Month: September 2021

Imagine making or receiving a call but without using a handset or transforming the handset into a device that can be worn on the wrist?

No, we are not writing this after watching Minority Report or reading some futuristic novel. It’s something that’s already either under development or something that’s been launched in the market.

The coming of the smartphone brought in a new era of mobility which was exploited for consumer benefits as well as enterprise applications and workflows. As phones became “smarter”, more capabilities moved to them. Enterprise applications started offering mobile interfaces and eventually moved to offer crucial capabilities that fully leveraged the capabilities of the mobile device. Think about the role of the mobile in enabling remote customer service and support, for example. But as this world starts becoming increasingly “software-defined” and the capabilities of the mobile start entering wearable and other devices, we are seeing the emergence of an evolved version of the mobility paradigm. Interesting applications are already becoming visible for the “virtual handset”. These applications use all the capabilities of a mobile phone, but without the need to have an actual phone in the hand.

In 2008, Nokia developed Nokia Morph along with the University of Cambridge. They demonstrated how handsets could be made into a stretchable and flexible device that users can use in any shape. Everyone quickly heralded it as the future of telecom.

While Nokia Morph’s progress got stalled due to wider issues with the company’s handset business, it set the precedence for new technologies such as connected devices, Internet of Things (IoT), voice assistants, virtual phone systems, etc. that have gained prominence among companies.

These emerging technologies coupled with 5G and network virtualization look set to change the landscape of telecom. Here are some trends that could lead to an incredible morphing handset revolution.

What’s Behind The Era Of Incredible Morphing Handset?

1. Boundary-less technologies: Traditional handsets were geographically bound. They could not be used beyond a specific range. Communication with people from other countries was cumbersome and expensive. However, the rise of mobile technologies and the internet made it easier for people to keep in touch anywhere, any time. Even companies have become more flexible due to the absence of physical handsets. For example, a few years ago, it was impossible to imagine a remote working customer support service. They had to come to the office and use fixed devices such as traditional handsets and desktops for their jobs. Today, customer support can work from anywhere using mobile phones and virtual calling systems. The entire process is driven by software. Companies are also working towards improving enterprise security by bringing it to military-grade.

2. Cloud technology: Take cloud telephony, for instance. It allows companies to interact with people from over 65+ countries with superior audio quality and zero interruptions. Users can make and receive a call using VoIP technology. It’s easy to set up, saves up to 65% of the total costs as compared to traditional phone systems, and can be accessed from any device such as desktop softphones or wireless VoIP phones.

3. Connected devices: Another recent development is the emergence of connected devices, IoT, and wearable devices. Everything is connected in today’s times. It’s easy for a technical team to identify potential issues in machinery using sensors and take preventive measures to resolve them. It’s also easy to guide workers on critical worksites to complete a task or alert them when close to a danger zone. In fact, many people now prefer to use a wearable device to make payments, set reminders, answer calls, send texts, etc. If the last decade was about using an all-in-one smartphone, the current decade is about using wearable devices to communicate with others without removing the phone from the pocket. With the advent of 5G connections, IoT will become an $8 billion market by 2024, i.e., it will grow over 1400%. IoT is expected to generate over $1.8 billion in revenue for mobile operators. It will also urge the operators to revisit their current offerings and enhance them to keep pace with market changes.

4. Thin and stretchable phones: Companies are now making thin, stretchable phones that could easily fit into the pockets and bridge the gap between laptops and mobile screens. So, the screens can be extended from 6 inches to 7.2 inches without impacting the screen’s resolution.

5. Next-gen networking infrastructure: Whether it’s the rapid 5G penetration, setting up low-power, wide area networks (LPWAN) that are suitable for IoT technology, or offering private 5G networks to large enterprises, next-gen networking infrastructure are becoming a mainstay. Even the hardware of future phones would be 5G-enabled or have integrated SIM.

Conclusion

Years ago, very few of us imagined that a mobile phone would become a one-stop gadget for everything – right from checking emails, making calls, playing games, or shopping online. Companies are constantly innovating to create hands-free, immersive handsets.

As faster, lower latency, bandwidths come in with 5G, the promise of these virtual handsets looks set to become more tangible as users can launch the apps they need more easily. Could this be the new age of mobility, where you are free from the mobile handset also?

As Ivan Guzenko, the CEO and co-founder of SmartyAds, said, “The new phone won’t be a phone that we know anymore. Rather, it will be an augmented reality device that you perceive the world through.”

