T-Mobile US and Deutsche Telekom Global Carrier Ready for Technical Onboarding of 5G SA Roaming Partners
The technical trial program follows a comprehensive direct and hosted SEPP testing phase with a roaming solution based on Deutsche Telekom Global Carrier’s Hosted SEPP interconnection. Additional operator partners are invited to join our live roaming network.
T-Mobile US and Deutsche Telekom Global Carrier have completed testing of the world’s first 5G SA roaming solution and are now offering a trial program for interested parties to scout their 5G SA roaming needs. Deutsche Telekom Global Carrier launched its Hosted Security Protection Proxy (SEPP) architecture following extensive and successful proof-of-concept (PoC) trials conducted by both companies in a lab environment together with partners Sunrise and AIS Thailand. With Sunrise, the first Hosted SEPP 5G SA roaming connections between North America and Europe were established, while with AIS Thailand, a direct SEPP-SEPP interconnect between North America and Southeast Asia was set up.
Deutsche Telekom Global Carrier’s Hosted SEPP has proven successful in enabling the communication between the operators’ SEPPs by offering mediation and proxy functionality in combination with the necessary end-to-end security integration. This momentous milestone paves the way for faster and more reliable 5G SA roaming services for customers around the globe.
The Benefits of Hosted SEPP
The Hosted SEPP configuration brings numerous advantages to partners who want to outsource the implementation and management of their 5G SA roaming services. It guarantees that Edge security is still being provided by T-Mobile US, while providing strict compliancy with local regulation. It also addresses all security needs and concerns of the home operator, including that of transparency. Thanks to Deutsche Telekom Global Carrier’s transparent design, T-Mobile US’s partners will always be able to recognize that there is a Hosted SEPP in their interconnection and therefore make informed choices regarding all of their interconnections.
Deutsche Telekom Global Carrier and T-Mobile US recognized early on in their trial phase that the complexity introduced by 5G SA roaming, as well as the different vendor implementations of the new architecture design necessitated mediation proxy functionality to enable roaming. Certificate handling, for example, considerably complicates each roaming implementation, and by offering a Hosted SEPP environment, the home operator no longer bears the burden of this complex procedure for each of the roaming partners.
Following the comprehensive testing phase, T-Mobile US introduced its 5G standalone technical trial program based on Deutsche Telekom Global Carrier’s Hosted SEPP interconnection to its customers for pilot assessments in a live environment. Both companies also look forward to participate in the GSMA standardization discussion around 5G SA roaming and bring the learnings from the partnership to the industry.
Roaming Support for Early Movers
The 5G SA roaming program with T-Mobile US is the result of Deutsche Telekom Global Carrier’s innovative 5G roaming environment which allows early movers to trial and scout their roaming needs in any 5G implementation scenario before making strategic decisions. Within the environment, there are currently four different trial areas available: 5G signaling and security, value-added services for 5G roaming, network slicing for roaming, and regional and local breakout.
Over the past two years, Deutsche Telekom Global Carrier completed several trials in these areas, establishing the first 5G SA roaming connection between Europe and Southeast Asia in partnership with Sunrise and AIS Thailand, completing a low-latency data roaming connection between Germany and Spain together with Telefonica as part of a collaboration to make holographic calls as easy as regular phone calls, as well as conducting an inter-carrier 5G SA Roaming PoC with international mobile roaming specialist Comfone. Deutsche Telekom Global Carrier’s ultimate aim is to lend momentum to the industry so that it moves from passive collaboration to active cooperation in service delivery.