How to create and make money on SaaS | Part 13 | Three steps of roaming-free technology

    My previous post was written about a tick-wise shift in understanding by mobile operators of the need to change the paradigm of providing communication services using classic SIM cards to the widespread implementation of "virtual SIMs". Today I want to tell you which non-roaming technologies have been developed in Russia over the past few years, which are being developed now, and which will be developed tomorrow.

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    Unfortunately, there is only one company working on the Russian market that develops technology for roaming-free communication (all the others use other people's developments or are actually MVNO) and this is the technological leader of the segment - ComfortWay .

    What happened

    The previous ComfortWay implementation was developed for several years, and now version 2.0 of the product is on sale, which is a 3G Wi-Fi router that works without recharging for up to 10 hours and distributes Internet throughout the European Union for 5 Euros for 150 MB per day. Plus, the device provides cheap outgoing calls and SMS. The average person may feel that the guys just bought the tariff in bulk and give it out to the people at a high price, but this is completely wrong. The technology, which will be described below, gives the device important and significant properties that cannot be implemented in a conventional router:

    What are these properties:
    - Own billing system allows you to provide customers with flexible tariff plans and traffic packages.
    - Monitoring your costs in real time on the start page.
    - Automatic selection of the best operator, depending on the quality of the mobile signal.
    - Payment by credit card and electronic money even with a zero balance.
    - Partnership programs with leading hotel reservation systems, airline tickets and excursions provide the client with FREE Mobile Internet for the duration of the trip. Alex Exler and Stepan Danilov

    wrote excellently about the first version of the product in their independent reviews. Based on the technology, a product was created that provides secure access to the company's cloud. The product is a compact device that is provided to corporate customers for free and has the following functions:



    1. Access to the mobile Internet from your smartphone / tablet / laptop worldwide without roaming payments. Basic offer: monthly fee of $ 19 per month, included 1 GB worldwide, additional traffic for $ 19 per GB.
    2. Built-in VPN for secure access to the corporate network with traffic compression algorithm.
    3. Built-in encrypted storage of important data with remote management by the system administrator. This is required so that users do not save docks on their smartphone / laptop.
    4. Built-in traffic scan for viruses.
    5. Restriction of access to entertainment resources with the ability to remotely configure black and white lists
    6. Hardwire authorization on key resources (analogue of a HASP key).
    7. New features are easily added "over the air", because the device is a mini-computer on Linux.
    8. An external battery for recharging smartphones and tablets is very convenient when traveling.

    Those. The main goal of the technology is to provide secure access to the corporate network and the Internet as a whole without roaming margins on employees' mobile devices.

    Present

    In ComfortWay 3.0 Technologythe principle “SIM Specification Embedded GSMA” will be implemented, providing a single standard de facto mechanism for remote preparation and control and connection from machine to machine (M2M), which allows initialization “over the air” of the operator’s initial subscription, and subsequent change of subscription from one operator to another. In the market, the M2M SIM cannot be easily changed using physical access to the device, and there is a need for "airborne" SIM image with the same level of security that is achieved today with the traditional GSMA removable SIM. Those. arriving in any country, the traveler simply selects the operator most suitable for him and the tariff and starts communicating at local tariffs - roaming no longer has a place in the new technological paradigm.

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    Technology

    The ComfortWay project team took a step towards supporting virtual SIM cards several years ago, having developed their own billing system, independent of telecom operators, and also prepared firmware for managing such a SIM card. As a result, the operator became a “pipe” for data transfer, and all SIM card management was on the side of the team - activating / deactivating Internet access, setting limits on the volume of traffic, creating tariffs, working with the user's balance, bonus system and additional services. This has opened up limitless opportunities for providing roaming-free Internet access services worldwide.
    If we continue to talk about the technological advantages of the ComfortWay cloud, our colleagues implemented an API for:

    - Integration of payment systems.
    - Integration of reservation systems.
    - Integration of travel expense accounting systems.
    - Integration of systems providing services for travelers.

    Today, affiliate programs, for example, with booking.com or Alfa-Bank, are successfully working, and new systems are regularly added.

    Future

    The next step of the company is the creation of a cloud gateway for operators. Currently, the project team is discussing with the market players the joint creation of a cloud of SIM profiles, to which any partner who wants to issue a universal SIM card with roaming-free access around the world can connect.

    Support colleagues on Kikstarter and ask developers questions

    Alexey Kalachnikov
    author’s blog www.bootstrap24.ru

    Materials of the series "How to create and make money on SaaS"

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