Starhome has announced the launch of ICE (Instant
CDR Exchange); its NRTRDE (Near Real-Time Roaming Data Exchange)
compliant service designed to provide continuous and instantaneous
safeguards against roaming fraud. ICE fulfils the basic layer of
Starhomes complete fraud protection suite, which includes Starhomes
Roaming Anti-Fraud product for real-time fraud prevention. 
Starhome says the service will enable mobile networks to meet the GSM
Association (GSMA) requirements, following its conclusion that current
measures used to combat roaming fraud are insufficient. In response to
this assessment, the GSMA has devised NRTRDE to speed up fraud
detection and this standard is now mandated for industry-wide
deployment by 1 October 2008.
ICE is the result of a partnership between Starhome and European NRTRDE
provider Optel.  The partnership provides mobile networks with complete
end-to-end NRTRDE service monitoring and management for fraudulent
calls on visited networks 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, from a
dedicated operation centre.
The partnership combines Starhomes technical expertise in mobile
telephony, networks and signalling, along with its worldwide reach and
experience in real-time roaming fraud detection, with Optels expertise
in NRTRDE, from monitoring 100 million European fixed and mobile users,
to processing more than one billion CDRs daily.
The cost of roaming fraud is rising, explains Eran Gilad, VP Business
Development at Starhome. It makes up 25% of total revenue leakage, and
accounted for almost $60 billion (30 billion) in lost revenue to
mobile networks in 2006. However, the measures which track and manage
fraudulent activity on their users networks cannot help operators when
fraudulent subscribers are abroad. 
Gilad continues: The GSMA has realised that the HUR (High Usage
Report) method, where transmission of the HUR CDR to the home network
from the visited network can take up to 36 hours is not
adequate. Delays in fraud detection, even for a single incident, can be
very costly and the home network is liable for the cost of any
fraudulently made calls. 
ICE replaces HURs, and works by managing, controlling and delivering
roaming data on a near real-time basis, eliminating the risk of delays.
ICE routes roamer CDRs from the visited network to the home operators
fraud management, revenue assurance and subscriber spending limit
systems, giving mobile networks the required data and reliability to
reduce roaming fraud.
ICE fulfils the GSMAs NRTRDE requirements, but is only the first layer
of Starhomes complete fraud protection suite, which can be expanded to
offer complete roaming fraud protection, with the key Roaming
Anti-Fraud service for real time fraud protection. This solution
monitors operators outbound roamers and can take real-time actions
such as disconnecting calls to fraudulent destinations and barring
fraudulent subscribers. Implementing Roaming Anti-Fraud together with
ICE, says Starhome, provides operators with complete roaming fraud
detection and prevention.