan

• Usage and performance monitoring after launch
• Defect and support-ticket trends
• Process time before and after

• Indoor coverage in residential buildings and evening data speeds were the biggest sources of dissatisfaction, problems that outdoor drive tests rarely captured.

Customer perception revealed problems that engineering measurements missed.

• Build on the core insight: customer perception revealed problems that engineering measurements missed.
• Focus effort where the evidence was strongest: indoor coverage in residential buildings and evening data speeds were the biggest sources of dissatisfaction, problems that outdoor drive tests rarely captured.
• Re-measure after the changes to confirm the effect.

• The operator prioritised small cells and indoor solutions in high-complaint localities and began using perception scores alongside technical metrics in regional reviews.

What changed in the business as a result of the work. Impact is described qualitatively.

• Insight report and management presentation
• Cleaned data file and data tables
• Interactive dashboard
• Deployed solution with documentation and handover
• Support and maintenance plan

• Continue the routine and review results every period.
• A natural follow-on question: what do enterprise buyers need?