Deutsche Telekom Global Carrier, Sunrise and AIS Thailand have initially set up an intercontinental 5G Standalone (SA) roaming connection between two networks in Europe and Southeast Asia. The partners completed the connection in a lab environment with live SIMs and devices and roamed between Sunrise’s and AIS Thailand’s respective 5G SA networks.
The direct SEPP-to-SEPP (Security Edge Protection Proxy) connectivity set-up between the home and visited networks was carried out via GSMA’s SEPP protocol. SEPP enables secure interconnect between 5G networks by ensuring end-to-end confidentiality for all 5G interconnect roaming messages between the originating and destination networks and by following 5G SA roaming security design in 3GPP standard.
Nicholas Nikrouyan, vice president, voice & mobile solutions at Deutsche Telekom Global Carrier, says “We want to accelerate innovation during the current transformation to 5G by encouraging active partnerships that allow the industry to jointly learn and master this technology. Our latest success in completing a 5G SA roaming connection together with Sunrise and AIS Thailand paves the way for further developments that will see 5G SA enable all sorts of next-generation telco service offerings for consumers and enterprises alike. SEPP can also be efficiently hosted on Deutsche Telekom Global Carrier’s IPX network, if operators wish to outsource its implementation and management.”
Robert Redeleanu, chief business officer at Sunrise, comments “We’re proud to have achieved the 5G SA roaming connection between our network and that of AIS Thailand. Together with Deutsche Telekom Global Carrier, we look forward to converting this success into super-fast and reliable 5G SA connectivity services for our private and corporate customers here in Europe and across the globe.”
Saran Phaloprakarn, head of mobile and consumer products development at AIS Thailand, says “This cooperation with Deutsche Telecom Global Carrier and Sunrise confirms our intention to provide the best cutting-edge digital experiences to our customers and partners. 5G SA roaming is an innovation for ultra-fast data transmission, with efficient support for various solutions. It will provide a huge lifestyle convenience for customers when they are travelling.”
The implementation of the partners’ intercontinental 5G SA roaming connection is part of Deutsche Telekom Global Carrier’s 5G roaming environment which allows early movers to trial and scout their roaming needs in any 5G implementation scenario before making decisions. Within the environment, there are currently four different proof-of-concept [PoC] trials ongoing in the areas of 5G signaling and security, value-added services for 5G roaming, network slicing for roaming, and regional and local breakout.
Over the past year, the Deutsche Telekom Global Carrier also completed jointly with international mobile roaming company Comfone the first phase of their inter-carrier 5G SA roaming PoC, and implemented a low-latency data roaming connection between Germany and Spain together with Telefonica. 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.
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