Improving roamer retention by exposing weak locations in GSM networks

One of the most valuable clients of cellular GSM networks are roaming clients, due to the pricing policy set by network operators. Despite that each operator applies a lot of effort in network signal coverage in order to achieve the best conditions for roaming traffic in the network, there still remain hardly detectable locations where roaming clients are getting lost to rival networks. This paper presents a roaming traffic weak locations revealing method based on active tracking of roamer location in a live GSM network. We define the problem scope using formal description of an active tracking process and propose a metrics for network "weakness" evaluation together with intuitive visualization of weak locations. We shortly conclude with plans of our ongoing research.