When it comes to interconnection between different companies in the context of striking and maintaining mutually advantageous roaming contracts, you want as many ways to work together as you can—and not be limited to just one tool and one way to make things stick together for you.
For example, a central link that makes interconnections between different operators extremely simple to set up and manage, one of the most significant advances in the telecoms sector has been the advent of the roaming hub.
For one thing, they are a means to avoid the need to set up direct roaming agreements, which is difficult due to the need to negotiate a host of both technical and commercial steps, and which offers no guarantee that the smaller player or new entrant will have their needs prioritised.
For many players the idea of a single hub that can hook then up with different operators can accelerate their mobile or IoT service time-to-market considerably. Equally, others prefer to forge individual relationships with preferred partners, or to capitalise on IMSI sponsorship (another thing we can help you with).
Don’t get caught having only one option
The reality is that there is no one-size-fits-all answer here.
Sometimes, working with a hub can save time, cut your paperwork and be very convenient. If you are looking to grow your partner base quickly, or enter multiple geographies as quickly as you can, they are also an excellent option.
However, there are many scenarios where building direct interconnections with certain partners delivers great benefits.
This should be definitely considered for use cases and relationships you really need to make work or get off the ground properly.
But, if low latency and high throughput need to be a key feature of your proposed service with this partner, you need to think about the SLA you’ll need for your service suite.
In these contexts, it could be the better route of travel to look at custom-built interconnections to remote networks and partners.
SNS = the on-ramp to total flexibility
All this is as true for an MNO as it is for an MVNO--or if you want to connect to either another MNO or even (why not?) a set of MNOs.
But being sure you have the internal technical skills and depth of knowledge to lock down truly 24x7 optimised performance for your desired SLA can be a challenge.
The trouble is, if you're a smaller player, you may find this a lot harder to achieve than other organisations. You may already be resource constrained.
For sure, look to the roaming hub or sponsored roaming solution first.
But if it makes for a better business case and it’s time to forge a strong direct connection with peer operators, SNS is the ideal expert to call in.
That’s down to deep experience helping companies like you do just that.
It’s also backed by the extensive SNS range of technical capacity—from our set of global, private connections, extensive signalling and data backhaul capabilities, numerous virtual PoPs and rapid service activation, as well as other advanced features like our Layer 2 services. (Read more here.)
Speed up your roaming time-to-value
Bottom line: by working with SNS, anyone, even new entrants or the smallest/niche player, can get all the network security, speed and delivery advantages direct connection offers.
You will also end up with a toolkit of different ways of finding and working with new partners—mixing and matching all the approaches that suit your business, so direct when right, sponsored when right, through a hub when right.
It makes a lot of sense for SNS be your partner for achieving that capability, and so giving you all the flexibility you need.
If all this sounds like a great way to avoid a lot of hassle and radically cut your time-to-value, get in touch today.
