Maximizing Steering of Roaming Efficiency in Uncertain Telco Times

The last few years of economic turbulence have impacted all industries – especially IT and telecommunications. Mass layoffs resulting from over-ambitious recruitment during the pandemic have roiled the largest corporations – Intel, one of the latest to announce cuts, will lay off 15,000 employees. With Ericsson laying off around 1,200 employees in Sweden alone this year, in addition to letting go of 8,500 staff (about 8% of its workforce) last year, and companies like telecom software provider Mobileum emerging from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the US, it’s evident that the telecommunications sector is encountering a variety of challenges.

Even though the AI boom has reignited excitement across sectors, it has yet to prove intrinsic value for the ordinary end-customer. Read on to learn about the challenges operators are facing, and how can they overcome them.

What obstacles does the telco industry face heading into 2025?

With more challenges to maintain record profit margins, growth dynamics have decreased significantly.

The introduction of 5G SA is proving to be a costly infrastructure investment and when it comes to the roaming landscape, there are still unresolved issues related to architecture, technical integrations, and business relationships between various partners (e.g., MNOs, IPX providers, roaming hubs) on the market.

Ever growing data consumption means networks need to have more capacity, and yet, there are security concerns to be addressed due to increased cybercrime – especially fraud. According to Communications Fraud Control Association (CFCA), fraud loss in 2021 increased by 28% in comparison to 2019, and again by 12% in 2023, although the nature and methods shifted from tech-oriented (e.g., spoofing, SMS phishing, IP PBX hacking etc.) to methods related to telecommunication account manipulation.

To grasp the issues from a wider economic perspective, we have spiraling inflation that is affecting labor costs, which in turn increases the cost of the projects. Companies are looking to cut costs or outsource the more expensive processes to subcontractors around the world, which does not come without consequences for the working culture within a firm. Ineffective management during this latest crisis has driven some of them out of the market or led them to bankruptcy. It’s more apparent than ever for businesses to collaborate with technology partners that can offer reliable solutions as alternatives to legacy platforms. Let’s take Steering of Roaming as an example.

Enhanced Steering of Roaming (SoR) solution

Software Mind, and its Amplitiv line of telecom products, has extensive experience implementing Steering of Roaming solutions that, enable mobile network operators to control the network selection process for their subscribers when roaming and provide subscribers with instant access to roaming services.

Here are some key elements that differentiate the Amplitiv Steering of Roaming solution from the competition:

Tailored pricing models

Choose from a variety of custom pricing options, including Capex, Opex pricing and SaaS models.

Modernized GUI

An intuitive administration panel written in TypeScript makes roaming management easy.

Ongoing support

Personalized roaming business support from a Customer Success Manager going beyond industry standards.

Steering of Roaming innovative features worth implementing

There are several reasons why the Steering of Roaming solution developed by our company stands out.

5G Steering

Upgrading your steering platform to automatically detect and serve devices on the NR spectrum, while keeping pace with the accelerating 5G deployments worldwide. Read more how 5G is changing the Steering of Roaming.

Anti-steering prevention

Providing subscribers with secure and seamless anti-steering detection to protect them from suspicious behavior, including, Multiplication of LU messages, RNA code swap, Kidnap retention and E.164 number format translations

Border Steering

Preventing subscribers from unnecessary roaming incidents and eliminating revenue leaks with a dedicated Border Steering application. The system detects vulnerable customers in pre-mapped LAC/CID to ensure they’re not subject to excessive billing

VoLTE Steering

Amplifying the service quality for roaming VoLTE subscribers by directing them to VoLTE-capable networks. Seamless analysis of signaling during the initial registration procedure automatically enables VoLTE subscribers to be included in a dedicated set of steering rules that can speed up a network swap

OTA Steering

Combining signaling steering with over-the-air (OTA) updates using a sophisticated calculation engine to dynamically shift preferred networks on subscribers’ SIM cards, granting customers faster-roaming services while minimizing signaling load on the network.

Signaling steering

Implementing a signaling stack in an application enables one to connect directly related to reporting and monitoring while also providing a live overview of roaming business across the globe.

Usage-based steering

Analyze and detect consumption patterns of roaming subscribers and apply dedicated policies that optimize revenue flows. Through the Declarative Componentized Hardware) or TAP files analysis, our platform introduces more automation and reduces workloads in the roaming management domain. Learn what Usage-based steering has to offer.

How long does it take to implement a Sterring of Roaming o solution?

Typically, it takes three to six months to launch a minimally customized service in a SaaS model within the telco industry, and six to twelve months for on-site projects of varying degrees of customization. We have a proven track record of one month launches in a SaaS model and as short as two-month implementations of some on-site projects, from kick-off to post migration, go live stage.

While the last few years have been challenging for some of the largest players on the market, for us this has been a chance to thrive and expand our influence with numerous acquisitions throughout Europe and the Americas and provide valuable solutions to even more global audience. A strong focus on quality and a modern approach to system architecture have enabled us to team up with partners like Comfone, one of the largest and most accomplished IPX providers around the world. Partnerships with HPE, Cisco and RoamsysNext have made our solutions even more flexible and seamless to integrate through various models of cooperation – including SaaS, PaaS, cloud or VM hosted.

Leverage the growth in the telecom sector

The market continues to grow despite the obstacles facing the tech and telecom sector. According to Precedence Research, the global telecom market size was $2.32 trillion USD in 2024 and is expected to reach around $4.21 trillion USD by 2034. Matching technology and trustworthy telco partners are invaluable in leveraging that growth and delivering services that reward operators and attract customers.

To find out how our telecommunications expert can help your business, get in touch by filling out this form.