At this year’s Mobile World Congress Barcelona, three telecom heavyweights laid out a plan to fix one of the industry’s most stubborn pain points: international roaming failures that leave travelers staring at a lifeless signal bar.

NTT DOCOMO, StarHub, and ServiceNow announced a joint initiative to introduce autonomous roaming resolution powered by ServiceNow CRM and the ServiceNow AI Platform. The trio says they are building the industry’s first inter-carrier operational model designed to automatically identify and resolve roaming issues across network boundaries—in real time.

If successful, the project could transform how carriers handle one of the most complex cross-operator workflows in telecom.

The Roaming Problem No One “Owns”

When a customer loses mobile service overseas, the failure rarely sits within a single network. It may involve the home operator, the visited operator, signaling gateways, authentication systems, and clearinghouses. Today, coordination between carriers often relies on fragmented intake channels—web forms, emails, and proprietary portals.

There is no universal, standardized workflow.

For travelers, that can mean hours—or days—without service when they need maps, ride-hailing, or two-factor authentication. For operators, the cost shows up in churn, lost roaming revenue, and brand damage.

In an era where 5G promises ultra-reliability, roaming remains surprisingly manual.

Extending Zero-Touch Beyond a Single Network

DOCOMO has been working with ServiceNow since 2021 to automate internal operations through Zero-Touch Operation (ZTO), eliminating manual intervention in many remote maintenance tasks. That effort reduced fault recovery times and even removed the need for certain overnight support shifts.

Now, the companies are extending that automation model across carrier boundaries.

Instead of handling inter-carrier roaming faults as ad hoc escalations, the new initiative turns them into AI-driven workflows orchestrated on the ServiceNow AI Platform. The system automatically shares structured fault information between participating carriers, tracks resolution progress, and provides real-time visibility into root cause analysis.

In effect, it treats multi-operator troubleshooting as a unified operational domain rather than a patchwork of bilateral agreements.

How the AI ‘Control Tower’ Works

At the core of the initiative is ServiceNow’s AI Platform, acting as a control tower for roaming fault resolution.

When a roaming issue occurs, the system:

• Identifies which network domain is affected

• Pinpoints where the issue originated

• Surfaces relevant performance and fault data

• Automatically routes and tracks resolution tasks across carriers

Instead of multiple human teams exchanging emails and ticket IDs, AI-driven workflows coordinate the process. Fault tickets flow automatically, and recovery actions can begin in near real time.

The approach also promises proactive detection. By analyzing cross-network data, carriers may be able to spot systemic roaming issues before customers begin flooding support lines.

That shift—from reactive to predictive operations—is central to telecom’s broader automation push.

Built on Industry Standards

The collaboration also leans on standards-based interoperability.

The operational model incorporates MEF 113 Trouble Ticketing Business Requirements and Use Cases from Mplify. By grounding the solution in open specifications, the companies aim to reduce fragmentation and make the framework scalable across additional operators globally.

Standards matter in roaming. Without common definitions and processes, automation can’t extend beyond bilateral integrations. If the model proves portable, it could serve as a template for broader industry adoption.

Why This Matters Now

International travel has rebounded sharply, and seamless connectivity is increasingly expected—not appreciated as a bonus.

At the same time, telecom operators face margin pressure and rising operational complexity. 5G cores, virtualized infrastructure, and cross-border traffic flows make troubleshooting more intricate than ever.

Autonomous roaming resolution offers a dual benefit:

• Improved customer experience and trust

• Reduced operational overhead and faster mean time to repair (MTTR)

For operators competing in mature markets, experience differentiation can be as important as pricing or coverage maps.

Technical Validation Underway

The companies confirmed that technical validation is currently in progress, with a commercial launch targeted for the second half of the year.

If deployed successfully, the initiative could signal a broader shift toward cross-carrier automation frameworks—particularly in areas where customer experience depends on coordination beyond a single operator’s domain.

In practical terms, the goal is simple: fewer stranded travelers, more reliable roaming, and standardized inter-carrier processes that scale globally.

In strategic terms, it represents something bigger: a move toward treating telecom operations not as isolated silos, but as interconnected ecosystems managed by AI.

For an industry that has long struggled with fragmentation, that may be the real breakthrough.

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