When in Roam…

‘Explosive’ is a word that best describes the growth of Africa’s mobile ecosystem. Demand for mobile broadband, with 400,000 new HSPA connections added every month, as well as competition among large, established operators and a wave of new market entrants, has created one of the most competitive markets in the world. Africa truly is a region burgeoning with opportunities for those who look beyond their network’s borders.

Eugene Bergen Henegouwen is Syniverse’s executive vice president, EMEA

Today, tier one operators represent about 60 per cent of the market, leaving the remaining 40 per cent to smaller companies. This means that operators of all types and sizes must find ways to differentiate themselves. They need innovative ways to generate revenue, sustain growth and identify areas where they can add additional value by providing services that ensure subscribers’ quality of service. One of the best ways to accomplish all three is by facilitating the ability of their subscribers to roam.

Why? First, today’s subscribers expect seamless mobile voice and data connectivity anytime,anywhere. By providing roaming, operators can deliver on these expectations, all while maintaining customer satisfaction and reducing churn. Second, by enabling full roaming capabilities, operators stand to gain additional revenue from incremental inbound and outbound roaming volumes. These opportunities will grow as more networks become broadband capable, and more people use both data and traditional voice services away from home.

Unfortunately, a number of current barriers limit roaming traffic and the ability of subscribers to use their mobile services outside their home networks and across Africa. Large, mature operators are challenged by their ability to cost-effectively manage the hundreds of bilateral roaming agreements. The already high complexity and associated costs increase even more as operators seek to rapidly launch new subscriber services and evolve their networks to next-generation technologies, such as 4G and beyond.

On the other hand, startups and small operators that must compete with larger operators and grow their subscriber bases can be challenged by an inability to quickly expand their reach and global roaming footprints. In Africa, highly competitive growth rates mean these operators often do not possess the necessary relationships and capital to set-up and manage roaming agreements with fellow operators.

Whatever the size of an operator or the reason behind the scenes a lack of connectivity while roaming seems like a service failure to customers. Subscribers don’t want to hear about disparate networks, they don’t want to worry about constantly evolving technologies, and they most certainly don’t want to give a second thought to the difficulties and costs of setting up and maintaining hundreds of roaming agreements.

To meet these subscriber demands, many operators large and small choose to rely on a trusted technology partner that can provide a number of options for ensuring efficient roaming operations and speed up service deployment. An Open Connectivity (OC) roaming hub, for example, is a cost-efficient way for operators to deal with the  complexities of managing hundreds of roaming agreements with roaming partners via a single connection and a single roaming agreement.

A group operator can take this one step further and implement a third-party platform to develop and host its own OC roaming hub that will centralise activities across individual group affiliates, leading to cost efficiencies and intrahub transparency that will provide the organisation the ability to troubleshoot subscriber issues and analyse network data.

Smaller operators and new market entrants in need of immediate global reach can turn to a sponsored roaming solution to gain immediate reach to a large number of global roaming partners and instant global roaming footprint.

Finally, with more than 90 per cent of African subscribers being prepaid, another important option for operators in this region is a third-party CAMEL hub solution capable of simplifying prepaid operations by enabling access to key roaming partners through a single signalling connection and agreement. Clearly, in the vibrant, competitive African mobile ecosystem, the name of the game is simplicity. No matter what approach is taken, the bottom line is the operators that find ways to simplify roaming complexities will be able to achieve differentiation, reduce churn, and grow their revenues.