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Mobile SMS
and
Data Roaming
Explained
Mobile SMS and data
roaming explained

Roaming is the ability of customers to use their mobile          The usage of mobile data services is typically measured
phones or other mobile devices outside the geographical          in kilobytes (KB) and megabytes (MB), which refers to the
coverage area provided by their normal network operator.         volume of data transmitted for the service used. An e-mail
When customers travel abroad and use their phones or             without an attachment is typically between 1 and 50KB; an
laptops whilst on a foreign (“visited”) network, this is known   average web page can use several 100KBs or even more
as international roaming.                                        depending on the number of graphical elements; and a
                                                                 downloaded song usually consumes 2 to 5MBs of data,
Sending and receiving SMS text messages whilst roaming           depending on quality and length.
abroad is called SMS roaming. Data roaming refers to the
use of mobile data services whilst abroad. The most common       Clearly, the traffic volumes involved in one typical day of data
mobile data roaming services are:                                roaming can vary significantly depending on the type and
                                                                 usage intensity of the different data services.
•	 MMS: Exchanging rich multimedia messages while
   abroad with other customers on GSM/3G networks at             Sending or receiving MMS or push e-mail typically uses
   home or abroad.                                               several 10KBs per day unless large files are attached.
•	 Push e-mail: Reading and replying to e-mails while            Surfing the internet on a handset can incur data volumes
   abroad, automatically ‘pushed’ to mobile devices such as      of a few 100KBs per day, but can also require several MBs
   BlackBerries, personal digital assistants and sophisticated   if rich multimedia content such as MP3 songs and video
   mobile phones.                                                streams are downloaded. Mobile broadband volumes can
                                                                 quickly exceed 10MBs, as laptop-based applications such as
•	 Handset internet: Using mobile devices to access internet     downloading presentations, pictures, music and videos are
   services such as Web pages, Web 2.0 applications, music       typically very data-intensive.
   downloads and video streaming whilst abroad.
•	 Mobile broadband: Connecting laptops via data cards or        As a result of the trend towards higher volumes of data
   USB dongles to the internet to provide access to common       downloaded, operators have introduced innovative tariff
   applications such as e-mail, Web browsers and company         packages, including flat rate daily bundles, which deliver
   networks whilst abroad.                                       much lower prices per MB downloaded than were previously
                                                                 available.




2
What tariffs for SMS
and data roaming
do operators offer?

Operators offer a wide variety of data roaming tariffs catering for different data services and needs. Customers should get to
know the array of tariffs available on the market in order to select the package that best suits their needs. Most tariffs fall into
one of the categories shown in the following table:


Type of tariff                                Description                                    General suitability
Standard roaming tariff                       The default tariff a customer would            These tariffs are typically best suited
                                              use if he has not activated a specific         for occasional roaming with low
                                              roaming tariff option. In this case,           volume usage
                                              customers are typically charged
                                              according to how many SMS or MMS
                                              they have sent or how much data they
                                              have downloaded or uploaded

Special roaming tariff                        For a fixed fee (typically monthly) the        These tariffs are aimed at regular use
                                              customer gets a lower data roaming             with low to average volume usage
                                              tariff (increasingly combined with
                                              domestic data tariffs)

Daily roaming bundles                         A fee for a single day of data                 These tariffs are ideal for the occasional
                                              roaming, which allows data roaming,            roamer with a high data volume
                                              up to a specified data usage limit, for        requirement on particular days from
                                              a fixed fee                                    time to time

Monthly roaming bundles                       A fixed monthly fee, which includes            A regular roamer with high data
                                              a certain amount of data that can be           volumes would typically subscribe to
                                              used within each month while roaming           such a tariff



Tariffs can be identical for all data services or different for the various data services. Some operators, for example, offer daily
roaming bundles for laptop connectivity and monthly bundles for push e-mail roaming. For SMS, most operators do not charge
for receiving an SMS while roaming, in much the same way as there is usually no charge for receiving an SMS at home.




