What is roaming on a phone? What is roaming - MTS roaming, Beeline in Russia and abroad, call cost
Cellular communications today provide very wide opportunities. Roaming is one of the most important services for a modern person. If you are interested in the question of what roaming is, then we can say that its essence is so that you can use the same mobile phone when traveling over long distances, where your operator’s network does not operate. This gives the subscriber the opportunity to call from different countries and cities, as well as receive calls from subscribers located hundreds of kilometers away. All modern telecommunication networks provide opportunities to make such calls, and most operators provide roaming services to their subscribers.
In general terms, what roaming is has already been said; now it’s worth talking about what conditions exist for its organization. To do this, it is necessary that cellular networks operate in the same standard. At the moment, there are several cellular communication standards, so operators must work in one standard, for example, CDMA or GSM. The centers of this particular standard were connected through special communication channels designed to determine the current location of the subscriber.
It turns out that roaming is possible only if the established conditions are met:
Availability of an appropriate mobile communication standard in the required region, compatible with the standard of the company providing you with access to the cellular network;
Availability of certain organizational and economic agreements regarding subscriber roaming services;
The presence of the necessary equipment intended to ensure the transmission of audio or other information between subscribers located in the roaming zone of the corresponding systems.
What is roaming and how does it work
As a subscriber moves from one network to another, the switching center of the other network requests data from the original network, of course, if the subscriber has approved credentials, and then registers it. Data about the subscriber's location is constantly updated in the switching center of the first network, and calls arriving there are automatically redirected to the network where the subscriber is located at a particular moment.
In general, roaming can be one of three types:
The manual type involves a regular exchange to a mobile phone connected to the cellular system of a specific operator;
Semi-automatic implies a situation where the subscriber pre-notifies his operator that he will be in a certain region where he will need this service;
Automatic means providing the subscriber with the opportunity to communicate anywhere, that is, the client can easily make calls while roaming.
By category, this service can be divided into intranet, national and international. The first service implies the ability for the client to communicate anywhere in the country, and the second two imply the ability to move a person with a mobile phone around the world, even where there are no representative offices of his cellular operator. This is possible thanks to a contract between your home telecom provider and other companies. The advantage of roaming is the ability to make calls both to other mobile phones and to regular home phones, regardless of location.
How to activate roaming?
This is usually done during a personal visit to any office or center of the cellular operator whose services you are currently using. To do this, you must have with you an identity card on the basis of which you entered into an agreement with the company.
Now you should understand what roaming is and the benefits it provides.
Roaming is a mobile communication service provided to a subscriber by an operator outside the “home” network.
Roaming is divided into:
- intra-network – works in regions of the country where there is a “home” operator’s network;
- national – works in regions of the country that do not have a “home” operator’s network, but have partnership agreements with other local telecom operators;
- international – works in countries in which the “home” operator has partnership agreements with local telecom operators.
The most trouble-free roaming is provided by the GSM standard. That is why America and Asia are now switching to it. GSM is the International Standards Association, which includes all operators working in this format. Initially, GSM was used as a global mobile service for Scandinavia, then it “spread” throughout Europe and the world.
