A new study from Juniper Research highlights significant revenue losses operators face from misclassifying roaming data traffic.
This year, the analysts estimate global operator losses of $484 million due to misidentified roaming traffic. While substantial, that figure is small compared with projected future losses.
By 2026, Juniper Research forecasts those losses will balloon to $2.1 billion—a 331% increase. Operators should act now to implement accurate traffic identification and billing processes to avoid contributing to this growing shortfall.
Scarlett Woodford, the report’s author, noted:
“By combining BCE (Billing & Charging Evolution) with AI-enabled roaming analytics suites, operators will be ideally positioned to deal with the rise in roaming data. Separating roaming traffic by network connectivity is essential to allow operators to charge roaming partners based on latency and download speed, and maximise overall 5G roaming revenue.”
The rise of 5G roaming is transforming the market and will drive substantial change in the coming years.
Juniper’s report forecasts 5G roaming connections will exceed 200 million by 2026, up from 5 million in 2021. This growth is expected as 5G adoption expands and international travel returns to pre-pandemic levels.
To address these challenges, Juniper recommends operators adopt the GSMA-defined BCE (Billing & Charging Evolution) end-to-end industry standard. BCE enables accurate identification of roaming data traffic across different network technologies, helping ensure correct billing.
The analysts also urge operators to leverage machine learning within roaming analytics tools to identify emerging sources of revenue leakage. ML-driven analytics can efficiently assess roaming behavior and data usage patterns, enabling timely detection and remediation of misclassification issues.
The full report, Data & Financial Clearing: Emerging Trends, Key Opportunities & Market Forecasts 2021-2026, is available from Juniper Research (paywall).
(Photo by Emily Morter on Unsplash)
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