                                                                                                                                       3
How does SMS and
data roaming work?

SMS and data roaming build upon the same principles              What happens when you receive an SMS
used to enable voice roaming. When you travel abroad             while abroad?
and you turn your handset or laptop on, it attempts to
communicate with a GSM or 3G network. Your handset may           •	 A friend sends an SMS to your mobile phone while you
be preconfigured to actively choose a preferred network in          are roaming.
the visited country, but you can choose your own preferred
                                                                 •	 His operator’s network contacts your home network to
network via the handset menu.
                                                                    find out where you are, and then routes the SMS to the
                                                                    network you are roaming on in the visited country.
The visited (local) network picks up the signal from your
device, notes that you are a visitor and attempts to identify    •	 The visited network delivers your friend’s SMS to your
your home network. If there is a data roaming agreement             mobile phone.
between your home network and the visited network abroad
and your network operator allows you to roam, your device
will then be able to access data roaming services. In some
cases, the visited network may only offer basic data services
such as SMS and GPRS-enabled services, such as e-mail, but
not 3G/mobile broadband services (e.g. if the visited operator
has not rolled out a 3G network or if the home and visited
operators have not yet signed a 3G roaming agreement).

What happens when you send an SMS
while abroad?
•	 When you are abroad and you send an SMS home to
   a friend, your SMS is managed by the visited operator’s
   network as well as by your home operator’s network.           What happens when you send an MMS
•	 The visited network passes the SMS via dedicated
                                                                 while abroad?
   signalling links to your home network.                        •	 When abroad and sending an MMS home to a friend,
                                                                    your MMS is managed by the visited operator’s network
•	 Your home network sends the SMS to your friend’s
                                                                    as well as by your home operator’s network.
   network, which delivers it to your friend’s mobile phone.
                                                                 •	 The visited network passes the MMS via international data
                                                                    transit (typically an international cable owned by a third
                                                                    party) to your home network.
                                                                 •	 Your home network sends the MMS to your friend’s
                                                                    network, which delivers it to your friend’s mobile phone.




4
What happens when you receive an MMS                             The visited network operator then uses these details to
while abroad?                                                    calculate the wholesale roaming charge payable by your
                                                                 home network. The data records, including the applicable
•	 A friend sends an MMS to your mobile phone while you          wholesale charges, will be saved in a Transferred Account
   are roaming. His operator’s network routes the MMS via        Procedure (TAP) file.
   international data transit to your home network.
                                                                 TAP files are sent from the visited network to your home
•	 Your home network sends an SMS notification to your
                                                                 network, typically by using the services of a data clearing
   mobile phone abroad.
                                                                 house. A data clearing house acts as a ‘hub’ for the
•	 Once your mobile phone has acknowledged the SMS               distribution of TAP files and provides the home network with
   receipt, the MMS is passed from your home network via         services such as reporting to assist the home network in
   international data transit to your mobile phone.              running its roaming business. Your home network then pays
                                                                 the visited network the appropriate wholesale charges.

                                                                 What is the difference between pre-paid and
                                                                 post-paid roaming?
                                                                 Roaming for pre-paid customers is a more recent
                                                                 development and involves additional investment by
                                                                 operators. This is because roaming signalling and billing
                                                                 systems are more complex for pre-paid services than they
                                                                 are for post-paid services.

                                                                 For post-paid roaming, when the user first switches their
                                                                 phone on, the visited network checks in real time whether the
                                                                 home network authenticates the customer and authorises its
What happens when you use the mobile                             use abroad. But the data records (CDRs) with the details on
internet abroad?                                                 each SMS and data session are sent to the home operator
                                                                 with some delay (up to several days).
•	 When abroad and accessing the mobile internet, including
   push e-mail, handset internet and mobile broadband            For pre-paid roaming, in addition to the initial authentication
   services, also called Packet Switched Data (PSD), your        step, the call-related data must be exchanged in real time
   connection is established by the visited operator’s network   between the visited network and the home network by using
   back to your home operator’s network.                         a special platform (called CAMEL – Customized Applications
•	 The visited operator’s network passes your internet traffic   for Mobile networks Enhanced Logic), to prevent the
   via international data transit to and from your home          balance of the roaming customer’s account from becoming
   network.                                                      overdrawn.

•	 Your home network connects you to the internet, your
                                                                 What are wholesale charges and how do
   e-mail account(s) and other data services.
                                                                 operators set them?
                                                                 Wholesale charges represent the fees the visited network
                                                                 charges the home network for letting the home network’s
                                                                 customers roam on its network.

                                                                 These inter-operator tariffs (IOTs) are agreed bilaterally
                                                                 between the home and visited network operators. Operators
                                                                 often negotiate competitive incentives, for instance, discounts
                                                                 relating to the volume of traffic passed between operators or
                                                                 lower costs for longer sessions.

