The Korea Communications Commission (KCC) announced on September 20 that it would comprehensively evaluate the quality of broadband to provide the quality information of communication services and lead quality competition among communication service providers.

Despite the increasing importance of broadband in the areas of economic commerce, internet banking, e-government, and e-mail, the quality information of communication services have been rarely provided to users. The standard of quality compensation and the level of damage compensation have been criticized as being estranged from reality as well.

KCC has prepared the quality evaluation plan for broadband in consultation with academy, research institutes, public institutions, consumer organizations, and business.

KCC will open the result to the public after comprehensively evaluating internet speed, AS satisfaction, and so on
The quality evaluation plan for broadband is composed of two categories of evaluation index, technology and user satisfaction. The evaluation index for technology will measure speeds (upload and download speeds), delay time, and loss factor, while the evaluation index for user satisfaction appraises the degree of satisfaction with AS, the connecting rate of termination call, and whether or not service providers hand over written contracts to users at every level from subscription to termination.

The result of evaluation, combined with specialists’ consults and foreign/domestic cases, will be open to the public. KCC will decide the method and time to open in the near future.

User environments evaluated by region and the type of residence
The quality evaluation will be carried out two times. The first evaluation will be completed with the survey for urban and rural areas. In urban areas (8 metropolis and provinces), it will include 14 out of 20 services provided by seven communication providers, which had over a hundred thousand subscribers (in June 2007). In rural areas (counties in 8 provinces), it will be focused on ADSL service.

In urban areas, there will be the second deep evaluation that compares service qualities of ADSL or VDSL, selected on the basis of the number of subscribers, along with the type of residence (apartment or house).

To evaluate accurately user environments, it will use the quality measurement system provided by National Information Society Agency (NIA), which covers all service sections from user's PC to service providers' networks to Korea Internet eXchange (KIX). The quality measurement server will be located in the KIX section. An automatic quality measurement S/W installed in user’s PC will monitor the quality every 15 minute, maximum 96 times a day, for a week, and report the result to the quality measurement server.

* The automatic quality measurement S/W is designed to prevent errors in measurement by automatically monitoring PC overload and virus infection.

4,150 users selected to measure quality
To obtain confident results, KCC, in cooperation with statistical specialists, will invite a total of 4,150 users as a group of users assigned to evaluate the quality of communication services; 2,800 users in urban areas and 400 users in rural areas for the first evaluation, and 950 users for the second evaluation. KCC will invite them through web advertising, telemarketing, and direct visits. The first mobilized number of users will be three times greater than the fixed number. And, then, the fixed number of users will be finally selected on the basis of random. For the group, KCC will provide speedy supports by placing special regional managers to solve PC breakdown and errors in measurement.

* KCC will conduct a telephone survey on user satisfaction for 9,000 users who are randomly selected.

KCC said that the quality evaluation is expected to provide confident quality information to users and enhance user convenience by promoting sound environments for service quality competition. In addition, it plans to form the basis on which the quality evaluation on communication services is utilized in various ways by improving quality management system and building sound quality measurement system, based on the results of evaluation.