Currently, 5G and IoT technologies are paving the way for morphed handsets. Years later, it could be another disruptive technology shaping the future communication between people and companies.

Telecom companies need to stay nimble-footed to keep pace with these innovations. They must be ready to replace legacy technologies with modernized ones to grow their revenue and stay relevant in a competitive landscape. To ensure that they are on the right track, companies can work with reliable partners who can guide them to make the right decisions.

We have witnessed the steady rise of OTT services over the past few years. With these OTT “providers” and the growing proliferation of smartphones, the way we engage has also changed. Applications such as WhatsApp, Skype, and the like have now become an organic part of the users’ vocabulary by filling in some niches that existing in the core offerings of CSPs.

Rather uniquely, these applications use the connectivity provided by the MVNOs but are eating into their revenues by providing fixed and mobile voice and messaging services. Given the leaning of the consumer towards OTT, research estimates that OTT services such as Skype and WhatsApp could hurt MVNO revenues by as much as 50% going forward. Mobile operator voice revenue is also expected to drop to $208 billion by 2024 from $381 billion in 2019.

The OTT impact

The proliferation of OTT applications works well for the end consumer but is clearly worrying for telecom providers. There are also countless OTT services that are designed in alternative formats that enable an exit from other classic communication formats such as SMS. While service providers have some income coming in from the data packages, the operators are losing revenue owing to the decreased uptake of their core services.

The OTT app-based performers are creating a great deal of stickiness as they are expanding their reach across multiple areas and attracting users to spend more time communicating, shopping, and consuming content. Given this, they are targeting the entire pie of the smart device and feature phone users.

That apart, the telcos and MVNOs pay a host of additional charges to the government and regulatory bodies. This includes elements such as spectrum usage, licensing fees, and other service taxes. The OTT players deliver the same gamut of services – messaging, video, and voice completely free of cost since they do not fall under the tax or licensing umbrella. As a major security concern, these OTT players are also largely free of government regulatory oversight and monitoring.

The rise of OTT providers and the uptake of their services by consumers also have an impact on network data congestion. The increased use of OTT services increases the data congestion putting an overall strain on the network. While telcos have to invest to enhance their existing infrastructure, they continue to lose revenue as consumers gravitate towards OTT from standard services.

This challenge becomes more complex as OTT players eat into the revenue and use the services of the telcos without being called upon to make any investments in their networks. Increasing connectivity and internet penetration and availability of cheaper devices and content-based ecosystems become catalysts for the growth of OTT.

MVNOs and the OTT threat

OTTs have formed a genuine threat by becoming de-facto MVNOs. In fact, they are jeopardizing their current business model. They are harming the MVNOs business even more as they service their customer’s consumers utilizing the MVNOs networks without any lease agreement or policies to regulate them.

A growing body of research is now pointing out that 43% of western Europe and 33% of the central Asia region consider OTTs a threat. A key factor influencing the steady rise of OTT and the cause of increasing pressure on MVNOS has been an easy regulatory framework that OTTs operate in.

Regulators have so far been technologically neutral towards OTT providers. Given the way OTT is cannibalizing traditional telecom services, it makes sense to bring OTTs under a similar regulatory, compliance, and governance framework as MVNOs.

This becomes all the more essential as OTT providers such as Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram outgrow major MVNOs such as Vodafone, Deutsche Telecom, and Verizon, and in regards to the number of subscriptions. These MVNOs have 2.11 billion subscribers compared to 2.45 billion for OTT users. While it can be alleged that this is not a fair comparison since these MVNOs have a limited footprint and these OTT providers have a global footprint, it is the MVNOs who spend billions on infrastructure costs and other operational and regulatory costs.

MVNOs until now have been working hard on protecting their revenues from grey routing and spam traffic. They have had to invest greatly to ensure secure and reliable connections and prevent unauthorized connections. They have to work towards ensuring network and data security and ensure compliance and governance to stay on the right side of the regulatory framework. OTT providers, while doing none of these are reaping more benefits than the MVNOs.

The rising proliferation of these OTT providers is a clear indication for the regulatory bodies to reassess their approach towards these providers. Just like how MVNOs operate within certain boundaries to ensure compliance and security, so must OTT providers. Doing so will level the playing field for MVNOs and give them a fair chance to remain competitive in a tough market while protecting the consumer and addressing the genuine security concerns of government bodies.

Is B2C SMS dead?

It’s a question that some companies and marketers are being forced to ask themselves while planning their marketing and communication strategies. They have depended on this powerful channel for years now. Their methods are tested and the approaches are ingrained into their communication strategies. Even the thought of making a drastic shift is daunting.

