French operator group Orange’s wholesale division has expanded its IPX (IP exchange) with a Diameter signalling offering allowing customers to introduce LTE roaming across Europe, the Americas and Asia.

The operator said that it has an ambitious program in place to extend it’s LTE Signalling capability through direct connectivity and peering agreements. It said that it has already set-up interconnection agreements with major operators of LTE networks across Europe, Americas and Asia.

According to the operator the Diameter-based LTE signalling service enables operators to provide end users with improved QoE on 4G networks while roaming outside their home country.

LTE Signalling is one of Orange’s à la carte services available through its Multiservice IP eXchange solution. Orange’s IPX network offers a large footprint that comprises 30 points of presence (PoPs) worldwide. It guarantees a packet-loss ratio of less than 0.05 per cent and jitter inferior to 5ms. Based on the Diameter signalling protocol, the service is built on dedicated platforms integrated in Orange’s IPX network.

“Orange has developed LTE Signalling for operators to allow them to build a high-quality 4G roaming service that is fully compliant with GSMA guidelines,” said Alexandre Pébereau, EVP International Carriers, Orange.

“The Group’s Open Connectivity policy and extensive peering agreements allow us to provide wholesale clients with the opportunity to benefit from a large coverage. LTE Signalling is a must-have service that offers both differentiation and the ability to generate additional revenues in an increasingly evolving market.”

Earlier this month research predicted that LTE Diameter signalling traffic will grow at more than twice the rate of mobile data traffic until 2017.

Software vendor Oracle predicts that worldwide LTE Diameter signaling traffic will increase at a 140 per cent compound annual growth rate (CAGR), from 1.2 million messages per second (MPS) in 2012 to nearly 99 million MPS by 2017.

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