Starhome Mach, a provider of mobile inter-carrier roaming and M2M/IoT services, recently analyzed the implications of the new EU regulations eliminating operators’ ability to charge for roaming within EU borders, and the company has deployed a series of solutions.
With this permanent roaming requirement, consumers can now buy and use a SIM from a country with significantly lower monthly costs than their country of residence and bring it home with no financial repercussions. According to the company, with the regulations reducing roaming fees already in place, permanent roaming has grown by 45 percent, with average data per permanent roamer at 2MB/day over the past year.
Starhome Mach predicts that, with the new regulations coming into force, permanent roaming traffic will further increase significantly. Fair usage is another issue expected to affect operators’ bottom lines, where cross-border plan abuse may lead to significant losses. Based on Starhome Mach Business Management analysis for roaming traffic, last year's summer travel season alone had a 50 percent increase in the number of users and a 50 percent increase of average data per user, totaling more than 200 MB per month, per user.
Starhome Mach’s new solutions are designed to address both permanent roaming and fair usage by containing and minimizing the impact of the new regulations. The solution helps detect such abuse, and provides the MNO with the knowledge required to take action to reduce the impact on its business. The fair usage solution examines domestic and foreign usage, using advanced analytics to detect and apply surcharges, where applicable, while eliminating billing complications and keeping the subscriber fully informed.
“For consumers, the borderless EU is a great boon to their telecommunications needs,” said Itai Margalit, CEO, Starhome Mach. “However, with the exponential increase in data roaming, operators will need to implement solutions that allow them to closely track and analyze the changing reality and take needed actions on both the retail and wholesale levels while ensuring they keep their customers informed.”
Edited by
Alicia Young
