Clearinghouse consolidator

There probably was not too much new business to be had at the recent Broadband Wireless World conference in Las Vegas — the exhibit floor at the two-day conference actually closed early on the second day. However, the hardcore attendees checking out every last booth would have found a new player in wireless roaming transactions — BSG Clearing Solutions.

The London-based company with a U.S. location in San Antonio, Texas, acquired United Clearing last December and EDS Interoperator Services GmbH last summer, to position what had been a wireline billing firm as a clearinghouse of roaming transactions for the wireless industry. The United Clearing acquisition brought the firm GSM roaming clearinghouse capabilities that it didn't have before to combine with other wireless assets. In February, BSG was able to launch GSM clearinghouse services for the North American GSM market. The company also recently landed a new CEO — former Deutsche Telekom executive Roland Bopp.

Although the vendor has focused on GSM roaming and Wi-Fi roaming, Betty Cockrell, director of industry relations at BSG, said at Broadband Wireless World that the company has been checking out the WiMAX and metropolitan wireless mesh markets of late.

“There are going to be multiple types of networks exchanging roaming information, and it doesn't matter to our systems what we're exchanging.”