5G standalone [5G SA] roaming continues to be a hot topic, but how is it progressing at T Wholesale and across the industry?
A lot has happened since we started pushing the industry to advance 5G SA roaming in 2021.
We have run several proofs-of-concept, including establishing the first 5G SA roaming connection between Europe and Southeast Asia in partnership with Swiss and Thai operators Sunrise and AIS, and completing a low-latency data roaming connection between Germany and Spain together with Telefónica.
We’ve also run a regional breakout trial for 5G SA with Türk Telekom, addressing the need for latency-critical applications with minimal investment. Additionally, we went live with our 5G roaming network in partnership with T-Mobile US a couple of years ago and are currently offering interested parties an interconnection with the operator.
We’re also engaged in several EU-funded projects to deploy infrastructure for 5G connectivity along the main transport paths throughout the region. For example, with our outsourced security-edge-protection-proxy [SEPP] solution, we enable our subsidiary operator Cosmote to take part in the 5G SEAGUL project, delivering uninterrupted mobility for the technology across the 473km-long Greece-Bulgaria corridor.
Our aim has always been to lend momentum to the industry so that it moves from passive collaboration to active cooperation in service delivery, and we see this happening at an increased pace. The GSMA is fully pushing the definition of the roaming ecosystem, while more operators are finalising their test phases and preparing for the first roaming interconnections.
Is the communications ecosystem ready for 5G SA roaming?
Yes – the situation with regard to 5G SA roaming today is like the calm before the storm. After almost four years of discussions within the GSMA, the rules of engagement for the different players are now ready.
First movers have made their decision and are pushing some interconnectivity models over others, such as outsourced, hosted SEPP solutions or hubbing services. This means that operators that have yet to choose which model they want to go with need to engage now, or the decision will be made for them.
While the industry has deliberated and advanced these various roaming models, we cannot forget the bigger picture. If we do not actively embrace what 5G brings to the roaming industry, we will not be able to understand its potential, let alone benefit from it.
In their 5G Triangle, the ITU, 3GPP and GSMA have jointly defined 5G as the enabler for a flurry of applications in three key areas: enhanced mobile broadband, massive machine-to-machine communications and ultra-reliable low-latency communication.
At T Wholesale, we’ve adapted this triangle for 5G SA roaming (see diagram). For us, such services stand for the effective provision of first-rate security, a high and differentiated quality of service and cloudification of the mobile network.
How has T Wholesale sought to ensure security for such roaming?
The most important aspect of our 5G SA roaming triangle is that security is no longer an afterthought when it comes to today’s roaming needs. The security of a roaming interconnection must be a commercial decision of roaming departments, as some routes for specific traffic types may demand higher security than others.
Modern militaries, for example, no longer function without secure, advanced and integrated communications. 5G is the go-to solution, with NATO and allied armed forces already exploring how private 5G networks and their roaming destinations can be securely used.
Last year, we launched our Magenta Security Roaming service suite to protect our customers effectively from global signalling attacks, no matter which protocol they use. Our innovative security-by-design concept includes the upcoming launch of the first-ever LTE diameter-end-to-end-signalling solution, as well as our 5G SA roaming-enablement services.
The most recent addition is our Group-hosted SEPP for Family & Friends service, designed to avoid ‘man-in-the-middle’ security risks in 5G SA roaming. This comes with a built-in firewall fully compliant with the GSMA’s FS.36 recommendations, which relate to potential 5G-interconnect attacks on mobile networks and customers. We are also working on AI features to automate the identification of patterns in the messaging flow.
As standardisation continues to result in new interconnection models, we help to keep operators in control of the related mechanisms and security concerns.
What new quality-of-service factors need to be addressed when it comes to 5G SA roaming?
The second pillar of our 5G SA roaming triangle relates to evolving needs for service quality that come with these capabilities. 5G’s coveted network-slicing feature enables operators to offer specific services to different customer segments, such as with the mobile cloud gaming experience that Deutsche Telekom recently introduced in Germany.
But talking about quality of service for 5G SA roaming is different, because many more subscriber segments will emerge within the traditional clusters of consumers, business customers and IoT devices.
For example, live-event broadcasters are likely to need lower latencies than average subscribers, and militaries, first responders and political personnel might have different security needs to regular business customers. Use cases for IoT roaming such as autonomous driving will also need more security than others.
With 5G SA roaming, these differing service-quality needs must be addressed, with regard to both security and latency. We find ourselves in a world where, yes, all roads lead to Rome, but some are faster and some more scenic than others, while some are home-routed or local breakout routes.
Some routes also differ based on their interconnection mechanism, with a potential security threat emerging if a hubbing method is used rather than direct interconnection.
Each operator needs to determine whether quality-of-service requirements can be satisfied within these differing use cases via the routing and security provided by their roaming relationships.
What does cloudification mean for 5G SA roaming?
The cloudification pillar of our triangle refers to the fact that 5G SA is a cloud-native technology. In this environment, operators are tasked with building and running network components in the cloud, taking full advantage of the flexibility, scalability and resilience that it brings.
This new way of working allows operators to move into the B2B2X business by providing APIs that enable third parties to offer innovative services on-demand to their customers, and offers opportunities to carriers with telco APIs aggregated across networks. When it comes to roaming, these APIs have the potential to request different routes depending on traffic types to reach individual destinations.
But 5G SA roaming can be taken even further: now that the network is cloud-native and operators can create applications composed of small, independent and loosely coupled components, they have the flexibility to enter different types of cooperation with their service providers.
This is the next big thing we’re working on at T Wholesale. Under these mechanisms, operators can share their cloud environment with us and let us deploy our services locally while keeping their traffic where it needs to be.
Signalling should not be routed to hubs in other regions simply to enable the old business models we are used to today; we can move away from bringing the data to the provider and towards bringing the service to the customer without additional latency and with the security that they need.
We firmly believe that only by fully adopting cloudification can we guarantee security and quality of service in one shot.
How does 5G SA change the way players work within the roaming industry?
Looking at 5G security, telco players are realising that we cannot go on with hop-by-hop or man-in-the-middle design models. Furthermore, the move from quality of service to quality of experience for humans and machines necessitates proper orchestration of traffic.
With the cloudification of mobile networks, our industry is probably also ready to move away from regional hubbing towards local traffic.
The telco world is radically changing with the advent of 5G, and the roaming industry is changing with it. Operators face challenges from different areas, such as eSIM providers that enable easy roaming or satellite offerings providing ubiquity in their region. Only those of us that properly embrace the 5G SA roaming revolution will manage to really benefit from it.
At T Wholesale, we believe that operators can successfully compete by offering innovative services – but, most importantly, they need to differentiate themselves from the current competing forces through highly secure mobile connectivity and superior service quality.
Cloudification is the ‘glue’ that keeps these two key differentiating factors together, paving the way for operators to brave the 5G SA roaming revolution.
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