RoamX

One of the major factor in the GSM status as the world’s leading mobile technology has been its ability
to deliver a seamless, cross-border roaming service to allow GSM users to be accessible wherever they are. However, to date, worldwide roaming requires bi-lateral roaming agreements with an increasing number of 3GSM operators. As the operators increase their roaming agreements, the time and cost required for the full scope of the IREG and TADIG testing increases drastically. While it is often worthwhile for established operators to have bilateral GSM agreements with other major operators, setting up dedicated agreements with smaller operators or going through the timeconsuming negotiation and testing phases when launching new services like GPRS, CAMEL or 3G roaming, is usually financially questionable. At the same time, newer operators, who are late entries into the market, not only find it difficult to set-up agreements with major operators but are also limited to settle agreements with other small operators as these agreements often fail to offer a clear return on investment. The Roaming Hub model, part of the Open Connectivity initiative, is the GSMA response to withdraw the complexity and expense constraints of the current bi-lateral roaming model. Whereby Roaming Hub model, operators only need to set-up and maintain a single contact and connection point to automatically reach all the networks connected to a Hub, and through peering between hubs, reach operators connected to other hubs.

AerVox’s RoamX is a GSM Association (GSMA) compliant Roaming HUB solution providing global GSM roaming access through a single agreement , significantly reducing the time and costs consuming testing and maintenance phases in establishing new commercial international roaming.
The RoamX fully complies with the Open Connectivity requirements, a GSM Association initiative that introduces the Hubbing concept as the future key enabler for the improvement of a large variety of roaming, inter-working and interoperability services.

AerVox's RoamX solution allows established Wireless Operators, who have already invested heavily in a large number of mature roaming agreements, to offer instant roaming services to smaller or emerging carriers who may otherwise not be able to offer extensive roaming coverage. Large Network operators with presence in several countries or regions can also use it to provide international roaming capabilities to affiliated operators in different global markets.

This network solution enables wireless carriers to behave as a roaming broker therefore offering roaming capabilities to other operators. The broker carrier exploits the RoamX solution in conjunction with its existing roaming agreements and network infrastructure and establishes a billing mechanism to charge the smaller carriers subscribed to the service, as appropriate. With a one time agreement with the broker carrier, the smaller and affiliated carriers can offer roaming services to their subscribers without the need to negotiate individual agreements or integrate their SS7 networks.

The RoamX is based on standard roaming procedures. Roaming relations are set up using conventional signalling and clearing methods. With a single bilateral roaming relation the broker carrier provides roaming access as well as messaging interconnection to all other partners connected to the RoamX solution. Smaller and/or affiliated operators benefits from managing a single relation with the broker carrier rather than multiple ones, which reduces the complexity of negotiating and maintaining agreements. They can use existing infrastructure to access the broker carrier RoamX solution and no additional investment is required.

The RoamX solution allows operators to focus on their core competencies without compromising international roaming, the driver of mobility, all through one standard roaming agreement with the broker carrier.