T-Wholesale, Deutsche Telekom’s newly launched wholesale division, is set to establish its first point of presence (PoP) in Brazil in the coming weeks, located in São Paulo. This PoP will support international roaming on 5G Standalone (SA), according to Leonardo Saucedo, T-Wholesale’s regional director for Latin America, in a discussion with Mobile Time.

The new infrastructure will enable Brazilian mobile operators to provide international 5G SA roaming. However, to do so, operators must have a SEPP (Security Edge Protection Proxy) integrated into their 5G core—an essential component for 5G SA roaming. Smaller operators without SEPP capabilities can opt to contract and host this element directly with T-Wholesale.

With 5G SA roaming, operators can offer their customers the use of network slicing abroad, which is useful for applications such as monitoring vehicle fleets on international routes; managing drones flying in border areas; or live video transmission, for example.

T-Wholesale is already carrying out proof-of-concept tests at its PoP in Brazil and expects to have its first customer connected later this year. It is worth remembering that the PoP works with the IPX interconnection model that serves not only 5G SA roaming, but also 4G, SMS, etc. According to Saucedo, its capacity is scalable, starting with 1 Gbps ports but which can be quickly expanded.

“T-Wholesale wants to be a leader in the wholesale 5G SA roaming market,” says the executive.

Deutsche Telekom Global Carrier has launched a new Point-of-Presence (PoP) in Dallas, Texas, in December 2024, specifically designed for 5G SA roaming enablement. The newly established Dallas PoP complements the already existing Germany-based PoPs in Bamberg and Frankfurt and will address the roaming needs of North and Latin American customers. It enables Deutsche Telekom Global Carrier to offer its full 5G security roaming portfolio in the region, including the new Group-hosted Security Edge Protection Proxy (SEPP) solutions for 5G SA roaming.

The Group-hosted SEPP for Family & Friends service was introduced earlier this year as a one-stop shop for 5G security specifically designed for operators that have already enabled 5G SA roaming. The new roaming environment ensures innovative connectivity through 3GPP’s SEPP in various configurations. They include outsourced SEPP solutions, hosted SEPP maintenance services and composite scenarios that can be tailored to each operator’s roaming security preferences and needs.

The ’Family’ part of the service is dedicated to Deutsche Telekom’s own national operators and provides them with a ‘no-man-in-the-middle’ guarantee. The ‘Friends’ part of the service is dedicated to securely connecting already established operator partners with the same guarantees enjoyed by the ‘Family’ operators, at a favorable price.