But the good news is that B2C SMS is still alive and relevant.

Whether it’s sending real-time updates about the delivery status, OTP, or announcing new deals and offers, businesses continue to use SMS to reach out to customers.

There are various reasons why SMS seems to work better than other messaging tools.

• Customers don’t have to download a separate app to receive or send messages. SMS is a default feature in every handset.
• You don’t need an internet connection to receive messages.
• SMS has a 98% open rate, and the messages are read within the first 90 seconds -something that’s unimaginable with other communication tools such as emails and push notifications.

Even customers seem to prefer receiving SMS from companies. 75% of customers are comfortable receiving SMS from companies. However, they want it to be opt-in messages, i.e., they should have opted for receiving messages.

Although it’s clear that SMS is still relevant and is likely to stay in the future, it’s true that companies cannot rely on it alone. Customer preferences are evolving and so is the messaging that companies need to send out. This is why companies need to find other ways to communicate with customers.

Why Is B2C SMS’ Position In Danger?

In India, companies were able to send bulk SMS to customers at just 1 paisa! The conditions are no different across the developing and developed world. No wonder, SMS was so popular with organizations. However, the side effect of this was that customers were bombarded with irrelevant and spam messages. Most regulatory authorities have tried to bring some order to this chaos. For instance, in India, the TRAI has intervened and introduced DLT, a blockchain technology that prevents SMS misuse. TRAI also increased the SMS costs by 25% to 30%.

Similarly, countries like the US, Europe, and Canada have laid down rules to protect customers’ privacy. In the US, companies have to comply with the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) and CAN-SPAM Act to ensure that customers are not bothered by spam messages. These laws have also made it mandatory for companies to seek consent from customers before sending them messages.

While these rules are particularly for companies that send bulk spam messages, there are chances that the customer might miss the relevant messages. Recently, Indian customers failed to receive important messages such as OTP when telecom operators were implementing the new TRAI rules.

To avoid such unplanned disruptions and to ensure compliance, as well as to accommodate new types of messages, companies are looking for alternatives to SMS.

Some of these alternatives include:

• Instant messaging apps: Many companies have been using instant messaging apps like WhatsApp, Apple Business Chat, and Telegram to send messages to their customers. There are various benefits of using these apps. First, these apps are widely used by customers for daily communication. So, it’s unlikely that customers will miss the message. In fact, WhatsApp messages get 40% more responses than calls. Second, companies can send rich text messages with images, videos, and links to the customers. Most importantly, these messages are secure as they are end-to-end encrypted, and any unsolicited message can be blocked with just a single tap on the block option.

• Social media messengers: Facebook has over 9 billion monthly active users worldwide, and overall there are 4.48 billion social media users. That’s why most companies find social media to be a lucrative option to communicate with users. Some companies also fully leverage options such as Facebook messengers to have personalized, one-to-one communication with customers. Social media messengers can be more engaging and interactive than SMS by sending useful resources, attachments and answering queries in real-time.

• Web chatbots: Many companies are integrating chatbots with their website to communicate with customers in real-time. They can address customer queries and provide product information to customers. They can also be integrated with social media messengers to generate and convert leads into sales.

So, does that mean that SMS will be permanently replaced with the above alternatives?

Not really!

SMS Is Still The King Of B2C Communication

Although new alternatives are emerging and businesses are looking for new ways to communicate with customers, SMS remains the undisputed king. According to Fortune Business Insights, enterprise SMS is poised to become a $64.24 billion market by 2028. SMS may have limitations such as character limits, restrictions in message richness, and lack of scope for customer engagement. It’s also difficult to stop receiving spam messages. However, SMS continues to revamp and be more compliant with local and international regulations to stay relevant. For example, companies can adopt SMS 2.0, i.e., Rich Communication Services that are similar to instant messengers to send images, videos, links, and rich text to customers. They can be branded, so customers can determine if it’s genuine. Similarly, companies can send messages in a pre-defined template suggested by the regulatory authorities to customers to stay compliant and avoid getting listed as spam. These small changes will help SMS communication to thrive in the future too. There’s no doubt that the king still occupies the messaging throne.

A2P SMS or Application-to-Person SMS services are important tools for most organizations. Whether it is to send out notifications and alerts, appointment reminders, marketing campaigns, or customer relationship management. In short, A2P messaging is among the most effective ways to grab the customer’s attention. Industries such as banking, healthcare, e-commerce, and even entertainment are utilizing this cost-effective way to stay connected with their customers.

