MACH and Telefónica have announced that they have entered into a strategic joint venture and launched the Link2One roaming hub.
The concept of the hub is claimed to open the doors for operators to a new age in roaming connectivity. It is said to overcome the time-consuming, resource heavy problems associated with standard bilateral agreements such as diversification of technologies, configuration and testing. Link2One automatically offers speed, simplicity and control, resulting in minimised costs and increased reliability.
As Angel Merodio, Director from Telefónica explains; "Roughly only around 30,000 international bilateral roaming agreements are really up and running out of the 180,000 potentially available worldwide. We believe the current model of setting up international roaming agreements has gone as far as it can possibly go. Only a new model can effectively enable the missing number of agreements. With this initiative we foresee that gap closing in the coming years, allowing full roaming coverage for all mobile customers around the world, which has been a dream until today."
The Link2One roaming hub is a revolutionary, highly profitable method of expanding coverage and significantly reduces administrative costs. Through one single connection, operators receive the same access and service level capabilities (voice and data) as with classic bilateral agreements, in addition to data clearing, financial clearing and fraud protection.
With roaming connectivity guaranteed, operators are given the freedom to expand their business within the wider roaming community with ease and without constraints. Link2One not only provides new international destinations. It also enhances existing relationships by increasing the number of services and technologies available in each destination, such as GSM, CAMEL, SMS, GPRS and 3G. Instead of looking at a long process, operators can earn future untapped revenues today.
As an operator, Telefónica understands other operators' needs. The Link2One roaming hub invites operators to take advantage of their strong portfolio and coverage, therefore connection to Telefónica's 18 mobile operators in Europe and Latin America is immediate. This will increase exponentially as new operators connect and in the long-term; Link2One could facilitate roaming connectivity to all mobile operators worldwide.
According to Martin Lippert, CEO of MACH, "This is the world's best connected roaming hub and is the solution that brings the end to the bilateral approach. It is a multilateral roaming gateway combining the roaming connectivity of Telefónica and the roaming clearing capabilities of MACH. Link2One benefits MNOs of all sizes, both new and existing. It provides the answer to the universal quest of increasing roaming revenues without the accompanying high operating costs. MACH is proud to be leading the way with Telefónica."