Thika Road

Benchmark Report

January 2016

Objective
Drive Test with phones on Dual Mode from forest Road(Nairobi)
to Thika town and compare the three Networks Performance
on :
General Network Coverage RxLev/RSCP
General Network Quality Rxqual/RSCP
Negative Events like Call drops and Handover Failures
Ue/Ms Tx Power Plot
Setup failures
Call Drops
Call Setup Time

Methodology
70 seconds call with a pause duration of 30 seconds
( Applies for an MS on Automatic mode) to allow for
reselection.
MOC( Mobile to test numbers) Safaricom - 918
Airtel - 0733000142
Orange -777
Number of execution set to 9999.
2

Location and Map

EN
D

Drive Test
Route

star
t

THIKA ROAD SUMMARY

Network Coverage
Safaricom - over 88.8% Good Highway Coverage(above -85dBm) (Best)
Airtel About 72.7% Good Coverage(above -85dBm)
Orange About 80.8% Good Coverage(above -85dBm)

NB: This Values are on dedicated mode and are subject to power
Control.

Network Quality
Airtel has the best Quality with 92.1% 2G Rxqual samples below 5 and 60.2%
3G EcNo samples above -9dB.Orange has poorest 2G Quality.
Poor dominance around Juja, Ruiru and Githurai causing call drops(Juja) to
both Safaricom and Airtel.

Recommendations
RF optimization for sites along Thika road Especially around Ruiru
and Githurai
RF or new site required around Juja where there is ping pong
handover, prolonged interference and a call drop.

Safaricom Call Details

CC Messages

CC Setup

CC Call Confirmed

Count

RR Messages

Count

21

RR Handover Command

47

RR Handover Complete

46

CC Connect

21

CC Alerting

21

The Events

Count

RR Handover Failure

MM Messages

Count

Outgoing Call Starts

21

MM Location Updating Request

11

Outgoing Call Setup OK

18

MM Location Updating Accept

11

Outgoing Call Setup Failure

MM Location Updating Reject

Incoming Call Starts

Incoming Call Setup OK

Incoming Call Setup Failure

Call Completed

18

Call Dropped

Handover OK

46

Handover Failure

C3 - Safaricom Confidential

TECHNOLOGY
Safaricom

Orange

Airtel

In all the networks, phones on

dual mode initiated and
maintained calls on 2G network
for Safaricom phone on Dual
mode spend 88% on 2G
compared to 72% for airtel. No
Voice calls were made on Orange
3G.
C3 - Safaricom Confidential

Coverage RXLEV/RSCP
Safaricom

Airtel

Orange

Safaricom has better Coverage

along Thika road with 2G having
about 88.7% having better than
-85dBm while 3G has 80.6%
better than -85dBm.

C3 - Safaricom Confidential

Quality RxQual/EcNo
Safaricom

Airtel

Orange

Airtel has better quality in

both 2G (92.1% RXQual
better than 5)and 3G(60.2%
of EcNo better that -9dB)
while Orange has the poorest.

C3 - Safaricom Confidential

BAND UTILIZATION
Safaricom

Airtel

Orange

Safaricom has the best 1800

band utilization with 79.8% of 2G
calls utilizing the band

C3 - Safaricom Confidential

CALL DROP EVENTS

Safaricom

Airtel

Orange had
zero call drops
while safaricom
dropped one
call in 2G in Juja
while Airtel
dropped a call
on 3G in Ruiru

Orange

C3 - Safaricom Confidential

10

Dominance &Interference Events

Safaricom

Airtel

Orange

Safaricom has the largest cases

of Prolonged interference and
Ping-pong hand overs.

C3 - Safaricom Confidential

11

Serving CI
Safaricom

Airtel

Orange

Safaricom Call Drop happened in

a section of the highway where
there is no Dominance.

C3 - Safaricom Confidential

12

Methodology
Benchmarked the three networks by downloading and
uploading two files as shown below from the indicated ftp
server
Phones were locked to WCDMA
Smartphone 3MB http DL- dest external server
Smartphone 1MB http UL dest external server
ftp server: 212.49.70.12

Objective
To compare:
Active Ec/Io Plot
Active RSCP Plot
Ue/Ms Tx Power Plot
PSC Plot
Throughput D/L
Throughput U/L

13

THIKA ROAD DATA SUMMARY

Network Coverage
Safaricom - has the best coverage with samples above -85dBm being 70.4%
Airtel About 58.8% Good Coverage(above -85dBm)
Orange About 61.8% Good Coverage(above -85dBm)

Network Quality
Airtel has the best Quality with 48.3% 3G EcNo samples above -9dB.
Safaricom has poorest 3G Quality.
Poor dominance around Kasarani, Southern Bypass Junction-Ruiru and Juja.
causing RRC drops(Juja) to both Safaricom and Airtel.

Recommendations
RF optimization for sites along Thika road Especially around Ruiru
and Githurai
RF or new site required around Juja where there is ping pong
handover, prolonged interference and a call drop.

14

Active RSCP
Safaricom

Juja

Airtel

Ruiru

Orange

15

Safaricom has the best

Coverage compared to the
other operators with 70.4% of
the sample having RSCP of
-85dBm and above. Ruiru and
Juja areas stand out as having
poor Coverage

Active Ec/Io
Safaricom

Orange

16

Airtel

Juja

Safaricom has the poorest

EN/Io with only 37.7% of
the samples being better
that -9dB. Worst Affected
area is around Juja. Airtel
has the best Quality

PSC Plot
Safaricom

Airtel

Orange

Safaricom has the highest

number of PsC serving
the road, indicating lack
of cell dominance
especially between
Roysambu and Ruiru.
(highlighted)
17

RRC Drops & Pilot Pollution Events

Safaricom had 4 RRC
drops where there
was high Pilot
Polution and no PSC
dominance.

Safaricom RRC drops

around happened
around Forest Road,
Kasarani, Southern
Bypass Junction-Ruiru
and Juja.
C3 - Safaricom Confidential

18