Subject: Re: [NEXTEL-1] GSME Code of Conduct

From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 19 Aug 2003 08:42:59 -0400

You are quite right my friend. Call termination charges are an area of much
debate.
Because the call termination charges vary between Romaing Partners, you
astutely note the
disproportionality re charges.  There are always disputes raised by
consumer groups which
the European Commission has to deal with, relating to reasonable charging
practices. 

One useful website to monitor is http://www.intug.net , but there are many
others that deal with
regulation etc. If you are interested in international call termination
charges visit the Arbinet
website,  which identifies the wholesale costs of call termination. You may
be surprised at the
mark ups.  If you really want to get into this issue, I have a useful .pdf
document by Professor Cave
about call traffic tromboning - very illuminating indeed.

Brief background (very generally):
In the UK, for a call made to a mobile located in the UK the adopted
charging standard is CPP
(calling party pays). When a call to a mobile leaves these shores, so to
speak, the call is handed
over to a romaing carrier, known as a Roaming Partner.  Hence you get the
term VPLMN (Visited
Public Land Mobile Network). The exchange of bills (traffic charges) adopts
the charging standard
RPP (receiving party pays). That is for the part of the call that is
conducted outside the subscriber's
home network.  The charges for the RPP portion (which is defined as the
call termination charge) of
the call is set out in agreement between carriers under the IOT (Inter
-Operator Tariff). The standard
billing document record comprises the call record defined by TAP (Transfer
Account Procedure). 

For those that like a bit of technical speak. The SIM Card contains PLMN
lists in data files called 'elementary
files (EF)'. The EF-HPLMN is the subscriber's network. EF-VPLMN contains
the list of carriers that the Home
PLMN has roaming agreement and the EF-FPLMN hold those list of carriers
which the subscriber
may not use to make chargeable calls. This may all sound very neat and tidy
but is not too accurate in
practice. This is because by the time a SIM is issued containing its lists
or the user may not roam 
immediately, when the user does roam, new roaming agreements can be place
and the VPLMN carrier
is not listed in the SIM, so the user wont expect to use that carrier.

The user can be blissfully unaware of a new roaming partner and connect to
the new partners network,
whilst roaning and not know the RPP call termination charge until the bill
arrives.  This is just one of the many
reasons why the voluntary GSME Code of Conduct  came about, so that users
could know, in advance, the
likely call charges they might expect. You can thank INTUG for their
efforts in this matter.

Greg UK

-------------Forwarded Message-----------------

From:   INTERNET:[email-masked],
INTERNET:[email-masked]
To:     [unknown], INTERNET:[email-masked]
        
Date:   19/08/103 12:18 PM

RE:     Re: [NEXTEL-1] GSME Code of Conduct

Greg,
I'm actually surprised that roaming charges have not decreased at the same
rate as the per minute charges here in the
US. I understand  that with roaming you have two carriers making a profit
but $4.99 a minute?

[email-masked] wrote:

> Marcel
> For those GSM roamers abroad: GSM Europe Code of Conduct re: Roaming
> Charges.
> Greg UK

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From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 19 Aug 2003 08:59:51 -0400

What a mess!

What are the per minute rates like over there in the UK do you guys get buckets of minutes, Free Nights & weekends for
39.99 like we do? And what about roaming in the UK? How is VOD's Coverage

> the European Commission has to deal with, relating to reasonable charging

They will never gain the respect of US carriers until they add some regulation. Also they are hindering the deployment
of Tri-Band GSM phones in the US. Americans will just rent a phone instead of maintaining one of their own. Carriers
could collect monthly revenues from Americans while they are here in the USA, just to outrageous roaming rates abroad.

> about call traffic tromboning - very illuminating indeed.

Thx I will add it to my list-

> billing document record comprises the call record defined by TAP (Transfer

Geezzeee CCP, RPP, IOT= DUD

> is not listed in the SIM, so the user wont expect to use that carrier.

Is this a worldwide format or just the UK?

> likely call charges they might expect. You can thank INTUG for their

We can limit the carriers we access in the software of our phones, some carriers write it into the firmware.

Thanks for the overview-