Mobile Europe asked Alon Barnea, VP of Marketing and Business Development at value added roaming service provider Starhome to list some of the key services available to operators, an to assess their impact on the bottom line.
Recent research from the Informa analyst group on Global Mobile Roaming estimates that the number of international roamers will more than quadruple between 2004 and 2010, growing from 210,000,000 to 850,000,000. The research predicts that these new roamers will predominantly be occasional business travellers or holidaymakers, many of whom are not very familiar with international dialling conventions.
The following advanced roaming solutions are already available to enhance operators’ control of roaming, improve the travellers roaming experience and open up new opportunities for cooperation between roaming partners.
Steering of roaming
This service provides mobile operators with powerful remote control over the VPMN (Visited Public Mobile Network) selection process when their subscribers roam in foreign countries. It allows the operator to steer outbound roaming subscribers to preferred VPMN networks according to their priorities and criteria. For example if the customer has a 3G mobile phone the operator could steer that user to the network that provides 3G services in the visited foreign country.
Call Assistance
Call assistance service corrects common dialling errors that roamers make due to unfamiliarity with international dialling. Roamers make frequent dialling errors when placing international calls, due to unfamiliar dialling conventions and language barriers. Statistics from live networks show that up to 60% of these calls are never completed with the result being lost operator revenue and fewer completed calls. Features of this service include seamless call completion, and/or intelligent SMS to educate users. A recent report by Starhome suggests that in 2004 the mobile industry losses due to roamers dialling mistakes exceeded $525 million. An Asian operator that has implemented Intelligent Call Assistant saw its monthly incremental revenue increase by $2 million in 2004.
Home short code
This solution allows travellers to continue using their familiar short codes for home based VAS (Value Added Services) while roaming (for example voicemail, customer care, directory assistance, ect). Using Home Short Code operators provide visiting roamers seamless access to VAS. Features enable seamless VAS access and MNP support for outbound as well as inbound roamers. Statistics from Starhome show that only nine to 12% of roamers are currently using short codes, and operators are losing at least 0.2 euros per roamer per day.
Optimal Routing
Roaming calls may sometime be expensive, due to routing inefficiencies involving an international leg to/from the HPMN (Home Public Mobile Network). Optimal Routing is a simple cost effective solution that enables the visited network to route calls directly. By eliminating international tromboning and HPMN handling, international call handling costs to the VPMN are reduced. Operators can offer flexible tariffs to the caller/called parties and create strong incentives for use.
Optimal Voicemail Deposit
When roamers don’t answer calls from their HPMN, the visited network default routes the calls back to the home voicemail system. This inefficient international tromboning results in higher call costs and increases the likelihood that the subscriber will disable voicemail forwarding. Optimal Voicemail Deposit overcomes problems caused by incomplete signalling. Roamers get better control over their incoming calls and reduced costs for voicemail deposits and late call forwarding to other numbers.
Direct Late Call Forwarding capability lets roamers determine where to forward calls when the handset is busy, or the calls are not answered. Calls are routed directly from the home network to the forwarded number, thereby, eliminating international legs.
Local Roaming Number
Mobile roamers often turn their handsets off, reject incoming calls or purchase local prepaid SIM cards to reduce their roaming expenses. Local Roaming Number service provides roamers with all the benefits of a local number, eliminating the need for them to acquire a foreign SIM card. This feature enables the roamer to present a ‘local presence’ while roaming.
HPMNs can pre-assign their outbound roamers with a local MSISDN (Mobile Station Integrated Services Digital Network) before their trip. The new local numbers can be used for receiving calls immediately. Calls can be generated using both the original number and the new local number, thus benefiting from reduced tariffs for mobile generated calls.
Roaming Portals
Roaming portals allow operators to better serve their important roamer segments by enhancing their roaming experience. Roaming portals provide services and the top ranked telephony voice and data services via a unified, single user interface. These services include comprehensive data and voice services, tailored promotions, city guides and weather.
Promotion Suite
This allows operators to send spam-free promotional messages to inbound and outbound roamers to increase use of roaming services. There are three main features — welcome & outbound SMS, Winback SMS and Call4Action.
A Welcome Back feature extends a welcome home message to outbound subscribers as they return home, the content of which can be tailored to specific roaming communities.
Winback SMS lets operators bring back visitors that left to a competitor’s network. The Winback SMS detects visitors that left the network and then sends a call-to-action SMS promotion, such as special dialling tariffs (in the user’s native language).
Call4Action prompts “sleeping” subscribers to act. Up to 50% of outbound roamers do not generate traffic when abroad, due to perceived high tariffs or unfamiliar international dialing. By tracking this inactivity, Call4Action can flag these subscribers and encourage them to make calls by sending a special message such as discount offers, dialing tips, tariffs or any other promotional message.