Iusacell Selects the TNS Global Roaming Consortium for CDMA Roaming Hub Services
Iusacell, one of Mexico’s leading mobile operators, has selected Transaction Network Services (NYSE:TNS) to provide a full suite of roaming services.
The TNS Global Roaming Consortium (GRC), a CDMA Roaming Hub, will allow Iusacell’s 3.5 million subscribers to experience seamless roaming services when traveling globally. Under the terms of the deal, TNS will provide signaling, agreement management for inter-carrier roaming services, clearing and settlement, and a web-based roamer visibility tool.
Today, Iusacell reaches 90% of Mexico’s population, including Mexico City, over the Country’s first, fastest and largest 3G nationwide network. This new agreement with TNS will help Iusacell rapidly expand its roaming footprint globally, offer subscribers seamless roaming services while traveling abroad and deliver in-bound services to more visiting roamers.
Adrian Velasco, Iusacell´s Roaming Director, said: “We wanted a partner who had experience not only in network services, but agreement management as well. TNS paved the way for roaming hub providers in Latin America several years ago. We were pleased to see that over
the last couple of years they have spent time and resources building their hub into a world-class CDMA offering.
“The Global Roaming Consortium will advance our SMS roaming coverage well beyond our goals for this year. It will also provide a bridge for International Roaming with Asia-Pacific operators via TNS’ key alliance in the region. Because of TNS, we are on track to becoming the
leading roaming services provider for both Mexico’s subscribers and foreign visitors”.
Roaming services represent not only a significant portion of a mobile operator’s revenues but are also a key differentiator in attracting and maintaining high-value subscribers. Yet securing and implementing roaming coverage is highly complex, challenging, and time consuming.
Furthermore, operators can be prevented from securing roaming coverage in chosen regions because the serving operator’s priorities do not align with the requesting operator. Ann Munno, Senior Product Manager for GRC, said, “Iusacell is a key addition to our growing network of operators worldwide. We were the first Roaming Hub in CALA and the first CDMA consortium and we consider it an ongoing privilege to work with operators like Iusacell as we adapt our service offerings to meet their evolving needs.”
Michael Robinson, Executive Vice President and General Manager for TNS’ Telecommunication Services Division, added, “We’re excited to work with the team at Iusacell and look forward to their continued growth of both subscribers and coverage as we expand our Global Roaming Consortium.”
The GRC from TNS simplifies the process of offering international roaming for wireless operators around the world by reducing complex many-to-many relationships to a single, yet flexible, one-to-many relationship. TNS offers a single-point of contact for the management of
multiple roaming agreements, international signaling, data clearinghouse services, and troubleshooting. The result is operators are able to rapidly expand roaming coverage for voice, SMS and data quickly and easily.
TNS’ ability to support WIN-based IS-826 messaging is imperative to international operators with a prepaid customer base. The service also offers flexibility, allowing roaming partners to establish bilateral relationships to achieve their unique strategy.
