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When a mobile user travels to a different country, their home operator may not have coverage in the place they have travelled to. However, they are still able to make and receive calls because their mobile phone can 'roam' onto another operator's network, in the visited country.
This is possible because the home operator has a roaming agreement with an operator in the visited country that enables a subscriber to use its network.
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For a mobile device to function on a foreign carrier’s service, the phone’s home service provider must have a roaming agreement with that visited carrier. This meaning that the two networks have agreed to let subscribers use each others network coverage when outside their home network.
Traditionally this is established through bi-lateral agreements. However the increasing number of operators world-wide, combined with the increasing number of services, has meant that this is not always practical.
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In the process of establishing this roaming agreement, a series of tests take place to ensure that this connectivity can occur successfully.
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Roaming agreements are established after a series of testing processes called IREG and TADIG. IREG testing is used to determine whether connectivity between the two networks is possible and to a satisfactory standard. TADIG testing is used to establish how calls will be billed between the two operators.
The process of IREG and TADIG testing can be time consuming and requires specialist skills and knowledge.
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Once these IREG and TADIG tests have taken place and functionally has been confirmed, a roaming agreement can be signed. From now on when a subscriber walks onto this foreign network, the mobile handset picks up radio signals from the visited operator. This local operator will then 'authenticate' the mobile phone with the home operator (e.g. check if they are a valid customer, whether they are allowed to roam, etc.). If the home operator responds with a positive authentication, the mobile phone is ready for use.
This is how a person is allowed to successfully make and receive calls whilst they are abroad. At the same time, however, there needs to be some record of the calls that a person makes whilst roaming on a host network. This is so that the home network knows how much to charge the subscriber from their use of the service.
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The calls and messages that a subscriber sends and receives whilst roaming are recorded but the host network in the form of TAP or CIBER files, depending on the technology being used. These files contain all types of information on the calls that the subscriber has made e.g. location, calling party, called party, time and duration of call etc.
Managing and receiving TAP/CIBER files from partner operators can be a time consuming process.
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These TAP/CIBER files are sent to the home network so that they can calculate how much to charge the subscriber based on their usage. Different roaming fees are applied depending on the roaming agreements in place with the two operators. The home network might then, themselves, charge a mark up/tax to the subscribers for the service processes involved e.g. converting call charges into home currency.
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