Expert View

December 9, 2004
Comfone enables MMS roaming sans MMS exchange

Geetanjali Wadhwa & Pradeep Chakraborty

SWITZERLAND -- Comfone AG, a specialist roaming services provider, was founded in 1997 with the goal of simplifying the complexities of international mobile roaming. Its unique portfolio and value-added services range from complete outsourcing of roaming to individual elements like signaling, data and clearing services. Convergence*plus recently met Denis Gheysen, Comfone's executive vice president, marketing and sales, to find out more about the company and its plans. Roberto Carfagno (Comfone's sales director for Asia) also responded to a query.

Belgium-born Gheysen built his considerable experience of sales and marketing within the field of telecom, while holding a number of senior positions in telecom companies throughout Europe. Having joined Comfone in 2004, it is his goal to connect mobile operators worldwide with each other and with content providers, and to provide all services enabling connectivity and billing, as well as value-added services.

According to the company, a shift in the roaming business model from the traditional bilateral roaming scenario to a hub or exchange model is crucial if the industry is to manage the continuing growth of roaming and the development of high-speed mobile data solutions. Excerpts from an interview:

Convergence*plus: Please update us on Comfone's activities.

Denis Gheysen: Comfone is a specialist roaming services provider, and was founded in 1997 with the goal of simplifying the complexities of international mobile roaming. Global customers benefit from our unique portfolio and value-added services, ranging from complete outsourcing of roaming to individual elements like signaling, data and clearing services. With the aim to fully optimise the setting-up of mobile operators' roaming destinations, Comfone's services can reduce mobile operators' total cost of roaming.

This has been a busy year for Comfone. February saw the launch of Key2roam, Comfone's first broker solution for roaming, at the GSM World Congress in Cannes, France. The innovative solution, where Comfone plays the role of a broker, allows an operator to have access to all roaming partners already commercially roaming via Key2roam, once a single roaming agreement with Comfone has been concluded. This is a major step towards the goal of a plug-and-roam solution. In November, Comfone launched two additional value-added roaming services for mobile operators, the first allowing mobile providers to exchange MMS information, and the second offering a complete MMS hub solution.

Comfone's active participation in the GSMA standardisation groups ensures that our innovative solutions are market-driven and meet the requirements of our substantial worldwide customer base. Comfone's expert personnel continue to expand and develop our existing service portfolio.

CP: How has your performance been this year? Specifically, how has your performance been in Asia?

DG: Comfone celebrated the opening of our regional office for Asia in Singapore on 1st July 2004, and welcomed Soo Tzer Ng as the area sales manager for Asia. Having benefited from our office in Rio de Janeiro, Comfone was keen to establish a local presence in Asia as well. Soo Tzer Ng had stated that mobile operators in the region have a great deal to gain from Comfone's services. His presence in Singapore will improve customer care even further.

Roberto Carfagno (Comfone's sales director for Asia based at Comfone's Swiss headquarters): Asia is a crucial market for Comfone. The opening of Comfone's office in Singapore signals a positive step toward developing even closer ties with our existing customers in the region, listening to their exact requirements, and providing tailored and innovative services to new operators in the region our priority.

Comfone also attended the 3GSM World Congress Asia 2004 this September. The Singapore-based exhibition was successful for Comfone, enabling the company's regional sales directors to meet with many customers and develop new contacts. In more general terms, Comfone has achieved outstanding company results for 2004, with traffic volumes increasing by over 30 percent.

CP: You recently launched two services - the first allowing mobile operators to exchange MMS information, and the second offering a complete MMS hub solution. How can these be beneficial to Indian mobile operators?

DG: At this point in time, MMS roaming and interworking agreements are again being implemented all over among roaming partners, and the need for a hub or exchange model becomes bigger and bigger as pressure on the roaming departments' process costs increase.

The launch of Comfone's MMSX (MMS eXchange) will enable global mobile operators to offer MMS roaming without having to build their own MMS eXchange. This is especially of benefit in the current market environment where MMS traffic volumes remain fairly low, and yet, mobile operators feel obliged to offer the service for marketing reasons, mainly due to subscriber demand and competition among the operators. By using Comfone's services, MMSX operators can avoid costly infrastructure and set-up costs involved in building their own roaming exchange for MMS, as well as achieve speedy time to market.

The second service, the enhanced hub solution for MMS, provides worldwide coverage for MMS termination and interworking through only one agreement with Comfone and one connection to Comfone's central platform. MMS will become a major source of revenue for service providers, increasing ARPU and allowing customer retention. However, building up a network of bilateral interworking relationships among mobile operators is complex, time consuming and costly. Comfone's solution reduces the complexities involved in rolling out a new network, reduces the operational costs and speeds up the setting up of network relations.

CP: How can Comfone's MMSX reduce a mobile network provider's operational costs, and speed up network relations?

DG: Roaming makes money and this seems likely to continue well into the future. Globalization and the increase of worldwide travel, the continuing emergence of new operators, along with the opening up of Asia to roaming, all point to a continuing growth in roaming traffic for the time being. The evolution of new technologies, like MMS, simply adds yet another push for even more sophisticated cross-border mobile communication solutions.

However, achieving worldwide roaming capability is not without its hurdles. Imagine a roaming coverage scenario where every GSM operator has a bilateral roaming agreement with every other GSM operator. This would involve tens of thousands of roaming agreements and a mesh of signaling connections looking like a bowl of spaghetti. The reality for established operators and groups in India is not so far from such a spaghetti model.

