A new study by Juniper Research highlights the losses that operators are expected to incur from misidentifying roaming data traffic.
This year, the company’s analysts estimate that operators globally will miss out on $484 million. While certainly not unsubstantial, it’s relatively small change compared to the years ahead.
By 2026, Juniper Research projects the losses will reach a staggering $2.1 billion—representing an eye-watering growth of 331 percent. Operators would do well to establish processes now to ensure they’re not contributing to this figure.
Scarlett Woodford, author of the research, commented:
“By combining BCE (Billing & Charging Evolution) with AI-enabled roaming analytics suites, operators will be ideally positioned to deal with the rise in roaming data.
Separating roaming traffic by network connectivity is essential to allow operators to charge roaming partners based on latency and download speed, and maximise overall 5G roaming revenue.”
5G roaming is driving a market evolution that will gain over the coming years.
The report forecasts 5G roaming connections will reach over 200 million by 2026; rising from 5 million in 2021. Growth will be driven by increasing 5G adoption in tandem with a return to pre-pandemic levels of international travel.
Juniper recommends that operators use the BCE end-to-end industry-wide standard defined by the GSMA. BCE identifies roaming data traffic over different network technologies.
In addition, the analyst house urges operators to identify emerging areas of potential revenue leakage by leveraging machine learning in roaming analytics tools to efficiently assess roaming behaviour and data usage.
The complete study, Data & Financial Clearing: Emerging Trends, Key Opportunities & Market Forecasts 2021-2026, can be found here (paywall)
(Photo by Emily Morter on Unsplash)
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