The massive reach of SMS messaging can’t be ignored. In fact, research from Gartner shows that SMS has the highest click-through rates, and SMS open rates trump email open rates. Owing to these numbers, the A2P SMS market is on an upward growth trajectory and is estimated to cross $86.5 bn by 2025.

While this number looks great, the Telecom industry faceslosses of $17bn per year< owing to the actions of illegitimate criminal enterprises. So, while mobile operators are looking at unlocking the revenue potential of A2P SMS messaging, the problem of revenue leakage and fraud via unsolicited routes casts a dark shadow on these otherwise sunny skies. In fact, according to a study, “Unsolicited routes are expected to cost the mobile network operators almost US$ 50 billion between 2018-2023”

But how does this revenue leakage happen?

A2P SMS taking the unsolicited route end up exploiting loopholes in the GSM framework and side-stepping the termination charges for the SMS. In such cases, the SMS service could be leveraged at lower than market value by denying mobile and tier-one messaging aggregators vital revenue. Obviously, the quality of the messages is also impacted here since these are routed through unregulated and poorly constructed mobile networks which are often located in inaccessible corners of the globe. As a rule, messages get delivered late or worse, not at all.

Mobile operators have to take strict measures to prevent revenue leakage and block unsolicited route traffic from whittling away their revenue streams. Along with this, consider the impact on the subscriber’s experience and the lack of trust that mobile operators face owing to the influx of unsolicited, fake, and spam messages originating from the unsolicited route.

As the prevention of fraud and revenue leaks assume paramount importance for mobile operators, SMS firewalls become a venerable tool to fight this battle.

SMS Firewall comes to the rescue

To grow customer satisfaction and revenue, mobile operators have to use the right tools and adopt a comprehensive strategy. They have to start with mapping out all the unidentified leakages such as the unsolicited routes, improperly charged routes as well as network abuse. They have to ensure that the tools they use eliminate unsolicited routes by ensuring that A2P traffic is not and cannot be merged with valid person-to-person (P2P) traffic and routes just to avoid bearing A2P charges.

Since the unsolicited routes disregard the rules of engagement between operators, they also impact the trust that has grown on SMS transmission channels. SMS firewalls are an effective strategy to block these unsolicited routes and ensure that enterprise traffic is diverted through the approved channels only.

A full-fledged SMS firewall with international and domestic traffic control also helps mobile operators prevent message flooding by blocking large amounts of messages to one or more destinations. The SMS firewall looks out for traffic surges, unwanted traffic spikes, and improper content and filters these out while simultaneously identifying and proactively blocking the sources and unsolicited routes.

Preventing fake SMS messaging and improving the security of the SMS by identifying manipulated addresses of the messages can also be ensured by using SMS firewalls. This is also the way to greater control as it helps mobile operators control the SMS traffic in their network. Operators can employ special rules for specific roaming partners, sources of incoming traffic, types of traffic, and types of sender ID.

A robust SMS firewall helps mobile operators improve their capacity to prevent network congestion that results from spamming and flooding. It helps in increasing end-user trust by eliminating concerns emerging from activities like SMS faking, SMS spoofing, SMS phishing, SMS viruses are all.

Obviously, mobile operators should have clarity on every single message terminating in their network. Many mobile operator networks (MON) lose revenue because of the A2P bypass, global title bypass, and illegal A2P routes. These can lead to significant losses in revenues. As it happens, this can also open up just the avenue hackers need to flood the network without paying any of the fees. With the SMS firewall, mobile operators achieve transparency on the messages terminating in their network and can also maximize profits by identifying otherwise untapped sources of revenue.

This is the age of SMS firewalls with built-in AI and ML intelligence. These smarter firewalls can stop fraudulent activity, revenue leakage, and build trust in the network. By leveraging a robust and comprehensive SMS firewall, mobile operators, therefore, can gain a transparent understanding of their monthly costs. They can leverage insights to convert Opex to Capex costs while ensuring that A2P SMS traffic is routed only through the approved channels.

Enterprises and industries look at A2P messaging to effectively engage with customers and prospects. This is a critical channel for customer engagement that impacts the customer experience. As such, mobile operators need to pull up their socks and make sure they have the right countermeasures in place to stop illegitimate A2P transmission and spam from zapping profits.

If this is a concern for you too, then connect with our experts to learn how to protect your network from SMS fraud and revenue leakage today.

