Although the growth rate of GSM subscribers is no longer doubling every year, we are still a long way from an actual stagnation or decline. The forecast for the near future looks as follows: growth of merely 70% in 2000, 55% in 2001, 40% in 2002 and 25% in 2003. This adds up to a total of 350 million GSM mobile phone users. Manufacturers, network operators and repair service providers all need to come to terms with these impressive figures.
What does this mean in more concrete terms for repair service centres?
When cellphones were a communications tool and a significant status symbol, customers were more likely to swallow expensive repair charges if highly skilled technicians performed the work. However, financing of mobile phones by network operators has brought about a transformation in the form of a mass market for the phones. This has led to the creation of GSM service centres built to minimise logistical and functional costs of repairs. Nowadays, these service centres are turning into repair service plants. All steps are highly streamlined and incoming inspection, repair workstations and outgoing inspection use logistics that closely resemble just-in-time production.
And the future?
Processing time will continue to drop as budgets for repair of mobile phones continue to decrease.
The structure of service companies
What are the characteristics of these new service companies? First of all, we can distinguish between: incoming inspection (filter test); low-level repair; mid-level service; high-end service; final inspection.
Filter test - in many cases, physical conditions are what cause poor signal quality or dropped calls and the mobile is not really defective. Nonetheless, users still send such mobiles off for repair, where they are designated NFF (no fault found). NFFs should be prevented from entering into the repair chain to avoid unnecessary drain on available resources (personnel, test systems, logistics) and help keep costs low. A filter test, when performed, say, with Wavetek 4100 series testers, lets you immediately identify NFFs with little expense. If the mobile turns out not to be defective, then, depending on the structure of the service organisation, it is either sent on to final inspection to generate repair reports or immediately returned to the user after the filter test.
Low-level repair - depending on the manufacturer's service concept, low-level repairs can include exchanging loudspeakers, microphones, antennas, keypads, housings and even circuit boards. Many manufacturers require the latest firmware to be loaded into a mobile prior to repair. After repair, the mobile is fully tested again. Here, the right tester is the Wavetek 4100S.
Mid-level repair - at this repair stage, parts are exchanged and the mobile is also aligned and adjusted as per GSM specs. Here, the tester of choice is the Wavetek 4201S.
High-end repair - for difficult cases entailing repair or exchange of components, test systems are needed that resemble the systems used in R&D. Such systems offer top-flight precision and all existing GSM functions and signalling options. Here, the same test systems are generally used as in production of mobiles. The right system for high-end repair is the Wavetek 4400S.
Final inspection - in final inspection, it is speed that counts. Once a mobile is repaired (or an NFF is received), it is subjected to a final test before being sent back to the user. Here, the system of choice is either the Wavetek 4201S or the Wavetek 4400S. Depending on their internal service structure, customers will favour one of these two systems.
Spescom MeasureGraph's Communication Test Division is a southern African distributor for Acterna (formerly Wavetek Wandel Goltermann) products. Contact Paul Louckx, (011) 266 1866.
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