Starhome Mach has unveiled LTE Accelerator, a software solution it claims will allow operators to deliver 4G LTE roaming services more quickly.
The vendor said it can take up to four months to set up a 4G LTE roaming agreement due to complexities in protocol, billing and testing requirements. To get around this, LTE Accelerator piggybacks onto operators’ current 3G agreements.
Starhome Mach cited research from 4G Americas, which said almost 275 operators have set up 4G LTE networks but now need to establish between 500 and 100 roaming agreements to effectively provide 4G LTE to its customers.
[Read more: EE launches 4G LTE roaming in France and Spain, claims top UK mobile network]
Guy Reiffer, VP Marketing and Partnerships at Starhome Mach, commented: “There is no appetite in the industry to roll out LTE roaming agreement by agreement as happened for 3G. It is too costly for the operator and would take a minimum of three to five years to achieve. We wanted to smooth the transition to LTE and speed time-to-market.”
Reiffer added that the product would help maintain the higher ARPU operators receive from 4G LTE customers. According to Informa, those who roam on 4G LTE generate 14.5 times more traffic than a non-LTE customer. While 4G LTE connections comprise only 2.9 percent of mobile connections, they account for 30 percent of mobile data traffic.
The GSMA is predicting there will be one billion 4G LTE connections by 2017, which will account for one in eight total connections worldwide.