Another roaming partner joins the Key2roam® community after Comfone's Central Asia Workshop in Tashkent, Uzbekistan

04. June 2004

"We welcome Uzdunrobita of Uzbekistan, a new Key2roam® roaming partner, and expect many more operators to follow. Just sign one agreement with Comfone and complete one set of IREG and TADIG tests to access roaming with the Key2roam® community. And there is no service fee. What could be easier and involve NO risk or investment costs?"
Oscar Derrer, CEO, Comfone

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Tashkent, Uzbekistan's capital in the heart of Central Asia, was the location of Comfone's most recent training session. Mobile operators from the region were keen to broaden their understanding of international roaming. The workshop not only resulted in achieving this goal, but also led to Comfone signing a new Key2roam® roaming partner, Uzdunrobita of Uzbekistan, and all attendees leaving the meeting as friends.

The topic of training, "How to meet the challenges of roaming," was led by Alina Tsapko, Sales Director EECA, and Kam Mehta, Senior Product Manager, who once again proved to be a winning team! Issues covered included the legal, technical and commercial aspects of SS7 signalling, the technical aspects of signalling links, voice and access solutions, and details on Comfone's SCCP service and Signalling Access over Internet solution.

As the day progressed, the topic of discussion moved on to explore GPRS, the GRX model and MMS. International roaming processes were discussed and Comfone's new Key2roam® concept introduced. The aim of the training was to inform as well as invoke group discussion and a sharing of experiences.


Deep in discussion

Despite many of the participating networks having been in operation for 5 years, international roaming has taken fairly slow steps in the region. The group recognised that they shared many common problems. Slow processes and poor quality of signalling of local signalling carriers were key issues. To overcome these bottlenecks Comfone offered Signalling with Signalling Access over Internet (SAoI) as a fast and cost-effective signalling solution, which has proved to be very popular with Comfone customers. Training on new value added and upcoming services, such as SMS, MMS and GPRS, was also much appreciated.

Ruslan Sabyrov, GSM Roaming Manager of BITEL GSM, Kyrgyz Republic, made a presentation to the group during the training day. As a long-standing customer of Comfone, Ruslan was keen to share his experience of using Comfone Signalling with SAoI and to express how Comfone had simplified and sped up the process of increasing BITEL's global roaming coverage.

BITEL GSM, user of Comfone's Signalling, GCS and SAoI solutions, provided a firsthand case-study into how Comfone supports operators with its quality services and experienced personnel.

"Before BITEL GSM became a signalling customer of Comfone we used the local signalling carrier in Kyrgyzstan. Whenever we required a new signalling destination we experienced serious time delays due to red tape and tedious procedures. Everything changed once we swapped to Comfone Signalling. To order a new signalling destination with Comfone now only takes between three and seven days."
Ruslan Sabyrov, GSM Roaming Manager, BITEL GSM, Kyrgyz Republic

Comfone's training was the first opportunity for all of Central Asia's operators to meet in person

23 participants took part in the training, representing nearly all existing operators from Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and the Kyrgyz Republic. Attendees represented a total of 9 mobile networks, including JV Coscom, FE Buztel, Daewoo Unitel Co., Uzdunrobita JV, Uzmacom, Barash Communication Technologies Inc., GSM Kazakhstan LLP 'KCELL', BITEL Ltd and Indigo Tajikistan.

Comfone's presence in Tashkent made quite a stir - Alina Tsapko's interview with Uzbek Radio was broadcast on two programs countrywide

The group also had the opportunity to get to know each other better. Dinner at a local restaurant after the training day was relaxed. Each participating operator toasted the others and expressed delight in finally being able to meet each other in person.

An excursion to the popular resort of Beldersay in the Uzbek Mountains followed the next day. On the way the group stopped for a short visit to Chinar, the oldest tree growing in Central Asia, and took some photos.

Sheltering under the arms of the 300 year old tree, 'Chinar'

Later everyone was treated to a barbeque while enjoying the spectacular mountain views.

Enjoying a picnic at the Uzbek mountain resort of Beldersay

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For those able to stay on, Comfone organised an official sightseeing tour of the city of Samarqand. Historically known as Sogdia and settled in 2000 BC, Samarqand played a key role in commerce along the Silk Road and has been home to legends such as Alexander the Great. The group enjoyed the sights of the majestic city.

A great deal was achieved during Comfone's visit to Uzbekistan. Mobile operators from across the region benefited from Comfone's expertise in roaming and were able to share experiences. Real interest in Comfone Key2roam® was expressed. Roaming managers recognised the solution as a means to achieve fast roaming worldwide, without having to make additional investment or changes to their existing network infrastructure.

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