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Solutions / MVNO & Mobile Infrastructure
National Roaming
Connect the unconnected at the lowest possible cost. National roaming and shared infrastructure let multiple operators collaborate to deliver rural coverage that none could justify alone.
The economics
Rural coverage is not a technology problem.
The technology to cover a remote village is well understood: a tower, a radio, a backhaul link. The problem is the unit economics. One operator cannot recover the cost of a low-ARPU rural site. Several operators sharing the cost can. National roaming is how that sharing happens in practice.
Shared RAN
One radio access network, multiple host MNOs. Moran or MOCN active sharing. Subscribers see their home network; the radio is shared.
Roaming steering
Steer subscribers to the shared RAN where coverage exists, fall back to home RAN elsewhere. Configurable per subscriber segment.
Wholesale settlement
Per-subscriber, per-minute or per-MB settlement between host and roaming partners. Reconciliation against CDRs. Disputes resolved on data, not opinion.
Why it works
Cost amortisation, not technical elegance.
National roaming is unglamorous infrastructure sharing. It works because the alternative, three operators each building a site to serve the same village, is wasteful in a way that does not survive a finance review.
Worked example
A village of 4,000 potential subscribers across three MNOs. Building one site costs $80,000 capex and $1,200/month opex.
Single-operator build: 1,333 subs per operator at $60 ARPU = $80k/month gross. Payback on paper.
Reality: rural ARPU averages $8. Gross is $10.7k/month per operator. Payback never.
Shared RAN model: three operators, one site, $80k capex split three ways, $400/month each. Each operator sees $10.7k/month against $400 opex. Payback under a year.
Field note
“South Africa’s new MVNO regulations open a market for innovation, partnership and competitiveness.” The same logic applies across emerging markets: regulators are increasingly mandating or encouraging infrastructure sharing because universal service obligations cannot be met any other way.
National roaming is the commercial instrument that makes the technology viable.
What we operate
The full stack of shared coverage.
RAN design
Coverage prediction, frequency planning, interference analysis across the shared footprint.
Site operations
Power, backhaul, maintenance, field teams. One operator of the site, multiple beneficiaries.
Subscriber experience
Per-operator QoS monitoring. Each roaming partner sees its own subscribers’ experience on the shared RAN.
Settlement platform
TAP-based roaming settlement between partners. Transparent per-MB and per-minute rates. Audit trail per CDR.
Next
Have a coverage obligation that needs shared infrastructure?
Tell us the geography and the partners. We will scope the shared RAN plan and the settlement model.
