AIS and STC Kuwait establish 5G SA roaming via BICS hub

Thailand's Advanced Info Service (AIS) and STC Kuwait have established a 5G Standalone (SA) roaming connection, a first between an Asian and a Middle Eastern operator.

The international roaming connection between the two operators is being routed through the new 5G SA Service Hub provided by BICS. The 5G SA Service Hub has been put through its paces in the past 11 months since BICS completed its first global 5G SA roaming connection last November between STC Kuwait and Belgian mobile operator Proximus.

BICS's 5G Standalone Service Hub uses the GSMA's Secure Edge Protection Proxy (SEPP) – with added data analytics, business intelligence, quality monitoring and fraud protection – to deliver an international 5G roaming connection carrying data, texts and calls over a 5G mobile core network.

This is a big deal for operators because roaming connections for non-standalone (NSA) 5G networks are being transmitted as 4G/LTE traffic in core networks. This means innovative 5G use cases that leverage network slicing and real-time-critical communication cannot roam.

Roaming revenues set to soar

Giving unique 5G use cases the ability to access international roaming is important at a time when analysts are seeing an early comeback of roaming revenues that disappeared in the wake of restrictions on international travel amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Related:Eurobites: BICS bigs up 5G SA roaming breakthrough

In a study released in February, Juniper Research predicted that global retail roaming revenues will grow substantially, from $10 billion in 2022 to $19 billion by 2027. Furthermore, the research firm predicted that the total number of 5G roaming connections will increase from 53 million in 2023 to 526 million by 2027.

"In 2021, Juniper Research forecast that roaming traffic was not expected to surpass pre-pandemic levels until 2024. However, with increasing strategic partnerships and success recorded in Proof of Concepts between operators, and the establishment of roaming agreements and value-added services, these figures have the potential to recover earlier than originally anticipated," wrote Elisha Sudlow-Poole, senior research analyst at Juniper Research, in a March blog post.

"This highlights how the roaming and mobile market has not been impacted as significantly as originally feared, and the continued digitalisation of the mobile industry has allowed operators, OEMs and mobile service providers to recover lost revenue as a result of the pandemic," she added.

The research firm anticipates that operators will be particularly motivated to implement 5G networks based on the needs of their roaming partners, as the frequency of these partnerships is anticipated to provide a distinguishing factor from competition.

Related:AIS, ZTE and MediaTek test RedCap at 2.6GHz in Bangkok

Saran Phaloprakarn, head of mobile and consumer products at AIS, said they will push the 5G momentum forward with breakthrough roaming connections across Asia.

"For 5G to work for businesses and consumers, it needs to be scalable, and it needs to be secure. This successful roaming connection takes a huge step forward in both regards, and ushers in the next generation of 5G for our customers and the wider industry," said Phaloprakarn in a statement.

Slowdown in 5G SA deployment

However, while enabling international roaming for 5G SA services is a welcome development for telco operators, the reality is that 5G SA infrastructure is not yet widely deployed.

According to Counterpoint Research, commercial 5G SA deployments have slowed down, with only 47 operators making their rollouts in the first half of 2023: 20 of these operators are from the Asia-Pacific. The slowdown is attributed to global macroeconomic factors and the lack of a clear picture of 5G monetization for operators.

"Operators are biding their time and looking for evidence of successful use cases before switching from 5G NSA to SA," Counterpoint Research said in a statement last month.

But BICS believes that making 5G SA roaming available will accelerate the commercial deployment of the technology.

"The real potential of 5G will only be realized through the global adoption of 5G Standalone. The more we work together to cement these foundations and make 5G SA roaming a reality, the quicker operators like AIS and STC Kuwait, and enterprises and end users alike, can unlock its potential," said Mikaël Schachne, vice president for telco at BICS.