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Random thoughts about mobile (enterprise) application development.

Where is my home network?

widianuser | 13 December, 2006 22:58

Some time ago I changed my mobile network operator to get a cheaper data plan. After the change I quickly started to feel that something isn't quite right, but wasn't sure what it was... Then I understood that my phone thinks it is not registered to home network, i.e. it is roaming all the time.


The situation is that my new operator is a MVNO (mobile virtual network operator) that doesn't have own network infrastructure but instead licenses it from a “real” operator. In this case interesting is that my operator has its own mobile network code allocated from ITU; I would assume that's not the case for most MVNOs. So now I have a subscription that is always roaming, current network is different than home network.


In practice this means that

  • limiting automatic email pull only to home network will not work

  • limiting MMS receiving only to home network will not work

  • network registration -aware settings for many applications (like Mail for Exchange) will not work

 

Techical note

For S60 3rd edition network registration status can be retrieved with class CTelephony that will tell you the current network and registration information. However, with that class you cannot get information about the home network. To get actual home network information I used an older device and the Mobinfo package from Symbian.


Business note

Of course there wouldn't be a need for “only in home network” kind of a setting if roaming costs were a little bit less astronomical. A short trip abroad with some web browsing and email activity will cost you more than a two-month domestic bill (just happened to me). There is an initiative to cut down roaming costs at EU level, but unfortunately that wouldn't affect data costs.

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Comments

Re: Where is my home network?

ericwyeh | 14/12/2006, 03:37

Well, that's interesting. We have MVNOs in my country as well and I've not heard of this kind of issues exist. How do you know you're roaming in MNO's network instead of in MVNO's. Is it because the handset display the MNO name on screen instead of MVNO name? I think it's more USIM and phone software issues if that's the case. In addition, I think IT related stuffs won't be effected in MVNO's cases. Push mail clients get registered to server using keys when it get installed in handsets and you should be fine as long as your MVNOs provide a data access plan. That's my thoughts.

Re: Where is my home network?

widianuser | 14/12/2006, 07:16

Eric,

The roaming can be verified in two ways: network registration status is ERegisteredRoaming instead of ERegisteredOnHomeNetwork and with Mobinfo I can see that my home network mnc is MVNO's and current network mnc is MNO's. I guess this happens because my MVNO still has its own MNC code but not anymore uses own network infrastructure.

For push mail clients and other applications the issue is that many of those have different networking strategies for home network use and roaming use. Now I have to ignore the "settings for home network" stuff and use only the settings meant for roaming situations.

Re: Where is my home network?

ericwyeh | 15/12/2006, 03:56

Harri
I think it's reasonable that both of MNO and MVNO use the same mcc and mnc because a MVNO license infrastructure of a MNO to provide voice and/or data services. In my country, there is one MVNO operator only provides voice services and the other one has voice+data in their offerings. Also, most likely a MVNO doesn't have inbound roaming business (a MNO negotiate with foreign operators and inbound roamers roam in your MNO's network, not your MVNO's) and a MVNO reply on its MNO to negotiate outbound roaming and to provide settlements for them when their subscribers go abroad.
I am not sure if it's a mandate in other countries or not that a MVNO operator have to register their mcc/mnc codes. As far as subscribers' concerns, end users will think they are in their home network if their handsets display a name of their MVNO operator on main screen in stead of the MNO's. I think it's more relative to how the handset software handle Service Provider Name (SP Name) and PLMN Name matters in preference if both of them exist. That's what I meant in my post.
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