IO Community Returns to Dubai for 7th Plenary: Exploring AI, eSIM, QoS, and Roaming Evolution

The IO Community returned to Dubai, the city that hosted the first IO Plenary in 2021, for its 7th Plenary session, hosted by the e& Group from November 19th to 21st. The event brought together over 80 telecom professionals, including representatives from individual MNOs and operator groups spanning 87 countries, Advisory Board members, Accredited vendor representatives, and subject matter experts who were invited to present on various key topics.

The event opened with a warm welcome from Nabil Baccouche, Chief Carrier & Wholesale Officer e& Group, and IO Executive Board member, setting the tone for three days of interactive sessions. This was followed by a presentation by Anneli Jennersjo Lundberg (CKH IOD), Deputy Chair of the IO Executive Board, who emphasized the IO Vision for an enhanced Roaming Customer Experience. The session continued with Asha Mary Thomas from e&, who highlighted e& Group’s strategies to align with and adopt this vision.

Day 1 continued with an open session where Accredited vendors were also invited to participate. Eva Heinze Gildum – MD Yaana, Roberto Lima – COO Comfone, and Brendan Cleary – CEO Cellusys, briefed the group on the work they had done on leveraging AI to enhance wholesale roaming and envisioning the future of roaming over the next decade. The session concluded with a discussion on the RoamForward initiative and its projects focused on automated testing and digitisation of agreements.

Travel eSIM emerged as one of the day’s key topics, with Telna presenting their perspective on the challenges and opportunities for mobile operators in this area. The day closed with the Roaming Connectivity Lab (RCL), where AST SpaceMobile presented on satellite connectivity, followed by a review of the Neutral Hosts MOCN Playbook under development.

Day 2 began with a presentation from e& Group, outlining their transversal strategy to harness new technologies for enhanced connectivity and innovation. The VoLTE Roaming Lab (VRL) provided valuable insights, with e& Group and du sharing their experiences in VoLTE Roaming rollouts which provided valuable insights into challenges the MNOs were facing in the region. Delegates also learnt from Bouygues Telecom’s experiences and gained insights from VoLTE Roaming Research conducted by ROCCO.

In the second half of the day, the 5G Roaming Lab (5GRL) provided updates on 5G SA roaming including a detailed session by Orange on SEPP development, followed by a roundtable session where attendees shared their status and perspectives on 5G SA roaming.

An evening event hosted by e& Group offered delegates the opportunity to network and engage in more relaxed discussions while enjoying refined cuisine inspired by Mediterranean flavours.

The final day began with an interactive discussion on Roaming Quality of Service and troubleshooting. The members recognised many areas which could be improved by working together. This was followed by the M2M Roaming Lab (M2MRL) session. Topics included permanent roaming, charging, and billing challenges. The African Roaming Alliance (ARA) session highlighted key takeaways from their recent face-to-face meeting in Abidjan, hosted by Orange Group. The team emphasized the complexity of roaming regulations in Africa and shared progress on the ARA Playbook under development.

The Messaging Evolution Lab (MEL) concluded the plenary, sharing updates on their ongoing Playbook and emphasizing the group’s focus on mitigating SMS fraud.

The event concluded with overwhelmingly positive feedback from delegates, who not only expressed enthusiasm for deeper discussions on topics such as Travel eSIM, messaging, VoLTE roaming, and roaming QoS but also reaffirmed their commitment to work together closer to improve services for the end customer. All participants were thanked for their high engagement and contributions throughout the three days.

The next IO Plenary will be held in Vienna, hosted by A1 Telecom, from May 21st to 23rd, 2025. Registration is now open for IO members.

About IO

IO is a non-profit member organisation developed by Mobile Operators for Mobile Operators. With just a few core staff, the organisation tackles roaming specific challenges through accelerator “Lab” style meetings where MNOs share and collaborate on their key challenges.