The practise of steering roaming traffic has become widespread in the mobile industry. It allows operators to decide which partner network their subscribers use when in another country. It therefore allows roaming managers to negotiate with each other, and reach agreements, on price and other issues. This is great if you are the favoured partner. But what if you are not?
It can be very tempting to use anti steering. This offers the chance to get more traffic which you have not had to "pay for" by offering a lower price or by sending the partner operator more of your own roaming subscribers. It can be particularly tempting for new operators that do not have many outbound subscribers of their own which they can offer in "exchange" for inbound traffic. We are often asked if we can offer "inbound steering" or "roamer retention"; all are essentially euphemisms. Some vendors of steering platforms have taken out patents on anti-steering techniques. In our roaming health checks we often see the tell-tale signs of it being used. Many operators suspect that they are the victims of the practise themselves (although often the actual poor performance that they see is because of the algorithm used by the steering platform itself). There is therefore little doubt that anti steering is being used. However is it a good idea to use it yourself?
If you use it, it will definitely bring you more traffic and more revenue. It is also likely that the value of this will outweigh the cost of running the anti-steering system. So, at least superficially, there would seem to be a business case for using it. The extra traffic and revenue will have been won at the expense of other operators and by deliberately frustrating the desires of your roaming partners. You may or may not be worried by the ethical questions that this throws up. However you should certainly be worried about the potential reactions from your roaming partners. If your partners knew that you were using anti steering, they would certainly not be happy about it. They may react by adjusting their steering percentage targets to try and compensate for your anti-steering system. They may implement new anti-steering resistant platforms. Ultimately they may decide to cancel their roaming agreements with you altogether. The GSMA is also making increasingly strong comments about the practise. It is possible that operators could be ejected from the GSMA if "found guilty".
Perhaps you still feel that the need for more roaming revenue is overwhelming. If so, before you implement anti steering, you should consider alternative ways of boosting revenue. We have seen how a full analysis of roaming traffic, for example through one of our roaming health checks, can show several ways in which revenue can be boosted. These include fixing missing roaming links and implementing dialed number correction. Outbound roaming can also be boosted through welcome messages and dialled number correction, making you a more attractive partner. All are highly effective ways of boosting revenue without running the risks inherent in anti-steering.
Robin Burton is Head of Marketing for Evolved Intelligence.
Evolved Intelligence offers "cloud based" network applications for mobile operators world-wide. Applications are available for roaming, pre-pay, fraud management and many other areas. Turnkey solutions are also available. Evolved Intelligence also provides OEM software solutions using telecom network technology for a variety of market areas including financial transaction fraud management and global marketing. Have a look at our website to find out more.
http://www.evolved-intelligence.com/
By Robin J Burton
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