                                                                 Wholesale charges are paid to the visited network by the
                                                                 home network, irrespective of whether the home network
How do network operators exchange billing                        recovers any fees from its roaming customers.
information for roaming customers?
For all data services (and voice calls), the visited network
captures the details of every session in a Call Detail Record
(CDR). These record information on the location, sending
party, receiving party, time of connection, session duration
and size (measured in KB or MB).
                                                                                                                                5
Selected key elements                   •	 SMS welcome servers: Operators
                                                                 enabling SMS and data                      use these computer servers to
                                                                 roaming                                    identify and send SMS messages
                                                                                                            to roaming customers upon
                                                                                                            arrival in the visited country.
                                                                 •	 Signalling network: Services
                                                                    which enable the exchange of         •	 Traffic management platforms:
                                                                    roaming related signalling traffic      These services allow operators to
                                                                    between the home network and            determine preferred networks for
                                                                    the visited networks.                   roaming and manage roaming
                                                                                                            traffic distribution.
                                                                 •	 Home Location Registers (HLRs):
                                                                    These are databases used             •	 International transit: Every time
                                                                    to store customers’ profiles.           data is transferred between the
                                                                    Communication between these             visited country and the home
                                                                    databases and Visitor Location          country, an international data
                                                                    Registers of the visited network        transit/backbone network is used.
                                                                    allows roaming to take place.        •	 Data clearing house: A third party
                                                                 •	 Visitor Location Registers (VLRs):      that acts as a hub for reporting,
                                                                    These are databases used                the exchange of data records
                                                                    to store information about              (CDRs) and settlement between


Who pays for what?                                                  customers, including those who          operators.
                                                                    roam. Communication between
                                                                    these databases and HLRs of the
                                                                    home network allows roaming to
                                                                    take place.




Sending and receiving SMS                                        Using internet data services
When a customer sends an SMS while roaming, the retail           When a customer connects to the internet while roaming, for
price he pays reflects several cost elements: the wholesale      example to receive push e-mail or read the news, the retail
charge for using the visited network, costs of handling and      price he pays has to cover the following elements: signalling
routing the roaming SMS back to the home network, costs          network fees, the wholesale charge for using the data
for sending the SMS to the receiver’s network, data clearing     connection on the visited network, costs for the international
house fees, signalling fees between the networks and other       transit of the data, costs for connecting to the internet from
costs (e.g. commercial costs, IT costs, prepay checks), the      the home network, data clearing house fees, other costs
home operator’s retail costs and taxes, such as VAT.             (e.g. commercial costs, IT costs, prepay checks), the home
                                                                 operator’s retail costs and taxes, such as VAT.
Most operators do not charge for receiving an SMS while
roaming. The sender of the SMS also only pays the usual          The usage of internet data services is generally measured by
price as if the receiving customer were on their home            data volume usage, which is highly dependent on the type
network. Hence mobile operators bear the additional costs        of device and services used. Checking e-mails, for example,
of handling the received roaming SMS without charging            typically uses less data than downloading an MP3 song.
customers for it.                                                The visited network operator, however, has no visibility of
                                                                 what type of data services visiting customers are using and
Sending and receiving MMS                                        therefore the wholesale price charged to the home operators
                                                                 can only be based on the data volume used per customer.
When a customer sends a MMS while roaming, the retail
price he pays reflects several elements: the wholesale charge
for using the visited network, costs for international transit
of the roaming MMS back to the home network, costs for
sending the MMS to the receiver’s network, data clearing
house fees, signalling fees between the networks and other
costs (e.g. commercial costs, IT costs, prepay checks), the
home operator’s retail costs and taxes, such as VAT.

When the roaming customer receives an MMS, the retail
price includes the MMS cost plus the cost of an SMS sent
to notify the receiving handset that an MMS is ready to be
downloaded. Some operators do not charge for receiving
an MMS while roaming and therefore bear the costs of
delivering the MMS without passing these on to customers.




