Inter-standard roaming simplifies customer experience

Passports and visas, check-in and security, and which shoes to leave at home, international travel can be a stressful experience for many of us. Consider then the added hassle of managing multiple phones, SIM and carrier subscriptions for each trip. This is why it is vital that communication service providers do everything possible to make staying connected while abroad as simple an experience as possible, and not let technological hurdles stand in the way of potential roaming revenues.

Starcomms Plc Nigeria, supported by MACH and Accuris Networks, has made history by enabling the world’s first ever pre-paid inter-standard roaming call to be made whilst roaming on an international GSM network. This agreement will provide Starcomms with more than three million pre-paid CDMA customers with seamless access to international mobile roaming on GSM networks and other wireless technologies. It will heighten Starcomms’ international network coverage and simplify the roaming experience of its customers whilst travelling abroad.

MACH’s Inter-Standard Roaming (ISR) solution is able to enhance Starcomms’ status, improve customer satisfaction and increase revenue. Firstly, by providing seamless pre-paid international roaming access to customers the operator will command a greater share of revenues that would otherwise be spent on hotel and airport WiFi. Secondly, the operator will increase customers’ mobile usage by offering a full portfolio of voice services and applications to customers anytime, anywhere and through one device and with one bill.

Operators need to implant themselves in the emerging embedded device market

Mention machine to machine (M2M) communication to most people in the telecoms industry and the most likely first example they’ll give you is vending machines ordering their own supplies, or automated gas and electricity meters. But what is rarely discussed is the global nature of many M2M solutions and the impact that has on operators.

Global logistics, asset and cargo tracking and particular industries (for example, automotive) are looking to connected embedded devices to monitor across borders and networks. As the need for more connections increases, global manufacturers with global support centers embedding M2M capability into their products want a SIM that is provisionable across all possible geographies that the product is sold to.

Therefore innovative new roaming agreements and tariffs will need to be developed and deployed to accommodate these evolving patterns of behaviour, where SIMs may communicate frequently regardless of borders and distance.

Simplicity is the ultimate (roaming) sophistication

Holidaymakers are psyching themselves up for summer break, and the only thing that they should be worrying about is surfing the waves and not the cost of surfing the internet when they are away. Recent EU legislation, which came into effect on July 1st, aiming to reduce the problem of ‘bill shock’ has set a precedent for the future of using mobile usage abroad by capping how much operators can charge for roaming.

However, at MACH Insights 2010, Chris Burke, Chief Technology Officer, explored the need for greater clarity from communication service providers (CSPs) in a much broader sense. He advocated that whilst smartphones have created a whole new world of possibilities for users, this progress has created a complicated environment overpopulated with devices, operating systems, standards and jargon. The evolution of the phone from a simple 2G voice device to also include 3G, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, and networks soon adding LTE, has confused consumers with many unsure that if they are using Wi-Fi on their handset that it isn’t necessarily a carrier provided service.

Consumers are not being irresponsible or using their phones too much when they go abroad, they simply don’t understand the costs and what their tariffs mean. Many consumers therefore simply switch off their phone completely while on holiday as a precaution to avoid massive bills. The average consumer also doesn’t understand what a megabyte is and therefore a €5 per MB tariff is not helpful.

Rather than leaving customers feeling like it is taboo to roam when abroad, it is vital that everyone with a stake in the industry raises awareness and understanding of these issues. That is why MACH is facilitating relevant tariffs to deploy and stimulate the natural usage that is already there. Owning the subscriber (and the billing) is the most important part of the equation, but this brings with it a certain level of responsibility.

Roaming hubbing offers rapid growth

Roaming hubs have tremendous potential in assisting operators to grow roaming revenues and can rapidly bring value to Latin American communication service providers. (CSPs)

This was the key point highlighted by Miguel Calvo, managing director of Link2One, when he spoke at the GSMA North America and Latin America conference held last month.

