Techno-economic analysis of international mobile roaming

The impact of regulatory pressure to reduce international mobile roaming (IMR) charges, especially in Europe, and the potential competition from other technology alternatives will be the main motivations for existing mobile operators to find solutions that will reduce the cost of operations and increase maintain the revenue margins, while maintaining control over subscribers. This article provides an overview of the changing business dynamics of IMR. analyzes the existing and emerging IMR scenarios, and proposes a mechanism that addresses the technological disadvantages of existing ones. The article also evaluates the business implications of the proposed mechanism vis-a-vis ihe preferred roaming scenario of today (i.e.. home routed traffic) from a mobile operator's point of view.