6
More information

Common acronyms                                                     •	 KB: Kilobyte. Measure for the size of data uploads and
                                                                       downloads. One KB equals 1,000 bytes with each byte
•	 3G: Third Generation mobile network standards. Besides              carrying the equivalent of one single character such as the
   better voice quality, 3G networks allow for faster data             letter ‘A’.
   transfer than GPRS. 3G is often also called mobile
   broadband.                                                       •	 MB: Megabyte. Measure for the size of data uploads and
                                                                       downloads. One MB equals 1,000 KB.
•	 CAMEL: Customized Applications for Mobile networks
   Enhanced Logic. It is an Intelligent Network designed to         •	 MMS: Multimedia Messaging Service. This is an extension
   work on either GSM or 3G core networks. CAMEL helps                 of SMS, which uses an SMS to notify the mobile device
   make pre-paid roaming user friendly, with features such             of a new MMS and GPRS or 3G to download the actual
   as no-prefix dialling, real-time billing and being able to          message and the included multimedia content.
   make and receive voice calls, SMS, MMS and use data              •	 MO: Mobile Originated. Refers to any communication
   services while abroad.                                              whether voice, messaging or data, that is initiated by a
•	 CDR: Call Detail Record. This is the record of a voice call or      mobile phone.
   an SMS, with details such as origin, destination, duration,      •	 MT: Mobile Terminated. Refers to any communication
   time of day, amount charged for each call or SMS.                   whether voice, messaging or data, that is terminated on a
   Roaming partners must share CDRs for accurate inter-                mobile phone.
   operator settlement.
                                                                    •	 MTR: Mobile Termination Rate. This is the fee charged by
•	 GPRS: General Packet Radio Service. A packet-based                  mobile operators to terminate a call on their network.
   mobile data service, mostly used to access e-mail and
   the internet from mobile phones. 3G standards are faster         •	 PSD: Packet Switched Data. Describes data services that
   alternatives to GPRS.                                               use a combination of GPRS/3G and IP, such as push
                                                                       e-mail or mobile web browsing.
•	 HLR: Home Location Registers. These are databases used
   to store customers’ profiles. Communications between             •	 SMS: Short Message Service. Popular service to send short
   these databases and VLRs of the visited network allows              messages (each 160 characters) directly from one mobile
   roaming to take place.                                              phone to another.
•	 IOT: Inter Operator Tariff. This is the wholesale fee that       •	 TAP: Transferred Account Procedure. The TAP is the
   the visited network operator charges the home network               mechanism by which operators exchange roaming billing
   operators for allowing the roaming customer to make                 information (CDRs). This is how roaming partners are able
   calls or use data services.                                         to bill each other for the use of networks and services
                                                                       through a standard process.
•	 IP: Internet Protocol. This is the main protocol to enable
   access to the internet and the Web. It is used in                •	 VLR: Visiting Location Registers. These are local databases
   combination with GPRS/3G data transfers.                            used to temporarily store information about customers,
                                                                       including roaming customers. Communication between
                                                                       these databases and HLRs of the home network allows
                                                                       roaming to take place.

                                                                                                                                  7
GSM Facts                               European mobile subscribers
About 70,000 new GSM connections        Population of Europe: 500 million
are made globally every hour            (EU27 + Iceland, Liechtenstein,
(Source: Wireless Intelligence 2008)    Norway, Source: Eurostat 2007)

There are over 3 billion GSM and 3G     Number of SIMs in Europe:
connections globally                    594 million (EU27 + Iceland,
(Source: Wireless Intelligence 2008)    Liechtenstein, Norway,
                                        Source: Wireless Intelligence 2007)




Where to go for more                    For further questions on
information                             roaming please contact:
To help mobile phone customers          roaming@gsm.org
identify and compare data roaming
tariffs between operators, the          Produced by the GSMA in
GSMA has set up an independent          co-operation with A.T. Kearney
website with regularly updated tariff
information:
www.roaming.gsmeurope.org

