French regulator Arcep announced plans to change the way the quality of service (QoS) indicators for fixed internet and telephone services are measured, proposing a methodology based on crowdsourcing tools to reflect users' experience. In order to commit to this new approach, the regulator is consulting on a draft ruling amending the Framework Decision of 2013 on measuring and publishing fixed service QoS indicators (Decision No. 2013-0004). Based on this draft ruling, certain provisions will be removed from the second half of 2017, as they are judged to be no longer relevant to the QoS scoreboard.
The next step towards the new methodology will be the publication of a study comparing different crowdsourcing tools on the market, expected in early 2017. This comparative analysis follows a call for partnership proposals earlier this year, when the regulator received ten responses from industry players interested in collaborating on the new methodology.
Alongside the consultation, which closes on 05 January 2017, Arcep has also published the H1 2016 fixed service QoS scoreboards and said that they will be the last to follow the current methodology, which is based on tests performed in a controlled environment.