Sisteer, Materna Hosting EU 2014 Roaming Regulations Workshop
Paris and Dortmund, April 11th, 2013: Information and communications provider MATERNA (www.materna.com) and tier-one mobile virtual network operator Sisteer (www.sisteer.com) today jointly announce that they will host a one day workshop dedicated to 2014 EU Roaming Regulation for mobile network operators in Paris on May 6th, 2013.
The objective of this workshop is to help European mobile network operators to better understand the impact that the mandatory rules of EU Roaming Regulation 111 will have when they become law on 1st July 2014. This impact will be both on the business side, with completely new strategic scenarios and on the technical side, with deep implications for OSS and BSS.
Over 100 executives from Pan-European carriers are expected to attend the workshop including network architects, project managers and bid managers. For venue details, MNOs can email to EU2014roaming@sisteer.comor EU2014roaming@materna.de. A contribution of 250 €/ attendee will apply.
On July 1, 2014, European MNOs will be required to offer a standard wholesale roaming access service to Alternative Roaming Providers (ARPs). An Alternative Roaming Provider is what the EU regulators deem is a new type of business that will begin to operate in Europe in a similar way to mobile virtual network operaors (MVNOs) offering consumer roaming services to business travelers, tourists and other consumer segments. Additionally MNOs will be able to choose to support Local Break Out Operators (LBOs) who wish to offer data-only services to inbound roamers.
MNOs face 3 major issues in order to comply with the roaming regulations:
- technical: how to deliver the nine regulated interfaces to ARPs and support LBO services,
- operational: managing relationships with multiple ARPs and with LBOs, some of which lack the technical or commercial expertise and infrastructure to comply with the new regulations
- strategic: how to take advantage of the new competitive mobile ecosystem by offering new LBO services and single IMSI offers via the two network services providers.
“The business of MNOs providing temporary roaming access to their networks across Europe will change profoundly in July 2014,” says Alain Bureau, Sisteer’s CEO. “All need to have in place network services and infrastructure that enable them to comply with the financial, technical and strategic challenges being imposed by EU Regulators and this workshop serves precisely to ensure just that.”
