As we are coming out of the COVID pandemic we expect the global Roaming Business to start to recover back to 2019 levels and even higher levels in some markets. As per industry studies It is even projected to start seeing an increase during the next few years from $74bn in 2021 to $107bn by 2027.

Together with the introduction of new technologies like 5G, NB-IoT and LTE-M and more adoption of VoLTE the number of globally connected devices is expected to grow, reaching 3.5 billion IoT connections and 1.8 billon 5G by 2025. There will be over 200 million 5G roaming connections by 2026, rising from 5 million in 2021. While the roaming data usage is expected to exceed 30+% YoY growth.

In EDCH we are keen to bring to our customers the latest data clearing and financial clearing solutions that can help manage the complexity arising from this traffic growth as well as these new radio technologies. The Billing and Charging Evolution solution (BCE) is a new and efficient charging model that support mobile operators better capture and monetize these emerging new opportunities.

The benefits of BCE can be summarized below

• Wholesale roaming process automation, BCE reports are exchanged at agreed intervals (daily/weekly/quarterly or annually)
• Faster and easier dispute resolution, if a dispute arises, the parties exchange detailed, non-aggregated reports (DDR)
• Support for additional charging models, Operators can implement count-based (per IMSI per day or per tariff change) or volume-based charging
• Effective ways of monetising new technologies, BCE is designed to support 5G and MIoT (NB-IoT, LTE-M)
• Greater flexibility in terms of data volume limitations as BCE enables transfer of any volume of data.

EDCH, while managing our customers TAP based roaming agreements, has a unique position to support BCE based roaming agreements including the handling of the types of reports needed for BCE like Detailed Data Record (DDR), Usage Data Report (UDR), Billing Statement Report (BSR) and Charging Document (CD). Since TAP is expected to remain in use for another 5 to 10 years, having a single DCH/FCH agent handling both will reduce complexity and improve financial settlement.

EDCH is also compliant to GSMA DLT/Blockchain standards, Blockchain can run over TAP or BCE, enhancing the ability to manage preferential roaming management settlement agreements. We are committed to support our customers to identify how each of these new technologies work together as well as plan your wholesale agreements strategy.

Please don’t hesitate to contact your account manager to know more about these solutions.