Heuristic assessment of service quality: case of mobile communication operators

A heuristic approach is proposed and considered in assessing the quality of information services on the example of mobile operators. The characteristics of the services of mobile operators can be divided into positive and negative. The former characteristics are directly proportional to the preferred choice of mobile communication users, and the latter are inversely proportional. For example, ceteris paribus, preference is given to a lower cost for the use of mobile communications. The existing characteristics of the services of telecom operators are displayed in the tables in numerical terms of the corresponding dimension. Every mobile operator has such reporting spreadsheets, which are usually available in the Internet. In this regard, there arises a problem of determining a more preferable operator by given numerical values of the characteristics of services. In the proposed work, there has been made an attempt to determine the quality of mobile communications based on statistical indicators and input quality markers determined on the basis of heuristic assumptions. Bringing the numerical values of the characteristics of communication services to relative units determines the arithmetic average level of each of the characteristics of mobile communication services. According to this average level, generalized markers are assigned that characterize the quality of the services provided by the corresponding mobile operators. Packing the generated numeric markers into a container makes it possible to rank mobile operators by the values of quality markers. It helps to determine which of the telecom operators will be more preferable for the user.