Quantifica Methodology
The production of this report relies on QUANTIFICA's innovative information system and specific tools, adapted to the telecommunications market.
QUANTIFICA information system
The information system developed by QUANTIFICA involves five stages: the gathering of qualitative and quantitative data; entering those data into a databank; selecting data; analyzing data; establishing key figures for the final version of the database.
The gathering of data involves continuously adding qualitative and quantitative information to the database. QUANTIFICA obtains information from more than 1,500 sources (operators, Internet Services Providers, regulators, ministries, statistical offices, professional associations, etc.) and more than 2,000 Internet sites. Three methods are being used to gather statistical data: regular requests for annual and quarterly reports; QUANTIFICA’s questionnaire to many actors (operators, ISPs, regulators, etc) and finding information that the previous two methods have not provided through Internet searches.
All the information gathered is then entered into the databank of quantitative Internet data. This unique databank holds the whole of QUANTIFICA validated data. This databank is the product of over 50 countries by thousands of items, each of them declined on a statistical series since 1996. Thus, QUANTIFICA's Internet database contains over 180,000 data among them 50,000 have been selected for this report (full version).
The last stages involve the selection of the figures that will be used for the publication of the market report. The selection is made with the aim of comparing those figures that are indeed properly comparable. For instance, the issue of double counts of users and/or cards is to be handled with precaution. Thus, in this report all users figures have been obtained either through the addition of the number of subscriptions claimed by each operator listed as detaining a nationwide licence by its NRA or, in some specific cases, directly via the figures published by the NRAs.
As a matter of fact, in many markets, the existence of MVNOs or of mobile groups operating on the same domestic market (e.g. one nationwide operators and its local subsidiaries) may result in counting one mobile subscription twice and eventually mislead the observers of these markets, when using MNOs only avoids such issues.
Forecasts
QUANTIFICA processes forecasts up to 2010. QUANTIFICA uses modelling and forecasting techniques that allow estimation models to be created that are specific to each country. These models estimate likely developments in each country given its macroeconomic situation (GDP, population, composition of population, business environment, forecasted mediumterm growth etc), levels of telecommunications equipment and usage of telecommunications networks.
Establishing key figures for the final version of the report is the last stage in QUANTIFICA’s information system and involves publishing more than 50,000 of all the selected figures from the database. Thus QUANTIFICA has many more figures than are published in the Handbook. Many more detailed indicators could therefore be published, but QUANTIFICA has decided that the Handbook is above all an overview; however, QUANTIFICA does provide specific information searches on request for clients who would desire additional indicators.
Once key figures and indicators are determined, comments are written up for each item. These seek above all to point out the major cyclical and structural changes in telecommunications, by underlining key figures found in the tables of data.
Our methodology implies a yearly review of all historical data to ensure their reliability. Thus, data may be subject to re-estimates and vary slightly according to the latest data provided by our sources.