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Smsdataroamingexplained

  • 2. Mobile SMS and data roaming explained Roaming is the ability of customers to use their mobile The usage of mobile data services is typically measured phones or other mobile devices outside the geographical in kilobytes (KB) and megabytes (MB), which refers to the coverage area provided by their normal network operator. volume of data transmitted for the service used. An e-mail When customers travel abroad and use their phones or without an attachment is typically between 1 and 50KB; an laptops whilst on a foreign (“visited”) network, this is known average web page can use several 100KBs or even more as international roaming. depending on the number of graphical elements; and a downloaded song usually consumes 2 to 5MBs of data, Sending and receiving SMS text messages whilst roaming depending on quality and length. abroad is called SMS roaming. Data roaming refers to the use of mobile data services whilst abroad. The most common Clearly, the traffic volumes involved in one typical day of data mobile data roaming services are: roaming can vary significantly depending on the type and usage intensity of the different data services. • MMS: Exchanging rich multimedia messages while abroad with other customers on GSM/3G networks at Sending or receiving MMS or push e-mail typically uses home or abroad. several 10KBs per day unless large files are attached. • Push e-mail: Reading and replying to e-mails while Surfing the internet on a handset can incur data volumes abroad, automatically ‘pushed’ to mobile devices such as of a few 100KBs per day, but can also require several MBs BlackBerries, personal digital assistants and sophisticated if rich multimedia content such as MP3 songs and video mobile phones. streams are downloaded. Mobile broadband volumes can quickly exceed 10MBs, as laptop-based applications such as • Handset internet: Using mobile devices to access internet downloading presentations, pictures, music and videos are services such as Web pages, Web 2.0 applications, music typically very data-intensive. downloads and video streaming whilst abroad. • Mobile broadband: Connecting laptops via data cards or As a result of the trend towards higher volumes of data USB dongles to the internet to provide access to common downloaded, operators have introduced innovative tariff applications such as e-mail, Web browsers and company packages, including flat rate daily bundles, which deliver networks whilst abroad. much lower prices per MB downloaded than were previously available. 2
  • 3. What tariffs for SMS and data roaming do operators offer? Operators offer a wide variety of data roaming tariffs catering for different data services and needs. Customers should get to know the array of tariffs available on the market in order to select the package that best suits their needs. Most tariffs fall into one of the categories shown in the following table: Type of tariff Description General suitability Standard roaming tariff The default tariff a customer would These tariffs are typically best suited use if he has not activated a specific for occasional roaming with low roaming tariff option. In this case, volume usage customers are typically charged according to how many SMS or MMS they have sent or how much data they have downloaded or uploaded Special roaming tariff For a fixed fee (typically monthly) the These tariffs are aimed at regular use customer gets a lower data roaming with low to average volume usage tariff (increasingly combined with domestic data tariffs) Daily roaming bundles A fee for a single day of data These tariffs are ideal for the occasional roaming, which allows data roaming, roamer with a high data volume up to a specified data usage limit, for requirement on particular days from a fixed fee time to time Monthly roaming bundles A fixed monthly fee, which includes A regular roamer with high data a certain amount of data that can be volumes would typically subscribe to used within each month while roaming such a tariff Tariffs can be identical for all data services or different for the various data services. Some operators, for example, offer daily roaming bundles for laptop connectivity and monthly bundles for push e-mail roaming. For SMS, most operators do not charge for receiving an SMS while roaming, in much the same way as there is usually no charge for receiving an SMS at home. 3
  • 4. How does SMS and data roaming work? SMS and data roaming build upon the same principles What happens when you receive an SMS used to enable voice roaming. When you travel abroad while abroad? and you turn your handset or laptop on, it attempts to communicate with a GSM or 3G network. Your handset may • A friend sends an SMS to your mobile phone while you be preconfigured to actively choose a preferred network in are roaming. the visited country, but you can choose your own preferred • His operator’s network contacts your home network to network via the handset menu. find out where you are, and then routes the SMS to the network you are roaming on in the visited country. The visited (local) network picks up the signal from your device, notes that you are a visitor and attempts to identify • The visited network delivers your friend’s SMS to your your home network. If there is a data roaming agreement mobile phone. between your home network and the visited network abroad and your network operator allows you to roam, your device will then be able to access data roaming services. In some cases, the visited network may only offer basic data services such as SMS and GPRS-enabled services, such as e-mail, but not 3G/mobile broadband services (e.g. if the visited operator has not rolled out a 3G network or if the home and visited operators have not yet signed a 3G roaming agreement). What happens when you send an SMS while abroad? • When you are abroad and you send an SMS home to a friend, your SMS is managed by the visited operator’s network as well as by your home operator’s network. What happens when you send an MMS • The visited network passes the SMS via dedicated while abroad? signalling links to your home network. • When abroad and sending an MMS home to a friend, your MMS is managed by the visited operator’s network • Your home network sends the SMS to your friend’s as well as by your home operator’s network. network, which delivers it to your friend’s mobile phone. • The visited network passes the MMS via international data transit (typically an international cable owned by a third party) to your home network. • Your home network sends the MMS to your friend’s network, which delivers it to your friend’s mobile phone. 4
