Free-Range Roaming

Recognizing demand from small and mid-size carriers for affordable free-range wireless prepaid roaming options, national service bureaus, nationwide carriers and vendors are rolling out a variety of solutions.

What they're after is a piece of the wireless prepaid market that is expected to grow from 2.4 million subscribers at the end of last year to 15.6 million in 2001, according to the Yankee Group.

For example, in response to the courting of small and mid-size carriers by rival service bureaus GTE TSI and Systems/Link, Boston Communications Group (BCGI) has a new architecture offering cut-rate access to its national C2C wireless prepaid network.

The architecture's hardware and software fills a telephone interface node (TIN) that can be installed in 45 to 60 days. A carrier's subscriber base determines its magnitude. The entry price is as low as $50,000. After that, tiered pricing starts at 10 cents per minute.

The TIN connects to an aggregating server complex that routes a carrier's roamers onto the same nationwide network of service nodes that already handles about 40% of U.S. prepaid traffic.

"It really opens the door for BCGI," said David Berndt, Yankee Group associate director. "Before, they really couldn't compete with GTE TSI and Systems/Link at that low end."

This is not BCGI's first attempt at bringing small and mid-size carriers into its prepaid fold. Earlier efforts were thwarted by limited roaming and hefty minimums. The new plan eliminates those problems, said Jeff McLaughlin, BCGI director of marketing. Nor does it require smaller carriers to enter agreements that can demand 40% of a carrier's prepaid revenue.

"There's absolutely no incentive to sign on new customers, because they're giving away 40 cents on the dollar," McLaughlin said.

It is unclear whether roaming-challenged carriers will warm to the idea of another kinder, gentler service bureau. However, BCGI's brand name and first-to-market status give it leverage, Berndt said.

Some smaller carriers have overcome their roaming deficiencies by reaching automatic roaming agreements with national carriers offering 1-rate plans. Some have become network affiliates, but others aren't interested in paying a service bureau to handle the few subscribers that leave their coverage areas on a regular basis and choose to install their own prepaid networks.

For example, WirelessNorth, a mid-size carrier, this summer bought its own prepaid network that uses the Vision platform. The carrier is comfortable with the lack of national roaming, believing most of its 2.4 million POPs largely remain within its 110,000-square-mile coverage area.

"We are looking at other options and other upgrades as they become available," said Jacqueline Brudlos, Wireless-North spokesperson. "But for now we primarily sell single-band handsets that they use with the prepaid product, and it has actually taken off quite well."

Meanwhile, vendors such as AG Communications are busy bringing to market WIN technology, which is designed to facilitate roaming. Yet industry pundits say it could be several years before such solutions become an affordable prepaid roaming option for all smaller carriers.

"In order for WIN-based prepaid technology to work outside of a carrier's network, other carriers also have to have installed WIN protocols," Berndt said.