As part of a mobile operators roaming strategy, many consider traffic steering, or directing roaming customers to preferred networks, to benefit from lower prices and/or to alleviate quality concerns. Mobileum Roaming Steering enables operators to implement this strategy and make the most of which partner their subscribers will use while roaming.
Since traffic steering enables dynamic and precise control of the distribution of outbound roamers in foreign networks, operators can dynamically choose partners based on price, mutual traffic deals or delivered quality. Mobileum’s world-leading Roaming Steering footprint maximizes roaming margins by automatically guiding roaming traffic in the right direction based on analytics-driven insight into technology, quality of service, business targets, and wholesale costs.
The Steering of Roaming Service, based on signaling, is an effective tool to reduce the costs of outbound roaming. Traffic is redirected to those networks with whom the Operator has the best wholesale rates.
Mobileum’s Wholesale Business Advisor (WBA) automates the end-to-end management of the operator’s wholesale business by providing a comprehensive view of all roaming partnerships, allowing operators to model, track, forecast and measure the performance of the wholesale agreements. Now operators can confidently track overall performance in real-time, and more efficiently manage budgeting and roaming settlement activities.
Mobileum’s steering automatically adapts to optimize roaming decisions and meet wholesale volume commitments. The intuitive steering of roaming engine is based on a configurable business logic combined with machine-learning algorithms that automatically evaluate received roaming events.
The solution works in conjunction with Mobileum’s Roaming Business Advisor (for wholesale and retail analytics) and its Roaming Customer Experience Management solution (RCEM). With these solutions, operators are able to apply the most appropriate action based on network, experience, and business model. The solution classifies the quality of the customer experience, identifies the primary reasons behind poor performance levels, and continues to self-learn to self-optimize without manual intervention or configuration.
Enabling VoLTE roaming is a step in the right direction to creating network differentiation and delivering inbound roamers a better user experience while ensuring profitability for the MNO.
With Mobileum’s advanced signaling and security, mobile network operators (MNOs) can choose from either home routed, local break out, or regional break out of services, depending on what’s optimal for the call. Mobileum’s device-aware steering allows operators to automatically detect multiple variables in real-time and check VoLTE service compatibility between devices and the network to define custom steering policies for potential VoLTE customers.
As roaming revenues are being directly affected by regulations and price decreases, it is mandatory to direct roamers to preferred networks using accurate steering empowered by business analytics. Mobileum’s steering solution considers the usage of individual roamers to ensure wholesale commitments are met at the earliest possible date. It does so by analyzing different data sources, such as probe feeds and TAP/NRTRDE, segregating the subscribers based on usage patterns and duration of trips, and then creating categories of Low Usage and High Usage class of service.
For each category, the solution runs different steering policies, thus steering high usage subscribers to preferred networks and low usage subscribers to next-best networks.
The rise of augmented intelligence is the key to unlocking the full power of roaming profitability. Not only can the Mobileum roaming portfolio add structure to unstructured data, but it can also use the data to recommend the best course of action in each instance, whether a new deal or previously unthought-of opportunity. Mobileum’s steering analytics allows roaming teams to follow up on recommended steps to take full advantage of their roaming business. The recommendation engine plays a critical role in customer engagement and retention, delivering powerful insights that cover:
❖ Steering effectiveness
❖ Segment specific recommendations
❖ Anti-steering activities
❖ Registration latencies & negative user experience
Mobile devices offer limited compatibility with visited networks, which may lead to user experience issues such as a frozen handset, lengthy time to register, no access to service, or lower data throughput. By having insights into the behavior of handsets that experience such issues and comparing that information with data on visited networks (technology, frequency band, etc.), it is possible to check compatibility between devices and networks and implement different steering strategies for each device model.
Mobileum device-aware steering maximizes MNO’s roaming business by providing greater roaming strategy flexibility, as well as offer the best end-user experience in networks, such as LTE.
Mobileum steering allows operators to define targets for different subscribers and networks to maximize profitability. The quality levels across networks can vary, with poor quality affecting the customer experience. Subscriber groups can be defined, or they can be imported from the CRM, each with full flexibility in steering targets and configuration.
Each network and technology can have different volumes or attach time steering targets, allowing for complete flexibility to direct traffic to the right partners, for the right subscribers, at the right time to maximize revenue. For example, steering VIP high data users to LTE networks while sending IOT to lower-cost 2G/3G network.
Mobileum’s solution covers the demands of IoT devices by managing bootstrap IMSI, eSIM devices with OTA steering, and different steering policies for mobile and static devices. It also enables service accessibility by using advanced algorithms for guaranteed service accessibility for critical IoT segments, moving IoT devices to low-cost networks whenever possible, and prioritizing IoT devices over consumer devices in crises.
Mobileum’s solution provides a unified platform for IoT and subscriber verticals and enables independent policies and configurations for different segments based on type (i.e., eSIM, critical, Bootstrap, VIP, pre-paid).
Mobileum’s Anti-Steering Detection allows operators to detect and block illegal anti-steering activities that may compromise the experience or charges to your outbound roamers.
❖ Multiple detection techniques
❖ Impact and control traffic steering: IMSIs frequently susceptible to Anti-Steering
❖ Multi-level perspective reporting: a comprehensive overview of the impact on the roaming partnership in anti-steering activities and patterns of detections
❖ Revenue and service impact: notifications on modifications in the visited network behavior, steering optimizer to guard against the various anti-steering activities
❖ Customer experience impact: average time a roamer stays in a non-preferred network due to anti-steering; devices impacted due to anti-steering activities
❖ Negotiate with partner networks: PCAP event traces for each detection technique with details on usage record
Power-packed and actionable business intelligence: business dashboard with revenue leakage due to Anti-Steering activities