  • 5. What happens when you receive an MMS The visited network operator then uses these details to while abroad? calculate the wholesale roaming charge payable by your home network. The data records, including the applicable • A friend sends an MMS to your mobile phone while you wholesale charges, will be saved in a Transferred Account are roaming. His operator’s network routes the MMS via Procedure (TAP) file. international data transit to your home network. TAP files are sent from the visited network to your home • Your home network sends an SMS notification to your network, typically by using the services of a data clearing mobile phone abroad. house. A data clearing house acts as a ‘hub’ for the • Once your mobile phone has acknowledged the SMS distribution of TAP files and provides the home network with receipt, the MMS is passed from your home network via services such as reporting to assist the home network in international data transit to your mobile phone. running its roaming business. Your home network then pays the visited network the appropriate wholesale charges. What is the difference between pre-paid and post-paid roaming? Roaming for pre-paid customers is a more recent development and involves additional investment by operators. This is because roaming signalling and billing systems are more complex for pre-paid services than they are for post-paid services. For post-paid roaming, when the user first switches their phone on, the visited network checks in real time whether the home network authenticates the customer and authorises its What happens when you use the mobile use abroad. But the data records (CDRs) with the details on internet abroad? each SMS and data session are sent to the home operator with some delay (up to several days). • When abroad and accessing the mobile internet, including push e-mail, handset internet and mobile broadband For pre-paid roaming, in addition to the initial authentication services, also called Packet Switched Data (PSD), your step, the call-related data must be exchanged in real time connection is established by the visited operator’s network between the visited network and the home network by using back to your home operator’s network. a special platform (called CAMEL – Customized Applications • The visited operator’s network passes your internet traffic for Mobile networks Enhanced Logic), to prevent the via international data transit to and from your home balance of the roaming customer’s account from becoming network. overdrawn. • Your home network connects you to the internet, your What are wholesale charges and how do e-mail account(s) and other data services. operators set them? Wholesale charges represent the fees the visited network charges the home network for letting the home network’s customers roam on its network. These inter-operator tariffs (IOTs) are agreed bilaterally between the home and visited network operators. Operators often negotiate competitive incentives, for instance, discounts relating to the volume of traffic passed between operators or lower costs for longer sessions. Wholesale charges are paid to the visited network by the home network, irrespective of whether the home network How do network operators exchange billing recovers any fees from its roaming customers. information for roaming customers? For all data services (and voice calls), the visited network captures the details of every session in a Call Detail Record (CDR). These record information on the location, sending party, receiving party, time of connection, session duration and size (measured in KB or MB). 5
  • 6. Selected key elements • SMS welcome servers: Operators enabling SMS and data use these computer servers to roaming identify and send SMS messages to roaming customers upon arrival in the visited country. • Signalling network: Services which enable the exchange of • Traffic management platforms: roaming related signalling traffic These services allow operators to between the home network and determine preferred networks for the visited networks. roaming and manage roaming traffic distribution. • Home Location Registers (HLRs): These are databases used • International transit: Every time to store customers’ profiles. data is transferred between the Communication between these visited country and the home databases and Visitor Location country, an international data Registers of the visited network transit/backbone network is used. allows roaming to take place. • Data clearing house: A third party • Visitor Location Registers (VLRs): that acts as a hub for reporting, These are databases used the exchange of data records to store information about (CDRs) and settlement between Who pays for what? customers, including those who operators. roam. Communication between these databases and HLRs of the home network allows roaming to take place. Sending and receiving SMS Using internet data services When a customer sends an SMS while roaming, the retail When a customer connects to the internet while roaming, for price he pays reflects several cost elements: the wholesale example to receive push e-mail or read the news, the retail charge for using the visited network, costs of handling and price he pays has to cover the following elements: signalling routing the roaming SMS back to the home network, costs network fees, the wholesale charge for using the data