Roaming hubs simplify international roaming connectivity by enabling CSPs to connect via one route to multiple partners worldwide. One signaling route enables multiple roaming relationships, while one connection provides voice, data, CAMEL and SMS roaming services to supported networks. Roaming hubs also serve to complement existing bilateral relationships with additional destinations that traditionally would not have been financially or logistically viable. In a presentation entitled ‘Roaming Hubbing- Overview and Business Case,’ Miguel discussed Open Connectivity (OC), a GSMA initiative that consists of three solutions – Global Roaming Quality (GRQ), SMS Hubbing and Roaming Hubbing.

The goal of the OC initiative is to improve the efficiency of establishing and maintaining bilateral interworking and roaming agreements. OC also aims to define and facilitate operator implementations of solutions to establish new agreements quickly and easily. Considering the complexity of roaming, the expenses incurred and various other issues associated with the traditional bilateral model, roaming hubbing is a solution that appeals to all operators.

Roaming hubs are the best solution available to CSPs who are looking to rapidly grow their roaming businesses, whilst keeping full control over their costs, strategy and business development.  We believe that Link2One, a joint initiative between MACH and Telefonica, has  the necessary competencies and the experience to grow the roaming hubbing market globally.

Well-travelled World Cup fans increase mobile roaming traffic by nearly 300%

World Cup fever has gripped the globe and as excitement builds for the Holland vs Spain final this weekend, communication service providers should also have something to cheer.

Those lucky fans tat have been able to make the once in a lifetime trip to South Africa have wanted to share their experiences, celebrations, or commiserations with friends and family in their hometowns. MACH reports that mobile roaming traffic related to South Africa has significantly increased by nearly 300% during June 2010, compared with the same period last year.

Running an effective roaming business requires diligence and close evaluation of business performance such as daily voice, SMS and data traffic. However, the task of measurement, which typically requires pulling records from various data sources, is cumbersome for many mobile operators

MACH has also seen an almost doubling of voice roaming traffic and an approximate 150% increase in SMS (sent) roaming traffic for the first three weeks in June, while GPRS data roaming activity increased almost threefold.

Business intelligence of this kind allows communication service providers to detect potential billing or mediation issues that would otherwise prevent roaming CDR generation. It helps them to react in a timely manner to market changes, to limit revenue leakage, to focus on business decisions and roaming strategy and ultimately to reduce churn through improved quality of service.

Whilst the World Cup has undoubtedly played a part in this significant increase in roaming traffic, we cannot forget that there is a world outside the World Cup, and the statistic is also influenced by other factors such as the global trend in international travel and the growing subscriber base around the world.

WiMAX future lies with roaming

The future success of WiMAX will depend on successful roaming, but its implementation is both complex and challenging to achieve.

This was the point hammered home by Tue From Hermansen, MACH’s director of Next Generation Solutions, when speaking at the WiMAX Forum Global Congress in Amsterdam last week (16^th June 2010).

There are over 120 mobile WiMAX operators in 60 countries with more than 2.5 million mobile WiMAX subscribers worldwide. This represents a tremendous WiMAX roaming opportunity, whereby operators can increase revenue through both outbound and inbound roaming, while effectively reducing churn.

In a presentation focused on WiMAX roaming and entitled ‘The WiMAX Roaming Business Case,’ Tue talked about the advantages of adopting a hubbing model for implementing WiMAX roaming versus the establishment of a myriad of bilateral roaming agreements amongst global operators of all kinds. Establishing roaming through multilateral hubbing is the fastest and most efficient way to achieve global WiMAX roaming. There are also many differences between a connection HUB + bilateral RP approach and a connection HUB + multilateral approach.

Meanwhile, Ramon Castillo, MACH’s technical product manager, chaired the subsequent panel discussion entitled ‘What will WiMAX Roaming Look Like? Collaborating to Realise the Global Ambition of the WiMAX Proposition.’

MACH’s WiMAX and Interoperability model is easy to manage and its cost effective connection makes it a smarter choice. The flexibility and design robustness of MACH WiMAX roaming services renders agility to the business models. Castillo’s panel discussed the readiness of WiMAX roaming and the business models, both post paid and prepaid, that will support it.

