The changing scenarios in the working life are shifting forward in inculcating the remote work culture alongside travelling to numerous places. One of the recent articles by Forbes notes the trend of professionals spending weeks or even months at places such as Bali, Lisbon, and Cape Town. In contrast to standard tourists, these types of users require a stable, long-term connection with the possibility of video calls, cloud services, and constant use of data across borders.
Not Tourists, Not Locals- A New User Categorization
Digital nomads are in between short-term travelers and permanent inhabitants. They need their devices to be connected to the roaming networks over a long duration, posing a distinct problem to telecom operators. When this occurs, roaming steering is not merely a supporting role, but it has a direct effect on the daily productivity. When a network is suboptimal and the user has integrated with this network over a period of weeks, the effects are compounded. The low speed of one video call can be acceptable, but frequent disruption can make a user change the provider.
Operators are thus re-evaluating the operation of roaming steering to remain with long stay. They are starting to segment users by the behavior and usage patterns, rather than treating all the roaming users as one group. These trends in mobility have been changing, and Telcovas has been analyzing them, assisting the operators in determining the interaction of long-stay users with partner networks. This segment, as Telcovas argues, needs a more stable and consistent roaming steering strategy and not a regular change.
Stability Over Switching
Among the most significant transformations is the shift towards the stability-oriented strategies instead of aggressive optimization. Conventional roaming steering already focuses on the cost-effectiveness and the active network switching. However, in the case of remote employees, sessions may be interrupted, and performance may be disrupted due to frequent switching. To encourage consistency Operators are now modifying roaming steering policies to extend users to a reliable network when alternatives are available but still longer periods.
This does not imply that it should not pay attention to performance. Rather, roaming steering is undergoing some fine tuning to harmonize stability with quality so that the users are subjected to minimal interruptions.
Working with the hospitality providers is another upcoming trend. Hotels and work stations are being geoscanned with mobile networks to make the connectivity experience of long-term travelers more efficient. The economics is also changing. Long stay users bring about long term income and as such operators could consider them a good target group. This can be achieved through efficient roaming steering to keep satisfaction of this segment at a reasonable cost. With the remote work trend erosion of the distinction between traveling and living, telecom networks should be prepared to accommodate these hybrid patterns of usage. In the new topography, roaming steering ceases to be only about the process of connecting users, but maintaining their online lifestyle, regardless of their location of choice.
