Company History

Our foundations

Founded in 1997, Comfone is a result of a joint merger formed between Swisscom and Vodafone. Founders Walter Heutschi, Géraldine Philippe and Toni Stadelmann each played key roles in the development and evolution of roaming to what we know it as today.

In the years following the company foundation, Comfone proceeded to develop and launch a portfolio of first class roaming services, including Data and Financial Clearing, Signalling and GRX / IPX services and the Key2roam Hub. By the year 2010 Comfone was able to offer operators everything necessary in order to establish seamless, high quality roaming for their subscribers.

With a focus on quality and simplicity, in 2012 Comfone launched the Key2roam Platform, a complete solution that allows members to design their own setup by selecting and contracting only the service elements required.

Comfone has been a major contributor to the evolution and innovation of roaming services since 1991. Below is a chronological overview of the major company milestones.

Celebrating 25 years

2022 marks 25 years in business for Comfone.

We have grown organically over the years, building our customer base with a friendly, customer-centred approach mixed with technical expertise.

We look forward to an exciting, innovative future remaining at the cutting edge of the industry.

2022

celebrating 25 years

2021

Roaming_Relation_Management

Roaming Relations Management

In 2021, Comfone officially launched their Roaming Relations Management service. This service, powered by the Key2roam Hub, allows MNOs and MVNOs to expand their coverage and outsource their roaming management without compromising resources. Operators can utilise Comfone’s wealth of experience and good relationships maintained over 20 years in the industry to establish and manage direct roaming connections, providing access to an unparalleled number of operators around the world.

Phoenix, the service fulfilling the BCE standard

Comfone continues to contribute to the evolution of the roaming industry by actively participating in the design of the BCE (Billing & Charging Evolution) standards at GSMA level. These activities, combined with agile development techniques, allowed Comfone to support live BCE trials in 2020 and develop a bright new BCE based service: Phoenix. Phoenix is fully integrated in the Key2roam Platform, in the Clearing Services layer. It fully supports BCE standard processes as defined by GSMA, qualifying Comfone as a BCE Provider.

2020 - 2021

Phoenix

2020

Board

Company shares taken over by the next generation

Daniel Heutschi, Christoph and Marc Stadelmann took over the TOGEWA shares from Géraldine Philippe, Walter Heutschi and Toni Stadelmann. This historic move ensures the longevity of Comfone as a privately owned, family-run business, allowing the company to continue along the same path as it always has. Our history of entrepreneurial spirit, courage and wisdom has been passed down to the next generation, and Comfone continues to run with peace of mind for a secure future.

Comfone’s IPX Service updates

Comfone successfully migrates to a centralised IPX Signalling Platform supporting SS7/STP and Diameter/DRA already supporting NonStandAlone (NSA) 5G and future support of HTTP/2 signalling for 5G Next Generation Core (NGC).

Comfone increases global capacity and enhances the processing capability of the IPX Proxy to cater for increased growth of Comfone’s Roaming Hub traffic and increased demand for bespoke Sponsored Roaming customer implementations.

Comfone’s IPX Backbone Network is upgraded to support 100 Gbps MPLS. The Backbone is geo-distributed and fully redundant.

2020

IPX_Backbone

2019

Hong Kong

New IPX Point of Presence in Asia

QLab is launched by Comfone, presenting customers with the opportunity to carry out remote testing alongside SIGOS.

Comfone builds a new IPX Point of Presence in Hong Kong.

Launch of Pulseforce Premium and ePayments

Comfone launches ePayments, offering real-time handling of financial clearing payments.

Pulseforce Premium is released, an enhanced and fully customisable roaming management tool.

2018

Pulseforc

2017

DMS

20 years of Comfone

Comfone celebrates 20 years of independence as a Swiss company.

Comfone officially launched the Data Management Service.

ROCCO survey results once again rated Comfone’s FC and DC services as the best worldwide.

Best worldwide

ROCCO survey results rated Comfone’s FC & DC services as best worldwide.

Hawkeye launched 2015 – offering sophisticated surveillance features.

New Discount Agreements Solution launched 2015.

Comfone reached milestone of 500 customers worldwide.

2015 - 2016

Comfone_Icon_Hawkeye

2012 - 2014

Comfone_visROAM

Pulse launched

In 2013, the Key2roam Hub was rated the best hub worldwide based on ROCCO survey results.

visROAM, the innovative Roaming Visualisation tool was launched in 2013.

Pulse – Comfone’s online business portal went live in 2012.

First ConneXion event

Comfone’s first ConneXion event took place in 2011 hosting around 50 participants.

2010 saw the launch of Data Roaming over the Key2roam Hub.

In 2009, Comfone launched a brand new corporate identity and logo.

2009 - 2011

Event

2002 - 2004

Key2roam_Hub

Launch of the Key2roam Hub

Comfone launched the world’s first GSM Hub, Key2roam Hub.

GRX was launched in 2003 offering the highest grade of availability and security.

Signalling Access over Internet (SAoI), an innovative solution was launched in 2002.

Privately owned company

In 2001 Comfone launched WeRoam, the world’s first WiFi Roaming Hub.

Comfone became a privately owned company in the year 2000, headed by Walter Heutschi, Géraldine Philippe and Toni Stadelmann.

2000 - 2001

People

1997

Data_Clearing

Clearing services launch

Comfone launched the first class Swiss Financial Clearing and Data Clearing services.

Comfone pioneered the first international Signalling and Roaming Hub – GCS.

Comfone was founded after a joint venture between Swiss Telecom PTT and Vodafone was formed.

First GSM roaming trial

In 1992 the first commercial roaming agreement was signed.

The very first GSM roaming trial was successfully completed in 1991 between Swiss Telecom PTT, Vodafone, Telecom Italy and France Telecom.

1991 - 1992

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