TELESCOPE COMMS INDEX – NOVEMBER 2020
Roaming Traffic Sees Slight Increase
Whilst numbers are largely static compared to October, there has been a slight increase in roaming data usage.

Bob Baker
CEO
Bob Baker is the owner and founder of Signum International Limited and acknowledged as an industry expert in the field of telecoms insights and billing

Average Roaming Data increase in RoW location reflected a busy month in politics and business in the US
- UK data increases despite offload to WFH WiFi network in Lockdown 2
- Extending average but total volumes reflecting travel restrictions
- Nice to know we are still talking 30% more than before
- IDD average call duration drifts up and destination profile remains the same
- SMS volumes remain at higher level than expected, following drops previously associated messaging apps (Slack, MS Teams, Broadsoft etc)
SIGNUM DNA
A Word About Our Data …
As we have integrated our Signum DNA into Telescope, our Self Service Analytics platform for communications insights, what better way to promote one of the UK’s largest enterprise based expense management research and analysis data warehouses.
We process in excess of 1M active subscriptions, 2.5 petabytes of data usage, 200M voice minutes and 25M SMS events per month:
- All voice volumes are reported in minutes
- All data volumes are reported in Gigabytes (Gb)
- Each SMS/MMS as a single event record
Using a 5 month average (inclusive Nov’19 to Mar’20) as our baseline, we wondered how usage had changed and what our “new normal” looks like.
Data Indices
Avg Data Usage by Active Subscriber per Zone
Calculation = Total Gb Usage divided by Total Count of Active Subscribers per Zone
Legend:
- UK = United Kingdom
- RLH = Roam Like Home (predominantly EU)
- RoW = Rest of World (All non RLH / UK countries)
Monthly Aggregate Roaming Profile by Region
Calculation = Stacked 100% of Total Gb Usage by Region
Legend:
- EU (RLH) = Roam Like Home EU
- EU = Other Europe (non RLH)
- NA = North Americas (USA & Canada)
- APAC = Asia Pacific
- RoW = Rest of World
Notes about Data Zones
- Roam Like Home (RLH EU) includes countries such as France, Germany, Greece, Netherlands and Spain
- EU includes countries such as Albania, Bosnia, Israel, Turkey and Ukraine
- North Americas includes both United States of America (USA) and Canada (CAN)
- Asia Pacific includes countries such asAustralia, China, Japan, Malaysia and New Zealand as well as South Africa (ZAR)
- Rest of World includes all countries not incorporated in previous categories
Voice Indices
Average Total Talk Time in Minutes per Active Subscriber
Calculation = Total Monthly Minutes divided by Total Active (All) Subscribers
Legend
- ITU ICT – Heavy User ( 140 Minutes) Benchmark profile
Average Call Duration by Call Type & Location
Calculation = Total Minutes divided by Total Number of Calls by Call Type
Legend
- UK Std = UK Standard Geographic & Mobile
- IDD = UK origination of International Direct Dial calls
- EU O/B = EU origination of outbound calls
- RoW B/W = Inbound and Outbound (Both Way) calls while
Monthly Aggregate Minutes Roaming Profile by Region
Calculation = Stacked 100% of Total Minutes Usage by Region
Legend
- APAC = Asia Pacific
- NA = North America (USA & Canada)
- RoW = Rest of World
- EU Other = European (Non RoamLikeHome)
- EU (RLH) = European RoamLikeHome