Roaming

A welcoming SMS sent by Vodafone España to subscribers using the itinerance that has reached a foreign country, in this case to the United States.

Roaming is a term used in telecommunications to refer to the ability of a wireless device to use a network coverage other than the main one. This allows you to connect to secondary networks using your identifier on the main network.

In mobile telephony, the term is used to indicate the possibility offered to its customers by an operator to use the service in a mobile network other than their own, and normally outside the national territory. This identification is done through the SIM card, which allows the customer to connect with his operator of another network through agreements between operators.

In the case of Wi-Fi networks, this means that the client's Wi-Fi device can roam and register on different wireless networks. In this case, the identification is normally done through a personal username and password shared by different networks.

In the case of art, "itinerancy" refers to the temporary exhibitions that rotate through different institutions.

Mobile roaming

The roaming service has made it possible for mobile phone users to acquire complete freedom of movement between the coverage areas of different telecommunications companies.

It consists of allowing a user who is within the coverage area of a mobile network other than the one that provides the service to receive calls made to his mobile number without the need to carry out any type of extra procedure and, in many cases, also make calls to the area where the service was originally contracted, without the need to make a special dialing. To achieve this, both companies (the original service provider and the owner of the network in which the client is roaming) must have signed a roaming agreement, in which they define which clients have access to the service and how the roaming will be carried out. connection between your systems to route calls.

Although the service allows immediate communication and, in many cases, without the need for any additional request, it should be noted that usually the transfer cost of each call and the interconnection costs will be charged to the recipient of the call, not to the calling party (who does not need to know where the called party is). Thus, the service is transparent for the user who wants to contact a number that travels to another area.

The concept of roaming can also be applied to unlocked mobile terminals, since oneself can reduce the costs of roaming for both the sending and receiving users, using a SIM card from one of the of the mobile operators available in the area. This roaming is useful when traveling abroad, which is one of the advantages of the GSM system.

Disposal in the European Union

In 2013, the European Commission proposed to end additional charges for roaming within the European Union from December 2015, a measure approved by the European Parliament in 2014. However, the Council of the European Union proposed its delay to 2018. Finally, an agreement was reached between the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament, establishing the final date on June 15, 2017. The new Roaming rates will be divided into different zones, considering the Union European as zone 1.

Elimination in the Andean Community

This measure was proposed since 2020, finally on February 19, 2020 decision 854 was approved, where it is mentioned that any citizen within the CAN (Andean Community) must have the same conditions of telephone signal, SMS and data, therefore, mobile phone companies did not have the possibility of charging international roaming.

This measure entered into force on January 1, 2022

Roaming in Wi-Fi networks

For this to be possible, there has to be a small overlap in the coverage of the access points, so that users can move around the premises and always have coverage. Access points incorporate an algorithm that decides when a station should disconnect from one access point and when to connect to another.

This is very common on different college campuses that have different access points and names. Walking between them disconnects from one, but connects to another network.

This allows not only the connection in different distant points in which the client has service, but also that the call (in the case of GSM) or the connection (Wi-Fi) remains active and is not interrupted.