Deal to Improve USA Roaming Availablity

TSI Telecommunication Services (TSI) and Singapore's SingTel have jointly announced an agreement to launch bilateral signaling services for GSM mobile operators. SingTel will provide these services to its mobile operator customers in support of roaming between Asia Pacific and GSM operators in North America.

TSI announced the launch of its SCCP gateway services earlier this year, marking the first alternative solution of its kind available in the industry for GSM operators. SCCP gateway services are necessary to facilitate roaming between North American GSM operators, who utilize ANSI SS7 standards for inter-operator signaling, and GSM operators throughout the rest of the world, who utilize ITU-T C7 standards. TSI's conversion service supports both one-way and bilateral routing depending on the choice of the GSM operators and their roaming partners.

"We are pleased to be working with SingTel to provide this roaming service for the Asia Pacific region, where the demand for international roaming continues to grow," said Michael O'Brien, TSI vice president - marketing. "With its regional partners, SingTel is Asia's largest multi-market operator, serving nearly 41 million subscribers. This represents a significant opportunity for TSI to further expand its relationships with wireless operators in the region."

"By partnering with TSI, SingTel is now able to offer mobile operators in Asia an alternative gateway to enhance their connectivity to North America," said Mr Richard Tan, SingTel's Vice-President (International Carrier Business). "More importantly, SingTel can potentially help regional operators reduce their costs in signaling conversion."

Posted to the site on 12th November 2003