Gradually, all the largest operators came to the conclusion that they divided all roaming zones in the territory and designated a single cost for calls, SMS and other services throughout the region. Marketing research shows that it is easier for a user to know the cost and not think about which operator he is communicating through, than to remember who has what services and how much they cost, as was the case just a few years ago. The territorial division of all countries into zones with the same tariff looks approximately as follows: About 60 of the world's largest airliners are equipped with a mobile communications system. The possibility of providing mobile communications on airplanes is currently being discussed - the AeroMobile system (Norway) - flight certification is underway. GPRS is already available in most roaming countries. Every year services such as WAP and MMS become cheaper and more accessible. To successfully make a call from abroad, three zones are involved: the “home” network, transit networks and the “guest” network. In Russia, Rostelecom is responsible for the signal in transit networks, and Rostelecom, MTT and Golden Telecom are responsible for voice traffic. It is important to understand that there may be several transit nodes, and the failure or poor performance of one of them will affect the quality of the entire call as a whole. For example, you can be completely confident in your “home” operator and have connected to a respected and well-known “guest” operator abroad, but the numbers of calling telephones are not detected - most likely, one of the transit networks is “to blame”, which does not support this function. As specialists from the Beeline operator say, “optimal routing processes are ongoing, but they are still far from ideal.” One single and constant question arises every time we arrive in a foreign country, get off the plane, turn on our mobile phone and it finds the network. Of three, four or five local operators, the phone chooses this one. Why? The answer is simple. If the phone settings are set to automatically select a network, then the network whose signal is stronger is determined first. Moreover, the phone model plays a significant role: two subscribers of the same network with different phone models can receive different networks. And how the caught network is displayed on the screen of a mobile phone depends on the operator’s digital code, which is hardwired into the device’s memory (however, there are also incidents if the phone model is old and the operator is new). Mutual settlements between telecom operators occur on the basis of TAP files - electronic encoded files of the GSM standard. Their work is monitored by special clearing houses (there are only a few of them in the world), which ensure timely receipt and processing of files. Each operator selects one of the clearing houses. The moment you make a call or send an SMS, the “guest” operator sends a request to the “home” operator to find out whether you have enough funds in your account to complete this operation. If it is enough, they will connect you, if not, they will inform you that this operation is impossible. It is known that the largest Russian operators receive about 500 thousand billing records daily from their foreign partners: these records inform the “home” operator about all the operations that their client performed while roaming. Mutual settlements and payments between operators occur at the end of the month. The roaming tariff depends, first of all, on the prices of local operators. For example, according to Beeline, a minute of conversation for a subscriber of this network in France costs the company 43.8 rubles, and the subscriber pays 48.3 rubles for it. It is no secret that the European Union is now fighting hard against high roaming tariffs in Europe. European operators are making concessions and reducing the cost of intra-European calls, however, in order not to incur losses, they are raising roaming prices for citizens whose phones are registered outside the European Union. For 2006-2007 the increase in prices for international roaming with Europe increased by 20%. For the client, the cost of services depends on the roaming zone. Just a few years ago, roaming services in each country and with each operator cost differently. It is believed that the current situation is more convenient, although the issue is, of course, controversial. Before the world was divided into several tariff zones, the user could choose from which operator to send cheaper SMS, from which to receive local calls, and from which to call home. It is important to note that not all services that are free on your home network will remain free when roaming. For example, a call to the support service from abroad becomes paid: the “home” network will not take your money, but the “guest” operator will certainly. However, self-respecting large operators prioritize roaming calls to the support service, which means that a person calling from abroad will be connected to the operator faster than a client who is waiting for an answer on the “home” network. The situation with short numbers is ambiguous. Most foreign networks allow you to use short numbers. Moreover, if the short numbers match (for example, both the “home” and “guest” operator use the same set of numbers for some of their services), you are most likely to be sent with this call to the “home” network. The most unpleasant and, at times, the most difficult question that faces mobile phone users abroad is information about the balance and the ability to top up their account. The first part of the issue was resolved at the moment when tour operators introduced the ability to find out the balance using a short number. This service works in roaming and is free, so you can find out your account status at any time. True, there is one nuance. Within the “home” network, operators provide online billing. This means that money for a conversation or any other service is debited from the account immediately. Another thing is roaming. Probably everyone has encountered the situation that at some point in time you are sure that there is money in your account, and then suddenly - suddenly! – and there are significantly fewer of them or the number is completely disabled. An even more unpleasant situation can be when a tourist returns home, and after a week or two a huge amount of money is debited from his account. And only a call to the support service or a personal visit to the operator’s office allows you to find out that the missing money was used to pay the bill of a foreign operator, who only issued an invoice for the services provided a week later or at the end of the month. The situations described in the previous paragraph are happening less and less often. To avoid them completely, before your trip you need to find out from your operator which of the “guest” operators provides online billing. Typically, the network that is automatically selected by the phone meets this requirement. Only online billing allows you to monitor the real status of your account. Otherwise, you can go into a negative balance quite unexpectedly. Using a phone while roaming is always more expensive than we are used to in everyday life. Even if you don't intend to constantly use your phone during your trip, a couple of unexpected calls can bring your balance to a minus. How to top up your account if the balance is positive: It is impossible to top up your account from abroad if you have a negative balance. You can either contact your friends back home in some other way (besides your mobile phone) and ask them to deposit money into your account, or wait until one of them decides to do this. Without your presence, this can be done either in electronic machines on the streets of the city or in the operator’s offices.Roaming zones
"Home", transit and "guest" networks
Call information and cost
Account balance
Refill
Roaming is a popular service of modern mobile operators. People who travel a lot must be familiar with all its features.
What does roaming mean?