In conclusion, there is tremendous roaming opportunity out there considering the WiMAX market size. Market experts predict roaming revenue will reach EUR 140 million by 2014. The big takeaway from the WiMAX Forum Global Congress 2010 is that without global roaming coverage, mobile WiMAX success will be minimal.

Roaming insights

Roaming was the focus of the third and final day at MACH Insights 2010, where MACH’s own Diederik Hoekema, senior roaming business specialist, kicked off the proceedings with a detailed analysis of the key roaming trends.

Amid analysis of the ‘ash cloud affect’ and EU anti bill-shock regulation, it was the topic of anti-Steering of Roaming (SoR) that attracted questions from delegates. This is a major problem for communications service providers and requires diligence by everyone in the industry to solve.

SoR enables home network operator’s to direct subscribers to roam on preferred roaming partner’s network when using their mobile phones abroad.

Rather than look to the GSMA for solutions, all operators need to work together to effectively blacklist rogue players. It’s a very small industry that we operate in and simple information sharing can reduce this problem, where other solutions have failed.

Faisal Al Dwaikat, Director Roaming & International Services, VIVA Kuwait, took the discussion one step further, talking about strategies to cut  roaming costs and increase margins. His presentation titled “Developing Strategies to radically Reduce Your Roaming Cost Base & Drive Profits” gave a quick recap of the current scenario and explained the basic roaming cost elements. Faisal went on to explain ways to reduce roaming costs and covered various components such as Interconnect, SS7 Links, Data clearing, Financial clearing, SMS & MMS HUB, GRX, Outbound IOT and others.

When in Rome…

Set in the beautiful city of Rome, Insights delegates have been roaming the city after each day’s presentations.

This included an al fresco meal at Ristorante Paris in the historic Trastevere region of the city, a treasure hunt around the ancient Forum and Palatinate (complete with Romans!), and a idyllic feast in the Villa dei Lecci, a 1900s liberty-style private villa.

Here’s a selection of some of the photographs.

Uncertain times

“There’s never been such a time of uncertainty”, warned Informa’s Chief Research Officer Mark Newman as he laid bare the threats and opportunities communication service providers are now facing.

This warning set the scene for a series of Mach Insights 2010 first-day presentations all examining the current state of the mobile market.

As highlighted by Newman, the steep decline in Voice ARPU is a matter of concern for all network operators and should drive the latter to revisit their data services strategies. This is supported by the stat that data traffic over the networks is now doubling every six months.

Google is all set to launch Google Voice, Telefonica has bought Jajah for a whopping $120 mn and LTE is about to accelerate the migration to IP-based services. This speaks volumes of the power of ‘voice’. It’s no surprise then, that the mobile operators are paranoid about mobile VoIP.

Operators are now partnering with Internet brands to offer new services, in a bid to differentiate themselves and increase their market shares. Operators have a crucial role to play as access providers but the “free” Internet model will force them to become more efficient. They want to launch their own platform to compete with the handset OS and the Wholesale Applications Community is an attempt to go global. Emerging market operators will see a much slower evolution and a greater opportunity to partner with Internet companies.

Eli Katz, CEO of XConnect, gave a Keynote presentation that covered topics such as global trends, IP opportunities and challenges, federations, services and an overview of XConnect. Talking about today’s interconnecting environment and the IPX/HUB Federation Solution, he emphasized the fact that multi-lateral IPX hub-based Services is the only scalable solution.

Katz further added that XConnect scalable IPX Hub federation services are required to enable the mass-market adoption of new services including Hi-Def Voice, Video, RCS (IM and Presence). With the industry asking for IP interconnection, core networks, and IP based services and increasing demand for connectivity, IPX is the need of the hour.

Introductions

MACH Insights 2010 kicked off in style with cocktails and networking for delegates at the poolside terrace.

Attendees were treated to ice-breaking games, including Chinese whispers and Pictionary, and were encouraged to share stories of interesting events in recent weeks.

More details on Monday’s programme, focussed on market insights, will be posted soon.