After the COVID-19 travel restrictions were lifted, the number of travelers using roaming services increased significantly. These travelers expect a top-quality mobile roaming service, as their roaming experience directly reflects the home operator's brand value. However, roaming network issues are common and can significantly affect user satisfaction. Identifying and addressing these issues promptly is crucial, but often identified only when it gets reported by:
- Executive team members.
- Friends and family of executive team members.
- CxOs from enterprise accounts.
- IoT enterprise accounts where service availability is critical and tracked by SLA.
- Customers reporting via social media occasionally.
Most postpaid and prepaid consumers, who contribute a higher percentage to roaming revenue, often do not report problems and instead find alternative roaming services.
Common Roaming Network Issues
1. Connectivity Problems
- No Signal: Users may not get any signal upon arriving in a new country, preventing calls, texts, or data usage.
- Intermittent Signal: Frequent signal drops lead to unreliable service.
- Registration Failures: Devices may fail to register with the local network.
2. High Costs
- Bill Shock: Unexpectedly high charges for data, calls, and SMS due to roaming tariffs.
- Data Usage: High data usage can lead to extremely high charges if not properly managed.
3. Quality of Experience
- Slow Data Speeds: Roaming users often experience slower data speeds compared to local users.
- Poor Call Quality: Voice calls may suffer from poor quality, including echoes, dropped calls, and delays.
4. Compatibility Issues
- Frequency Bands: User devices may not support the frequency of bands used by local networks.
- Technology Differences: Differences in technology standards (e.g., GSM vs. CDMA) can prevent users from connecting to the local network.
5. Authentication Issues
- SIM Card Problems: The user's SIM card might not be recognized by the local network.
- APN Settings: Incorrect APN (Access Point Name) settings can prevent access to mobile data.
6. Policy and Restriction Issues
- Network Restrictions: Some networks might restrict access to roaming users.
- Blocked Services: Certain services, like tethering or using a mobile hotspot, might be blocked for roaming users.
7. Service Configuration Issues
- Incorrect Roaming Settings: The home network might not have correctly configured roaming agreements or steering settings.
- Profile Issues: User profiles might not be updated to reflect roaming capabilities.
8. Billing and Account Issues
- Prepaid Account Issues: Prepaid users might run out of credit quickly due to higher roaming charges.
- Account Restrictions: Some accounts might not have roaming enabled by default.
9. User Errors
- Manual Network Selection: Users might manually select a suboptimal network, leading to connectivity issues.
- Roaming Disabled: Users may have disabled roaming on their devices without realizing it.
Mobile operators ask for a solution to provide a holistic view of the roaming customer experience and fault detection in real time to isolate and resolve the issue instead of waiting for the customer to report the issue.
Mobileum's Customer Experience Management Solution
Mobileum's Customer Experience Management solution is engineered to monitor and alert users about service faults and user experience in real time. This solution is tailored to address roaming faults and customer-reported issues by utilizing advanced analytics, monitoring, and diagnostic tools.
Here’s how the solution addresses these challenges:
1. Real-time Monitoring and Analytics
- Continuous Monitoring: Provides real-time visibility into network performance and user experience on quality of service (QoS) and Quality of Experience (QoE).
- Proactive Alerts: Generate alerts for anomalies and deviations from expected performance for quick issue identification and resolution.
- Proactive Testing: Conducts proactive tests when alerts are triggered to ensure performance standards are maintained.
2. Comprehensive Data Collection
- Detailed Metrics: Collects data on success and failure rates, data session performance, data speeds, and application performance.
- User Behavior Analysis: Analyses user behavior and network usage patterns to identify common issues and trends affecting customer experience.
3. Advanced Diagnostics and Troubleshooting
- Root Cause Analysis: Uses advanced diagnostics to pinpoint the exact cause of problems such as dropped calls, poor signal quality, failed data sessions, device compatibility, OTT application performance, video streaming quality, and data speed throughput at application level.
- Fault Isolation: Isolates faults within the network, enabling quick resolution of specific issues without affecting overall performance.
- Automated Resolution Tools: Employs automated workflows to resolve common issues quickly, reducing manual intervention and speeding up the resolution process.
4. Enhanced Roaming Performance
- Optimization Recommendations: Automated network optimization recommendations based on performance data and analytics, including steering changes and service policy modifications.
- Quality of Service Management: Ensures consistent and reliable service for roaming customers by managing quality of service (QoS) parameters.
5. User Experience Enhancement
- Personalized Insights: Offers insights into individual user experiences, allowing operators to tailor services to meet specific customer needs and preferences.
- Experience Assurance: Continuously monitors and adjusts network performance to ensure a seamless user experience.
6. Collaborative Issue Resolution
- Information Sharing: Share relevant performance data and diagnostics with partner networks to ensure a consistent and high-quality experience for roaming customers.
- Partner Network Collaboration: Facilitates collaboration between home and visiting networks to address issues promptly and effectively.
By addressing these areas, Mobileum’s Roaming Customer Experience solution ensures that operators can effectively manage, identify and resolve roaming faults and customer-reported issues, thereby enhancing the overall roaming experience for their customers.
With the increase in global travel, delivering a high-quality roaming experience has become crucial. By proactively resolving common roaming issues and using advanced analytics and diagnostic tools, operators can ensure a seamless and satisfactory experience for their roaming customers. Mobileum's comprehensive solution is tailored to meet these demands, enabling both operators and their customers to benefit from reliable and efficient roaming services.