Roaming is a service that allows you to use a mobile phone abroad without changing your SIM card and mobile operator. Thus, while a person is in the territory of another country, he uses the services of local operators with whom his operator’s roaming agreement was signed in advance.If your phone offers automatic roaming, you won't need to contact your carrier for assistance. Your number will be automatically registered in a special guest network. As a rule, the phone itself chooses the operator whose coverage quality is better. However, in manual mode you choose any available signal.
There are several main types of roaming: national, intranet and international. International roaming allows you to stay connected in any country. National provides communication within your country, but in those cities where your operator does not operate. And intranet roaming involves communicating within the network of one operator in different regions of your country.
How to call cheaper from abroad?
The cost of roaming increases significantly every year, so the issue of cheap calls from abroad has always been relevant. Each operator has its own tariffs, so it is he who determines the cost.If you want to make cheaper calls, you need to familiarize yourself in advance with all the tariffs offered by your operator. Modern operators operating in several countries unite all their subscribers. In this case, you are offered to switch to another tariff.
Another operator in your country may offer better roaming rates. In this case, it makes sense to change not only the tariff, but also the operator itself.
How to save on international calls?
A good way to save money is to completely abandon international calls in favor of text messages. The fact is that SMS is much cheaper in roaming, so you don't have to spend too much money. However, short messages sometimes cannot replace a call. As a rule, operators may have special offers for roaming services, where for a certain subscription fee they will provide you with a certain number of minutes at a discount or for free.Mobile operators, as a rule, set the cost of a call lasting per minute. However, there are offers where you buy a certain or unlimited number of minutes while you are in another country. In this case, you should know exactly how much time you plan to spend abroad.
So, roaming is the basis of all interethnic communication. Of course, sometimes it is more profitable to simply change the operator, but in most cases roaming is the most profitable offer.
The editors of the site advise you to familiarize yourself with the tariffs of your operator before traveling and top up your phone balance.
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Using resources from another (guest) network. In this case, the subscriber does not need to enter into an agreement with the non-receiving operator, and the fee for services is debited from his account. During telephone roaming, the subscriber retains his telephone number.
From a technical point of view, servicing a cellular network subscriber with a base station assigned to another switch is already roaming. But most often, roaming means service in the network of another operator. Such a service requires prior mutual agreement between operators.
Types of roaming
"Manual" roaming
In early generations of cellular networks, as well as in paging networks, for temporary service in a foreign network, a preliminary application for roaming was required from the subscriber. In this case, the subscriber was “manually” registered in the guest network for the required period.
Automatic roaming
With automatic roaming, the subscriber does not need to apply for service on a foreign network. After the subscriber’s device is registered in a foreign network, all necessary procedures are performed automatically and unnoticed by the subscriber. This type of roaming is the main one these days.
Roaming types
Intranet (regional) roaming
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The ability to move from one region to another within the coverage of one operator (when operators offer tariffs for a specific region). Due to the development of mobile technologies and falling prices, intranet roaming is rarely offered to customers, with the exception of countries with a large territory (USA, Russia, India, Brazil, etc.).
On March 30, 2017, after many years of discussions, the Federal Antimonopoly Service decided to abolish national and intranet roaming in Russia. Both types of roaming will completely disappear in August-September 2018. The abolition of intranet (regional) roaming will allow subscribers to freely use communication services while not in their home region, at the same tariffs as at home. The abolition of national (internetwork) roaming will eliminate similar problems and inflated tariffs for subscribers of those operators that do not have representation in any regions where a subscriber with a SIM card can travel. At the same time, this decision does not cancel the increased cost of long-distance calls, and also does not exclude the possibility of limiting the use of certain tariff options in a non-domestic region or in some specific regions (Crimea, Sevastopol, Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Nenets Autonomous Okrug and others).
National (internetwork) roaming
Possibility to use the network of another mobile operator within the same country. For commercial reasons, this type of roaming is only permitted under certain conditions. This usually occurs when a new company obtains a license to provide mobile phone services and tries to enter the market by entering into a roaming agreement with other operators on their networks until its own network is built. In countries like India, where the number of regional operators is large and the country is divided into regions, this type of roaming is quite common. This type of roaming is most often paid by customers as if they were served by their own network.
International roaming
The ability to use the services of a foreign provider's mobile network.
