Domestic roaming can improve mobile network resilience

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I have no doubt that domestic roaming can improve mobile network resilience and should form part of any public safety capability. But, like every resilience mechanism, it only protects against the failure modes it is designed to bypass.‍ ‍

Put simply, domestic roaming is not a panacea for every network failure.‍ ‍

Depending on the architecture, home-network authentication, policy, voice and messaging platforms, data routing, interconnection, shared infrastructure and operational control can all remain points of failure.‍ ‍

With the Australian government (ACCC) commencing its inquiry into the possible declaration of domestic roaming and radio access network services, I have revisited an analysis I first prepared in 2022.‍ ‍

I have updated that work in a new technical discussion paper examining:‍ ‍

• what domestic roaming can protect against

• which home-network dependencies can remain

• congestion and common-mode failure risks

• operational control and restoration

• the evidence and testing needed to demonstrate resilience

The central conclusion is simple: roaming should be treated as one controlled layer in a wider resilience strategy, not as a substitute for network hardening, diversity, capacity planning and tested operational recovery.

You can read the paper here: [https://drive.google.com/file/d/1E3T0Hspko-Kem0bAlen0Hn-Ga2eqxAXT/view?usp=sharing]

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