How Uros is Powering a Revolution in International Data Roaming

In an era of 4G communications, it is increasingly getting about data – and operators are looking forward to innovative data driven solutions that can enhance their value offering towards their set of customers.

In such a scenario, Uros is positioning its international data roaming solution - the UROS Goodspeed mifi device - towards increasing the much needed data driven value proposition for the customer community.

Gerrit Jan, CEO, UROS speaks with Zia Askari from TelecomDrive.com about the company’s core focus today and how international data roaming can bring growth for the operator community.

How do you look at the roaming opportunities that exist in the telecoms space today..?

Roaming opportunities differ drastically dependent on continent – for example Africa and Asia are growing significantly. A report by Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) indicated that in the first quarter of 2015 local African mobile subscribers only used one million megabytes (MB) of data compared to 19.9 million text messages sent during the period.

This level of data roaming consumption may be extremely low in comparison to other continents but Ericsson forecasts that there will be an 80 percent growth in the amount of smartphones in developing regions such as Africa, the Middle East, and Asia Pacific by 2020. The increase in access to smartphones is apparent in both sales and shipment figures suggesting that there will be significant opportunities in the data roaming space within these continents.

LTE also offers network providers the chance to revolutionise their offering. If growth is to continue, LTE providers need to support lower data rates. It is this requirement that encourages network operators to get ahead of the curve, securing their original data roaming customers whilst reigniting silent roamers. To do this network providers need to work with service providers such as UROS to ensure bill shock free consumption of large volumes of data whilst roaming

How can operators and CSPs gain by offering innovative roaming solutions today..?

Recent research by Syniverse has shown that 70% of today’s roamers are not actually roaming – these are silent roamers. There are a number of reasons why these roamers may be silent; it may simply be a fear of bill shock or a preference of OTT solutions such as Whatsapp.

Whatever it may be innovative roaming solutions such as the UROS Goodspeed mifi device can help to reignite these silent roamers providing them with a predictable, transparent daily rate, generous data roaming bundles and a reliable, secure connection. Operators ultimately benefit from this with an increase in revenue and dedicated customers.

Where are the business opportunities for this segment..? What is the size of this market today and how it is moving ahead..

Opportunities in this market are not only for the business segment, private roamers will also benefit from high volume low cost data roaming solutions. With the threat of regionalisation often on the horizon it is a prime time for operators to introduce innovative data roaming solutions to communicate a clear, generous data roaming offering to begin to reignite not only their silent roamers but the entire data roaming community. It is crucial that businesses and network operators begin to clear the air of confusion around data roaming creating a market standard that is not only defined by regulation.

What are the innovations that are being driven by your organisation..?

Uros is providing 4G mobile hotspot devices which are steered and monitored by a global M2M solution – this means we can provide daily bundles without the risk of bill shock. Our solution is not dependent on incoming TAP files from roaming partners.

Our devices are extremely smart and stop roaming once bundles have reached their limits, offering the customer the chance to top up and continue using the device for a manageable one off payment. We are committed to ensuring that data allowance, charges and security are clear and understandable.

What are the key technologies that are likely to revolutionise roaming for tomorrow...?

VOIP and VoLTE are in the process of having a significant impact on global data roaming. From a network perspective, VOIP and VoLTEvoice calls are now reliant on data resulting in increased strain on traditional networks. For example, this has a detrimental impact on public access Wi-Fi where both voice calls and day to day roaming activities are taking place. To ensure that data connection is reliable and continuously available it is service providers such as UROS and devices such as Goodspeed that will alleviate the strain of voice calls and pave way for future revolutionary data communication methods. This will increase the communication quality at a low cost.

How can roaming innovations drive better customer bonding and loyalty for the operators...what is the role of your organisation here..?

With our managed hosted solutions we help operators to provide bill shock free daily bundles via our mobile hotspots - connecting up to 15 users via one device to trusted networks around the globe.

We are committed to reinforcing the relationship between customer and operator leading to a stronger, more trusting relationship – increasing network operator revenue and reducing customer churn rate.