T-Mobile US figuring out international roaming on 5G
- Reference: 1639220474
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/12/11/tmobile_5g_roaming/
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T-Mobile sells some connected PCs like Samsung's Galaxy Book Go 5G with its data plans. The company anticipates a much different user behavior on 5G than it has with smartphones, and will adapt plans accordingly.
"I think early days, there were a lot of starts and fits in the space. I think there was a lot of friction points from ease of activation to eSIM adoption not being quite there yet," Ryan Sullivan, vice president of device engineering, told The Register .
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Another challenge was figuring out the distribution strategy, partially with PC makers not knowing what to do with cellular, Sullivan said. He added that T-Mobile won't be major distributor of these connected PCs, and that the mass appeal for connected PCs will be through traditional retail channels.
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But unlike Wi-Fi, there are conditions for 5G PCs, like getting worldwide roaming for seamless connectivity. It's already hard for LTE smartphones to get worldwide roaming, and that could be an even bigger challenge for 5G connected PCs, which will need more bandwidth.
T-Mobile has a grasp of customer behavior, usage profile and cost benefit of international 2G, 3G, 4G or 5G roaming for smartphone users, but the same can't be said for PCs.
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"We don't know that yet in the PC space, I think we will eventually learn that and you'll start to see similar offerings," Sullivan said, adding that there won't be a technical limitation.
"If you're seeing cases where it's not being offered, it's probably by design. And it's probably just because we're trying to work out the economics of what PC roaming worldwide looks like, what kind of usage is being generated and what the cost structure needs to look like," Sullivan said.
That is important in scenarios where international users don't want to connect to snooping public Wi-Fi networks, and prefer to seamlessly switch over 5G networks instead.
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T-Mobile is also exploring data plans for connected PCs. Current offerings for mobile PCs are like the company's tablet plan, but more pricing structures and usage models are being explored.
"Whether it becomes something that you can borrow from as part of your hotspot budget, or whether it's a separate standalone unique plan where throttling limits are set differently, or whether it's completely on throttle, all of those things we're working through right now," Sullivan said.
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T-Mobile said a variety of data could be offered as the 5G PC user profile will vary. Some will use 5G as a backup to Wi-Fi while others will use it as a replacement, and others may opt for data packs or pay-as-you-go plans.
"We're thinking about all of those things," Sullivan said. ®
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Re: So the challenge is?
Both I guess? Different countries have different bands allocated to 5G, and some might use completely different standards.
Also the marketing / pricing.
Will people want an in-country plan with the option to buy a roaming top-up when they take their machine abroad.
Will the want to buy a local PAYG sim when they get to their destination.
Will they want to use wifi most of the time and get a short-term data plan for occasional periods away from their usual location?
Of course there is more than one correct answer to these questions, and you don't need a majority of people to pick one of the options for it to be a viable business proposition.
For me, on the rare occasions when I need mobile data on my MacBook, I plug in my iPhone and get the data off that. Also works with Windows machines, and with an Android phone to either, but requires a slightly more involved process to set it up.
Re: So the challenge is?
Basically that carrier-grade international telephony links cannot rely on the main Internet and have to be installed alongside. The current GRX (GPRS Roaming Exchange) is complex, expensive, slow and not easily upgraded; consequently, even roaming via LTE is shite.
WiFi has been touted but, from the user's perspective it has poor coverage, unreliable service and is insecure, while what actually matters here is that from the carrier's perspective you can't bill for voice calls over it.
Some carriers pass voice traffic one way through the system and data traffic another. But 5G is supposed to bury such archaic distinctions. So was 4g. So was LTE.
5G data bandwidths, allied to voice call billing, require a whole new technical approach to international mobile comms. Hopefully, the interoperability which features strongly in various national government master plans may bring us a solution, but it ain't happened yet.
Let's see if they figure it out before Apple do...
...because you know that all that Apple need to do is remove the SIM slot and make 5G connection something that you buy from the AppStore.
Then everyone will complain about Apple's walled garden... ...then a year later Google will do the the exact same thing in Android...
Re: Let's see if they figure it out before Apple do...
all that Apple need to do is remove the SIM slot and make 5G connection something that you buy from the AppStore
That's exactly what an eSIM "offers", you can no longer plug in a SIM from your choice of operator, you get the operators that the equipment supplier chooses. It's already commonplace in cars, there needs to be an eSIM to support the now-mandatory emergency calling in the EU, so the manufacturers can tie you to their choice of operator & plan for any other data use such as streaming music. The latest VW-group cars have an eSIM in their much-derided new 'infotainment' systems, with free service for a year and then you have to pay them (or rather, their choice of operator) if you want a data plan after that.
So the challenge is?
The article isn't clear to me what the challenge is. Technical or marketing/pricing?