Proposing a New Solution to Reduce the International Roaming Call Cost

Abstract

The cost of an international roaming call is high for majority of the countries. As a remedy for this, free VoIP services can be utilized, but both originating and terminating parties need to have suitable internet connectivity. Though, this issue is already addressed by certain VoIP services, by terminating the calls via lines owned by them, the call charges are still relatively high. This research paper is directed towards implementation of a cost effective solution for international roaming, where only the international roaming party requires internet connectivity and the local terminating party does not need internet connectivity. This roaming solution is assisted by the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) line of a local fixed operator. The service architecture includes two components. The Customer Network (CN), which consists of a Customer Premises Equipment (CPE), VoIP Gateway (GW), Internet connectivity (preferably ADSL line) and PSTN phone line. The Provider Network (PN) which consists mainly of a Roaming Connectivity Server (RCS) and Call Accounting Server (CAS). Through this proposed system, the cost of originating a call when roaming can be reduced nearly to a local call charge. This solution will have marginal initial cost but still economical from customer point of view.