KQI

KQI, or Key Quality Indicator, is a metric used to quantify the quality of a telecommunications service from the user’s perspective. Unlike traditional KPIs, which monitor operational performance such as network availability or utilization, KQIs aim to reflect the end-user experience, often summarized as Quality of Experience (QoE). They are usually defined for specific services or applications, such as voice over IP, video streaming, online gaming, or web browsing, and are derived from a mix of objective measurements and subjective assessments.

Measurement and examples: KQI data can come from active measurements, passive monitoring, and occasional user feedback. For video streaming, common KQIs include startup delay, rebuffering events, rebuffering duration, and average delivered bitrate. For VoIP, indicators include call setup success rate, packet loss, jitter, latency, and user-perceived quality scores. For web access or gaming, page load time, time to first byte, latency, and frame rate may be used. KQIs may be combined into QoE scores, but operators often report both individual indicators and aggregated measures.

Usage and challenges: Operators and service providers use KQIs to monitor service quality, guide troubleshooting and optimization, inform capacity planning, and support SLAs with customers or partners. Challenges include variability across devices, networks, and locations; privacy and consent considerations; data quality and representativeness; and lack of universal standards, which leads to inconsistent definitions. Effective KQI programs require clear service definitions, robust data collection, and transparent thresholds.