Starhome has revealed that the BARG (Billing and Accounting Roaming Group) of the GSM Association (GSMA) has determined that the companys Gateway Location Register (GLR) solution is not an Anti-SoR (Anti Steering of Roaming) solution and cannot be considered as a hostile means to maintain roamers in an operators network.
The GSMA is clamping down on Anti-SoR solutions, which attempt to sidestep operators steering solutions, first deployed in the mid-1990s, which ensure that users roam on the operators preferred network when they are away from their home network. Anti-SoR solutions do not conform to GSMA standards in terms of the international signalling between the home operator and the visited network. They can result in the user finding themselves without network coverage.
The GSMA has been investigating Starhomes GLR solution for round 18 months. The problem was that GLR limits the international signalling costs between the visited network and the home operator, so it saves a lot of cost for the visited network, which led the GSMA to worry that it might be an anti-SOR solution, but this has now been proved not to be the case, Starhome VP Marketing and Business Development, Amit Daniel, tells Mobile Marketing. 
The GLR works by providing a mechanism for aggregating individual MSCs (mobile switch control) to reduce the MAP (Mobile Application Part) signalling between the HPMN (Home Public Mobile Network) and the VPMN (Visited Public Mobile Network). As a result, the Gateway Location Register provides the VPMN with the ability to significantly reduce the amount of signaling messages sent to its signaling provider and toward other Home Public Mobile Networks (HPMNs). Starhome has delivered more than 65 successful live installations of the GLR solution.
Operators can now feel confident of using Starhomes Gateway Location Register as a means to increase their inbound market share, says Starhome COO, Shlomo Wolfman. Starhome has always maintained that its Gateway Location Register is a legitimate solution to manage and optimize operators inbound roaming traffic; we are happy that BARG has confirmed this.