for sending the SMS to the receiver’s network, data clearing connection on the visited network, costs for the international house fees, signalling fees between the networks and other transit of the data, costs for connecting to the internet from costs (e.g. commercial costs, IT costs, prepay checks), the the home network, data clearing house fees, other costs home operator’s retail costs and taxes, such as VAT. (e.g. commercial costs, IT costs, prepay checks), the home operator’s retail costs and taxes, such as VAT. Most operators do not charge for receiving an SMS while roaming. The sender of the SMS also only pays the usual The usage of internet data services is generally measured by price as if the receiving customer were on their home data volume usage, which is highly dependent on the type network. Hence mobile operators bear the additional costs of device and services used. Checking e-mails, for example, of handling the received roaming SMS without charging typically uses less data than downloading an MP3 song. customers for it. The visited network operator, however, has no visibility of what type of data services visiting customers are using and Sending and receiving MMS therefore the wholesale price charged to the home operators can only be based on the data volume used per customer. When a customer sends a MMS while roaming, the retail price he pays reflects several elements: the wholesale charge for using the visited network, costs for international transit of the roaming MMS back to the home network, costs for sending the MMS to the receiver’s network, data clearing house fees, signalling fees between the networks and other costs (e.g. commercial costs, IT costs, prepay checks), the home operator’s retail costs and taxes, such as VAT. When the roaming customer receives an MMS, the retail price includes the MMS cost plus the cost of an SMS sent to notify the receiving handset that an MMS is ready to be downloaded. Some operators do not charge for receiving an MMS while roaming and therefore bear the costs of delivering the MMS without passing these on to customers. 6
  • 7. More information Common acronyms • KB: Kilobyte. Measure for the size of data uploads and downloads. One KB equals 1,000 bytes with each byte • 3G: Third Generation mobile network standards. Besides carrying the equivalent of one single character such as the better voice quality, 3G networks allow for faster data letter ‘A’. transfer than GPRS. 3G is often also called mobile broadband. • MB: Megabyte. Measure for the size of data uploads and downloads. One MB equals 1,000 KB. • CAMEL: Customized Applications for Mobile networks Enhanced Logic. It is an Intelligent Network designed to • MMS: Multimedia Messaging Service. This is an extension work on either GSM or 3G core networks. CAMEL helps of SMS, which uses an SMS to notify the mobile device make pre-paid roaming user friendly, with features such of a new MMS and GPRS or 3G to download the actual as no-prefix dialling, real-time billing and being able to message and the included multimedia content. make and receive voice calls, SMS, MMS and use data • MO: Mobile Originated. Refers to any communication services while abroad. whether voice, messaging or data, that is initiated by a • CDR: Call Detail Record. This is the record of a voice call or mobile phone. an SMS, with details such as origin, destination, duration, • MT: Mobile Terminated. Refers to any communication time of day, amount charged for each call or SMS. whether voice, messaging or data, that is terminated on a Roaming partners must share CDRs for accurate inter- mobile phone. operator settlement. • MTR: Mobile Termination Rate. This is the fee charged by • GPRS: General Packet Radio Service. A packet-based mobile operators to terminate a call on their network. mobile data service, mostly used to access e-mail and the internet from mobile phones. 3G standards are faster • PSD: Packet Switched Data. Describes data services that alternatives to GPRS. use a combination of GPRS/3G and IP, such as push e-mail or mobile web browsing. • HLR: Home Location Registers. These are databases used to store customers’ profiles. Communications between • SMS: Short Message Service. Popular service to send short these databases and VLRs of the visited network allows messages (each 160 characters) directly from one mobile roaming to take place. phone to another. • IOT: Inter Operator Tariff. This is the wholesale fee that • TAP: Transferred Account Procedure. The TAP is the the visited network operator charges the home network mechanism by which operators exchange roaming billing operators for allowing the roaming customer to make information (CDRs). This is how roaming partners are able calls or use data services. to bill each other for the use of networks and services through a standard process. • IP: Internet Protocol. This is the main protocol to enable access to the internet and the Web. It is used in • VLR: Visiting Location Registers. These are local databases combination with GPRS/3G data transfers. used to temporarily store information about customers, including roaming customers. Communication between these databases and HLRs of the home network allows roaming to take place. 7
  • 8. GSM Facts European mobile subscribers About 70,000 new GSM connections Population of Europe: 500 million are made globally every hour (EU27 + Iceland, Liechtenstein, (Source: Wireless Intelligence 2008) Norway, Source: Eurostat 2007) There are over 3 billion GSM and 3G Number of SIMs in Europe: connections globally 594 million (EU27 + Iceland, (Source: Wireless Intelligence 2008) Liechtenstein, Norway, Source: Wireless Intelligence 2007) Where to go for more For further questions on information roaming please contact: To help mobile phone customers roaming@gsm.org identify and compare data roaming tariffs between operators, the Produced by the GSMA in GSMA has set up an independent co-operation with A.T. Kearney website with regularly updated tariff information: www.roaming.gsmeurope.org