Short messages where designed as a simple, extended and cost-effective communication media, for subscribers to send messages to each other, and for MNOs to communicate with their subscribers.
Through the access to subscribers’ presence and location awareness, and by means of specific value-added services, mobile operators can easily generate and send personalized short messages to their outbound subscribers and to their inbound visitors. For most of these value-added services the subscribers’ location information can be easily obtained by simply monitoring the carrier’s existing signalling network.
One capability that has yet to be widely exploited is that home networks can monitor the location of subscribers roaming onto other networks, and still communicate with them. This feature can be very useful to provide roaming rates information, send advice on which numbers to dial to access services provided by the home network, or deliver advertising messages about local hotels and restaurants.
AerVox Abroad-SMS allows sending information to roaming-out users whenever they get registered for the first time in any Visited operator (VPMN), and while they remain roaming in the VPMN. Abroad-SMS is an effective mean for the Home networks to send roaming, business or marketing information to its outbound subscribers.
Key Benefits
Allows a flexible Information Message delivery:
 When First-time Registration takes place.
While subscribers remains registered in a VPMN and are tracked by the Solution.
Enables to run different Applications used to send differentiated topic messages contents:
Roaming Charges Information
Virtual Home Environment Information
Preferred Network Information
Marketing Information
Etc.
Meets European Community roaming requirements (717/2007 regulation) by allowing HPMNs to provide the mandatory Roaming Charges Information to their outbound subscribers.
The solution performs real-time monitoring of international traffic in order to detect outbound roaming subscribers when they register in a visited network for the first time, and track them while they stay abroad.
The Abroad-SMS framework enables defining different messaging applications used to send differentiated topic messages. Applications such as the “Roaming Charges Information”, the “Preferred Network Information” or any other application can simultaneously provide service. All these customizable applications share a common functionality provided by the framework to detect and track outbound roamers, and to send them information messages, but are defined to deliver specific kinds of information, e.g. roaming charges, numbers to dial to access home network services while roaming abroad, advertising information, etc., to the roaming subscribers.
Main Features
Continuously monitors the whole international traffic and:
Detects and identifies subscribers starting a registration process in a visited network.
Tracks roaming-out subscribers while they stay abroad.
Sends Information Messages in a Flexible way depending on criteria such as:
the deployed Applications;
the VPMN in which the Subscribers roams;
the subscriber Type;
Etc.
Provides useful per-user roaming information.
Targeted information can be easily sent based on roaming information:
Visited networks can be classified and grouped into countries or zones.
Countries can be grouped into zones.
Black-list: supports networks and subscribers black-lists. Can be used to prevent the Abroad SMS from sending SMS to the specified operators, and Subscribers.
SMS Broadcast: allows broadcasting any emergency message to all active outbound roamers.
Integration with third party external applications: provides a module (interface) allowing any external application to obtain the subscribers roaming data (Msisdn, Imsi, last visited countries, networks, VLR, last entry and departure dates, etc.) and to send targeted information.
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