While advances in softswitch technology have enabled businesses to cut down on work-related travel by using solutions like videoconferencing, VoIP services also allow many members of the workforce to go mobile—and that means mobile roaming. As a result, telecom providers are increasingly looking to join the rising market for GSM mobile roaming.
To meet this market head-on, and make it easier for providers to take part, Telinta, Inc.—a provider of cloud-based VoIP switching and billing solutions—announced TeliSIM this week. This solution enables telecom service providers to offer mobile voice, data and SMS services to travelers, all of which is highly profitable.
Whether on the road for business or pleasure, travelers can use local phone numbers virtually anywhere in the world using this softswitch technology, and DIDs from VoIP providers can even be linked to a TeliSIM SIM card. Making outbound calls with the service is simple, because users just dial normally, without needing to plug in access numbers or PINs. But perhaps more importantly—especially for anyone who has traveled and desperately searched for hotspots in order to use their phone—using TeliSIM means that travelers don’t need to rely on Wi-Fi or mobile data in order to place the call.
TeliSIM works by bringing GSM technology into Telinta's cloud-based softswitch platform, with the help of Telinta’s technology partner Global 1 SIM, a Mobile Virtual Network Enabler (MVNE). This all allows for a more cost-effective VoIP termination to replace more expensive termination from mobile operators. The end result? Global roaming expenses go way down.
In more specific terms, TeliCore is a carrier-grade Class 4 and Class 5 softswitch platform that integrates Telinta's family of VoIP solutions with switching and billing capabilities from PortaSwitch.
For providers looking to get TeliSIM, the solution can be used to offer customers both prepaid and post-paid mobile service options. With the pre-paid option, users can replenish their balances via Telinta's hosted platform (without having to go through mobile top-up providers).
Already, TeliSIM is a big hit, racking up agreements with over 600 mobile operators around the world—including AT&T (News - Alert), T-Mobile, China Mobile, Vodafone (News - Alert), America Movil, Telefonica, and Orange—and offering free roaming in more than 150 countries, or anywhere else a GSM cellular signal is available. Mobility is crucial for business in this day and age, but facilitating that mobility is just as important, and softswitch platforms can help.
Edited by Rory J. Thompson