The administrative and operational costs of negotiating roaming agreements, and testing and implementing each new destination should not be underestimated. These processes are extremely time consuming and resource intensive, and have to be carried out again and again with each existing roaming partner as each new technology wave, such as GPRS or UMTS, is introduced.

We at Comfone predict that a shift in the roaming business model from the traditional bilateral roaming scenario to a hub or exchange model is crucial if the industry is to manage the continuing growth of roaming and the development of high-speed mobile data solutions. The roaming business has already undergone change, but huge leaps are likely in the coming years. Comfone is fully prepared to support this shift in the roaming business with our 'hub' or 'broker' solutions, ensuring that operators can optimise their costs and speed up their time to market of new services.

CP: How do you estimate the MMS segment, globally and in Asia, including India? Do you see it replicating the success of SMS?

DG: Operators will want to move users from SMS to MMS in the coming months. Operators are marketing MMS right now as an alternative to SMS. Marketing will be the most important factor to meet this challenge, although tariffs and pricing must also be acceptable to the end users. SMS remains a big revenue driver (nationally and for roaming). The take-up of MMS will be dependant on the price and service offered by mobile operators. Network providers, and not subscribers, will drive the MMS market.

CP: Apparently, your GRX infrastructure has met with tremendous success? Are you targeting India also?

DG: That is correct. A reach to over 130 GPRS networks worldwide has been achieved by directly connecting with operators as well as by extensive peering with other GRXs. Comfone's GRX provides broad coverage and round-the-clock customer support with access in over 60 countries (PoPs). Built on a private worldwide IP backbone, the Comfone GRX interconnects GPRS networks and allows global roaming in one go, all with the highest grade of availability and security. The Comfone GRX has a PoP in Mumbai, India. We hope that many more Indian operators will take advantage of Comfone's GPRS roaming eXchange next year.

CP: Please elaborate on the concept of "roaming broker' and where are you headed?

DG: The launch of Comfone Key2roam this February at the 3GSM World Congress in Cannes, France, saw the concept of the "roaming broker" becoming a reality. Comfone's innovative solution is based on buying and selling roaming, and messaging traffic and is founded on well-established GSMA processes.

Roaming relations are set up using conventional signaling and clearing methods. However, with a single bilateral roaming relation and agreement, Comfone provides roaming access and SMS/MMS interconnection to all the other partners connected to Key2roam.

Every new Key2roam network is fully tested with Comfone's test network. Once the initial test scenarios are executed, the relation is commercially opened and available to broker operators. This not only reduces the time-to-market, but also results in cost savings and an increase in the operational margin. In addition, the operator benefits from managing a single relation rather than multiple ones that reduces the complexity of negotiating and maintaining agreements.

Comfone, in its role as broker, takes over full financial liability as the single debtor/creditor for multiple roaming relations. Operators can move roaming destinations to Comfone Key2roam and benefit from a Broker Tariff without the risks associated with non-payment by roaming partners.

PMNs may maintain the services of a third-party clearing or signaling agent in combination with Key2roam. However, as provider of a complete roaming service, Comfone is in a unique position to bundle these services into Key2roam, allowing operators to increase operational margin even further.

Operators can use existing infrastructure to access Comfone's platform and no additional investment is required at the customer's site. The installation procedure is the same as for bilateral roaming. Therefore, the operator carries out the implementation of Key2roam partners in the same way as any new bilateral destination. The concept allows operators to focus on their core competencies without compromising on international roaming, the driver of mobility, all through one standard roaming agreement with Comfone Key2roam. Key2roam is headed for a successful take-off in 2005 with a forecasted footprint of about 50 to 60 Comfone Key2roam destinations.

CP: When do you plan to open an India office, or will the Middle East branch continue to oversee operations?

DG: We are actively evaluating a presence in India, direct or indirect, as it is a vital market region for Comfone. However, at this point in time our Indian operations are still handled from our headquarters in Switzerland.

CP: Please elaborate on the Signaling-Access-over-Internet (SAoI) solution and how will it be beneficial for the Indian market?

DG: Comfone has taken a leading role in the GSM market by establishing a virtual SS7 link, a cost-effective and proven access method for signaling, which has been met by increasing endorsement in the market. Our fully tested Signaling-Access-over-Internet solution (SAoI) drastically reduces operational costs, while still enabling the operators secure reach to worldwide destinations. The proven and industry-accepted solution has already been implemented in remote countries where the Internet is still new, as well as in countries where the Internet is a well-established means of communication.

A virtual SS7 link is built up with two Comfone mediation devices (MD), one at the premises of the mobile operator, and the other at the premises of Comfone, each connected to an Internet Service Provider (ISP). A firewall protects the MD against possible attacks from the Internet. Other access solutions, like leased lines, are also supported.

We carried out a case study with a SAoI customer. Service availability of the leased line links and SAoI links were measured over a number of months. Figures revealed that Comfone's access over Internet solution offered even greater availability than the leased lines, giving availability of 99.97 percent as opposed to 99.72 percent with the leased line.

CP: What is your roadmap for 2005?

DG: We see the consolidation of our signaling business throughout 2005 by strengthening our worldwide leading position as a specialist roaming services provider. We expect the further expansion of Comfone Key2roam, as well as the development of new services for MMS and solutions to support the advent of 3G.

Contact:
Comfone AG
www.comfone.com