Operators Seek Compliant Roaming Solutions, says Starhome

European mobile operators are seeking to quickly find and implement Roaming Control solutions that will enable them to comply with tariff-reduction and roaming legislation set to take effect in less than two months, according to industry analysts at Starhome, which provides roaming services for mobile network operators.
We are seeing a noticeable rise in inquiries for Roaming Control solutions, says Starhome Vice President of Marketing, Amit Daniel. Operators are understandably concerned about finding and implementing solutions in such a short time without incurring penalties, disrupting existing operations or inconveniencing customers.  
The European Parliament Plenary recently adopted the Roaming II Regulation, which is set to commence on 1 July 2009, and will significantly affect the roaming industry. One provision of the regulation has limited the Euro-SMS tariff. Subscribers sending texts abroad must not be charged more than 0.11 (0.10), and those receiving text messages in other EU countries cannot be charged. The Commission also proposed a safeguard limit (per megabyte) for wholesale data roaming fees.
Demand for Roaming Control solutions has remained consistently high, says Starhome, with several mobile operators implementing them before the passage of Roaming II regulation. It says the demand has been driven by end user requests, and by operators attempts to reduce customer complaints and increase revenues.
An effective Roaming Control solution provides mobile operators with real-time monitoring of data usage and enables operators to define limitations, packages and notifications using existing platforms and connectivity to their current systems. Operators can support different and more complex rating plans for roaming, and allow subscribers to define individual cost caps in real-time.