International roaming is easiest on the GSM standard, and is used by more than 80% of international mobile operators. However, even in this case there may be problems, since different countries have different frequencies allocated for GSM communications (there are 2 groups of countries: the majority uses 900/1800 MHz, but the USA and some other countries in America use 850/1900 MHz). For a phone to work in a country with different frequencies, it must support one or both of the frequencies established in that country, and thus be three- or four-band. Funds for international roaming are not written off immediately; a delay of up to 1 month is possible.
Interstandard roaming
Ability to move transparently between networks of different standards.
Since mobile communication technologies have developed independently on different continents, there are significant difficulties in achieving such roaming. The large number of standards has forced major manufacturers to begin working together to achieve interoperability between technologies in order to establish cross-standard roaming. Now this work is still underway.
Even if the subscriber is located in an area where there are no cellular networks of the same standard as his, he can use roaming in networks of a different standard. For example, a GSM subscriber can use a CDMA or satellite network (for example, Thuraya). To do this, he needs a phone that works in different standards. Or he can use a local phone with his own SIM card.
Data roaming
Most mobile operators provide a Data roaming service, which allows the subscriber to use services based on various data transfer technologies outside the home network.
The principle of operation of roaming in the GSM network
The details of the roaming process vary depending on the type of cellular network, but in general the process proceeds as follows:
- first attempts are made to detect the home network, then, if unsuccessful, networks are searched from the list stored on the SIM card, then all other networks are searched as the signal level decreases. If roaming between networks is not prohibited, the device tries to register with the network. If the guest network is in the same country as the home network, the phone will occasionally check to see if the home network has appeared. In manual mode, all detected networks, including prohibited ones, are displayed on the display;
- the guest network connects to the home network and requests service information about the device using the IMSI number. First of all, it is determined whether the service is allowed;
- if successful, the guest network begins to serve a temporary user account for the device, and the home network configures redirection to it.
If a call is made to a roaming phone, the telephone network routes the call to the service provider with whom the number was originally registered, who then must forward it to the visited network. This network must provide an internal temporary telephone number for this mobile phone. Once the temporary number is provided, the home network routes the incoming call to the temporary phone number.
In order for a user to “log in” to a guest network, there must be a roaming agreement between the guest and home networks. This agreement is established after a series of testing processes called IREG and TADIG. IREG testing checks the functionality of the established connection, while TADIG is designed to test call billing.
Transactions made by the user on the guest network are recorded in a file called TAP (Transferred Account Procedure) for GSM / CIBER (Cellular Intercarrier Billing Exchange Roamer) and transferred to the home network. The TAP/CIBER file contains data on all calls made by the user. These files are used to calculate the amount of payments that users must pay to the home operator. The period for invoicing the subscriber for services provided in roaming can be up to 36 days from the date of provision of services. This period is regulated by the International GSM Association.
Alarm during a call
The signaling process is considered using the example of a call to a subscriber roaming in a guest network.
- The caller dials the mobile MSISDN number of the called party, who is roaming.
- Based on the information contained in the MSISDN (national direction code and country code), the call is routed to the GMSC switching center gateway. This is implemented using the IAM (Initail Address Message) ISUP subsystem.
- To determine the location of the called subscriber, the GMSC sends HLR SRI (Send Routing Information) to the MAP (Mobile Application Part) subsystem. The MAP subsystem SRI message contains the MSISDN number, which the HLR will supplement with the IMSI identifier of the called subscriber.
- Since the called subscriber has already registered in the visited network, the home HLR already knows which VLR serves the subscriber. The HLR sends a MAP PRN (Provide Roaming Number) message to the visiting network VLR to find out the subscriber's roaming number MSRN. The home HLR will then be able to route the call to the correct MSC address.
- Together with the IMSI contained in the MAP PRN message, the VLR assigns a temporary number to the subscriber on the visited network, known as the subscriber roaming number MSRN. This MSRN is sent back to the home MSC using RIA (Routing Information Acknowledgment).
- Now, along with the MSRN number, the GMSC knows exactly where to route the call. A call is made using ISUP (or TUP) signaling between the home GMSC and the guest MSC. ISUP generates an IAM message containing the MSISDN and IMSI of the called party.
- Upon receiving the IAM message, the visiting network MSC recognizes the MSRN and the IMSI for which the MSRN was allocated. After this, the MSC sends a MAP SI (Send Information) message to request information about the subscriber (available services, etc.). If the called party is successfully authorized and ready to receive the call, the VLR sends a MAP subsystem CC (Complete Call) message to the MSC.