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Service Continuity and Guaranteed QoS are Top Requirements in LTE Roaming Mix According to New Survey of Mobile Operators
[February 19, 2014]

Service Continuity and Guaranteed QoS are Top Requirements in LTE Roaming Mix According to New Survey of Mobile Operators


BURLINGTON, Mass. --(Business Wire)--

iBasis, a KPN (News - Alert) company, announced today the findings from a survey on mobile operators' attitudes about LTE Roaming. Part of the Telecoms Intelligence Annual Industry Survey, the LTE (News - Alert) Roaming-specific results are published in a new white paper, "LTE Roaming: Services, Structures and Charging Models", which is available on-line from a new information exchange portal lteroaming.info.

Conducted and co-authored by Telecoms.com (News - Alert) Intelligence, the survey reveals how mobile operators expect LTE Roaming pricing and structure to evolve, the justifications for a premium for select advanced services, and how operators may differentiate themselves. The survey also ranked the comparative importance of many factors in the LTE roaming mix, with Service Continuity and Guaranteed QoS topping the list while Price was ranked fourth.

"Continuity and Quality of Service are natural concerns with any migration to new technology, which is why the multiservice IPX aspect of LTE Roaming is so important," said Chris Lennartz, Director or Product Management for Mobile Services at iBasis (News - Alert). "LTE Roaming traffic is starting with data roaming, but soon more delay- and error-sensitive services such as VoLTE, RCS, Video and M2M will follow. IPX is designed to provide multi-service continuity in the transition to all-IP. It assigns differentiated classes of service quality to specific services over one integrated pipe, using virtual links that can be managed separately."

With 268 LTE networks in commercial service in 100 countries by February 5th this year, according to data from theGlobal Mobile Suppliers Association, LTE data networks are becoming well established. As a result, consumers in multiple countries are becoming accustomed to the higher bandwidth and quality experience of LTE and will demand that same experience when they roam.



"LTE Roaming is central to mobile operator business models, and it is becoming increasingly clear that end users want and need access to the same services while overseas that they depend upon while at home," said Mike Hibberd, Telecoms.com Editorial Director. "The survey results show opportunities for operators to deliver more sophisticated and appealing services for roaming users, while guaranteeing service continuity and QoS along with improved visibility of spend and flexibility of charging model."

The survey also explored how various charging models, including price premiums, can be applied to LTE Roaming, and how mobile operators currently view various issues such as home routing and local breakout.


The Telecoms Intelligence survey report can be downloaded from lteroaming.info, a new information exchange portal initiated by iBasis to serve the LTE Roaming community by providing updates, encouraging conversation about the complexities of international roaming across 3G and 4G (LTE) networks, and exploring challenges and solutions and supporting a better understanding of the transition to all IP-networks.

About iBasis

A wholly-owned KPN company, iBasis is a leading international voice carrier and a provider of data services and solutions for mobile operators. The company offers a comprehensive portfolio of voice termination services and data services, including messaging, signaling and roaming, for many of the world's largest fixed and mobile operators, as well as "over-the-top" and voice-over-broadband service providers. iBasis customers include KPN and its mobile operators, KPN Mobile, E-Plus, and KPN Belgium, and more than 1,000 other providers, including Verizon, Vodafone, China Mobile, China Unicom (News - Alert), Skype, TDC, Telecom Italia, and Telefonica. The company has recently launched lteroaming.info, a blog site providing insights about LTE roaming, VoLTE, IPX and related topics. Find out more about iBasis at www.ibasis.com.

iBasis and KPN are registered marks. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.


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