Samsung, AWS and TELUS team up to create North America’s first virtual roaming gateway

Samsung Electronics today announced its partnership with TELUS and Amazon Web Services (AWS) to create North America's first virtual roaming gateway, enabling greater reliability and faster speeds for customers traveling abroad.

Customers often suffer from reduced performance because roaming traffic is routed through the provider’s home country. The new approach will allow TELUS to utilize virtualized roaming gateways to house their network within AWS Regions worldwide, meaning the traffic no longer needs to go through Canada, but will be routed directly to the closest AWS Region that houses TELUS’ network. This will improve both speed and responsiveness of mobile services.

This approach, known as network cloudification, uses Cloud-native Core technology from Samsung on the public cloud for mobile data, and ng-voice for voice calls, ensuring optimal performance and quality.

Commenting on this collaboration, Nazim Benhadid, Chief Technology Officer at TELUS, said, "This architecture evolution further strengthens TELUS’ commitment to keeping our customers connected to what matters most, ensuring they are able to enjoy the same award-winning experience they have in Canada from anywhere in the world. Together with AWS, Samsung and ng-voice, we are making roaming more reliable and resilient than ever."

The trial for virtual roaming gateways will begin in the first quarter of 2024. 

Samsung's Cloud-native Core is designed with flexibility and scalability in mind. By ensuring higher stability and reliability, Samsung powers TELUS’ new roaming approach to bring unmatched network performance and customer experiences while travelling. By working with forward-looking operators like TELUS, we are able to turn never before seen possibilities into reality," said Stephen Wiktorski, Vice President and Head of Networks at Samsung Canada.