Cuts unnecessary “tromboning” on roaming voicemail Helps meet new EU 2010 regulations

July 16, 2009, San Jose, USA: Global leader in mobile roaming software and solutions, Roamware, today revealed its Voicemail Call Completion (VMCCTM) product could save European operators a potential annual bill of €150million for compliance with new EU regulations on roaming voicemail. 

The EU regulations, to be introduced next year, are targeted at ensuring that customers are not charged additional fees for receiving voice mail messages while roaming.

Although the new regulations will automatically cut costs for consumers, unless other changes are made, Roamware estimates that European operators will collectively incur an annual cost of between €130m and €150m for re-bounding international voicemail calls – known in the telecoms industry as “tromboning”

John Jiang, Roamware’s CTO explains: “If you make a call to customer who is roaming but who cannot be reached because the signal is bad or they are already using the phone, two international calls are effectively made – one to try to reach the phone, and a rebound leg back to the home network voice mail box to leave the message. This is what is known as tromboning.

“In many cases,” he continues, “call forwarding information critical to voice mail deposits is not carried forward on the return leg and when the caller hits the mailbox they are sometimes asked to re-enter the number of the person being called. Quite often the call is then terminated, and although no message is left, two international calls are charged.”

Using Roamware’s enhanced Voice Mail Call Completion (VMCC)TM service in the home network, the Roamware software recognizes the unavailable roaming mobile and deposits the call – complete with all the relevant information - straight to the home network mail box.

“We cut out the “trombone call” and ensure that roaming messages get left in exactly the same way as normal – helping operators meet their EU commitment and saving costs for both them and the consumers,” says Jiang.

Roamware already provides roaming software and services to more than 90 networks in the EU region and estimates that collectively European operators would incur non re-chargeable tromboning call costs of between 130-150 Million Euros annually once the new regulations come into force. 

Abraham Punnoose, Roamware’s VP of marketing and business development, says: “Roamware’s solution can help operators save costs, comply with the EU regulation and provide an improved customer service for mobile roaming voice mail.

“We are seeing significant traction and interest from our existing customers and other operators both inside and outside the European region as operators realize the implication of the new EU regulations and the opportunities that exist to cut costs and improve service.”