ATIO tests roaming from the customer perspective

The ATIO Roaming Test Survey delivers knowledge of what an inbound roamer actually experiences on a mobile network. We collect data from our real time test system and process this into information that identifies SIM, roaming management and network coverage issues and provides performance analysis and data to investigate / resolve them. ATIO equipment and software tests 2G and 3G services across comprehensive inbound SIM capture and retention scenarios.

ATIO have repeatedly over many years identified coverage black spots, network handover anomalies, SIM programming and management problems and other issues that other forms of testing have not detected. ATIO provide turnkey survey planning and execution; data analysis; presentation of results in graphical, tabular and geographic formats; conclusions and recommendations for short and longer term solutions.

Data analysis and reports

The ATIO system provides immediate results from a series of standard reports that can be client defined. These include in both tabular and chart form:

ATIO provides a range of statistical and graphical reports to represent the findings of the roaming survey.

ATIO’s ESP Test System is a fully automated system specifically designed for testing Inbound and Outbound Capture and Retention success rates.

The ESP is man portable and can be deployed in “walking” and “in-vehicle” mode. The phone antennae are zero gain and located at a typical roamer height to closely replicate the user experience. ESP concurrently monitors network availability and generates voice and data calls. Up to four SIM’ s of choice can be fitted and configured for simultaneous testing options. Wherever GPS is available, location information in the form of Lat/Long is automatically logged. For in-building testing, the tester creates manual markers.

Test options

Tests can be configured to identify:

Test configuration options include:

Roaming capture test

This process replicates a foreign subscriber (typically arriving at a point of entry) activating their mobile phone for the first time.

The test will determine the Capture Success Rate and identify poor service locations. During each test cycle the details of the network that the mobile phone registers on is recorded. The SIM memory is manipulated to bring it back to a 'first time' switch-on state and the test is repeated. The test is performed in a minimum user selectable cycle time of 180 seconds.

The typical Capture Test scenario is:

Useful options include:

Roaming retention test

This test investigates what happens to the subscriber after they have registered on one of the local mobile networks.

A record of the current registered network is taken while the test system is mobile. This test identifies change from one network to another, as well as the active conditions in serving and neighbouring cells at the time. The test can be repeated on a minimum user selectable cycle of typically 10 seconds. According to SIM selection this test can be used to determine the Retention Success Rate of preferred and non-preferred Roamers and, if a local SIM is also deployed, a comparison made in Idle Mode of the preferred serving network.

The typical Capture Test scenario is:

Useful options include:

• Force onto a specific network at start up
• Voice calls at selected intervals