Looking back: when it all started and why RAEX may pleasantly surprise you

Find out when it all began and why you will benefit from adopting RAEX. Introducing RAEX in your company is not difficult at all and RAEX has a lot to offer. See for yourself.

What is RAEX?

Back in 2001, the first ideas about a more structured exchange of roaming agreement data were discussed amongst members of the GSMA group RING (Roaming Innovation Group). It took about two years before the name RAEX (Roaming Agreement Electronic Exchange) was created and work started on the first XML specifications in order to represent AA.14 data in a structured way. Also in 2003, ROAMSYS staff started getting involved and were leading in creating this new standard.

It took another five years before the first official version of RAEX AA.14 was released for commercial use in 2008. As it had minor shortcomings, the main problem being reciprocal MTC charging could not be represented easily, the involved working groups of the GSMA, mainly RING and AIR, worked hard again to make RAEX a commercially useable standard for AA.14 exchange and created the next version, which is mandatory to send and receive for wireless operators as of April 1st, 2009.

Why bother using RAEX?

Because you will benefit tremendously! Although it appears to be extra work and a burden at first, the reality is that RAEX AA.14 exchanges will make dealing with your roaming partners more efficient, easier and more satisfying.

Some operators think of RAEX as being an issue of managing and updating their own AA.14s in the new XML format. As they are unfamiliar with that and do not understand the benefits they hesitate to implement the standard. – True, managing the own AA.14s is an important part of RAEX and therefore having a convenient system to maintain the own documents is a requirement. But it is much more important to also have a good solution for the management of incoming documents from your roaming partners. Because the main advantage of RAEX originates from managing and “using” the documents you receive more efficiently by automating formerly manual processes and making valuable information easily available. This is especially important with many operators facing a number of roaming partners in the range of 500+ it has become more and more difficult to manage all these relationships efficiently. And even for operators who do not have that many roaming agreements, RAEX will make live much easier.

What are the advantages of RAEX?

Using RAEX AA.14 and a sophisticated RMS as a means to exchange roaming agreement annexes means:

  • the AA.14s can be conveniently stored in one place for easy access with indvidual user permissions
  • they can be organized, queried easily
  • received AA.14s are send to you in a standardized way which will reduce the need for clarifications enourmously
  • it is possibly to run reports across all your roaming partner AA.14s, e.g. if you want to retrieve a list with all SIM Card contacts or all PMS who offer a specific service
  • it is also possible to get easy information on non-roaming partners, e.g. you want to see at one glance which operator in a specific country offers the best IOT tariffs (e.g. for calls to your home country)
  • changes within an AA.14 can be detected automatically
  • many time consuming tasks can be automated (such as notifying staff or data clearing houses of changes)

Please note the above points are examples and this list is not complete.