In the last three decades, the telecommunication industry has evolved dramatically – from analog telephone lines to digital quad+ play mobile service providers. Today, the telecommunication sector is entering the 5G landscape promising unmatched connectivity and bandwidth.

Technology evolution has spiked the range of available opportunities as well as competition, and unfortunately, malpractices too. Cybercrimes are on the rise as vulnerabilities get exposed. Telecom frauds have become commonplace and need to be addressed on priority as estimates peg their cost at €29 billion per year.

Evolution of Telecom Frauds

The Telecom industry is seen as young, but if we look for the very first telecom fraud, it will take us two centuries back. The first telecom fraud was committed in the 1830s by two French brothers – Francois and Joseph Blanc. The brothers were bankers working at the stock exchange in Bordeaux – primitively trading in government bonds. Owing to the fragmented telecom sector back then, the Blanc brothers found a way of sending messages by “hacking” the telecom network, thus opening the gates to telecom frauds.

Since then, the telecom industry has obviously evolved. Numerous new technologies have been introduced for fraud detection in the telecom industry. But as is always the case, as telecom service providers have gone smart, similarly, telecom hackers too have become proficient.

Today, there are a series of common telecom frauds being reported worldwide. These impact the revenue potential of telecom service providers and hurt customers too.

Let’s understand some of the common telecom frauds the industry is facing:

Traffic Pumping Scheme

It is a revenue-sharing scheme designed by fraudsters who promise to increase traffic to a specific level at a high destination cost. The signature style of this telecom fraud type is to spike traffic to high-cost destinations. Fraudsters take advantage of telecom service provider’s lax security practices. These frauds often leave service providers with large monetary losses. These kinds of attacks often occur during holidays and weekends when networks aren’t monitored closely due to surges and reduced staff loads.

Vishing Calls

This is one of the most common telecom frauds, which is a combination of the word “Voice” and “Phishing.” It is similar to phishing email attacks – the difference is just that fraudsters make calls to the victims. During the vishing calls, fraudsters create a false scenario and trick victims to share their personal, security, or financial information. In some situations, fraudsters even compel victims to transfer money to them. These types of fraud are very hard to detect, and catching fraudsters is even harder.

One-ring-and-cut or Wangari

Wangari is a common scenario in the telecom domain. It is a telecom scam where hackers lure victims to call premium-rate numbers. In this method, fraudsters set a system of a large number of random telephone numbers. They call each phone number up to one ring and leave a missed call on the recipient’s phone.

Usually, when people see a missed call from an unknown number on their phone, they call back, considering it a genuine number, and get their entire call balance lost on calling the premium rate number. It is a very cunning and well-organized telecom fraud practiced around the globe.

International Revenue Sharing Fraud

International Revenue Sharing Fraud, or shortly referred to as IRSF, is one of the most damaging telecom fraud schemes to date. Under this fraud, money is transferred from one carrier to another based on the inter-carrier trust between telecom operators. IRSF telecom fraudsters are very smart; they wait for logs to expire before executing the next step in their money-laundering scheme.

According to the IRS, more than 1,029,601 Americans have received IRSF fraud calls, and approximately $29,100,604 had been lost on these calls in 2016 alone. On the global level, numerous awareness programs and events are organized to protect people from these scam calls, but this telecom fraud is still flourishing.

Call Forwarding Fraud

In this VoIP telecom fraud, criminals gain access to an enterprise PBX system, which they use to make expensive long-distance calls and pocket what they charge to the users. Generally, telecom service providers state that customers are liable to pay for fraudulent calls. But, in reality, it’s hard to make the customer pay for the fraud calls as they could simply disconnect network services and move to another service provider. And all the fraud call financial burden falls on the service provider’s shoulder.

How are telecom frauds impacting revenues?

The global loss due to fraudulent practices in 2019 was $28.3 billion, and telecom fraud has a big share in it. Some of the top fraud types have been payment fraud, IP PBX fraud, abuse of network or device, or configuration weaknesses, and IoT fraud. As it happens, with the explosion of smartphone technology, the number of telecom frauds has also seen a spike as new venues and vulnerabilities open up. In the app economy, a lot of customer validation happens through mobile phones and SMS networks now. In that scenario, Account Takeover frauds are now becoming very common with targeted consumer attacks.

Additionally, as per the Cyber-Telecom Crime Report 2019 published by Trend Micro and Europol, the evolution from switchboard operations to the circuit and packet-switched operators has added to the telecom fraud occurrences causing losses of $33 billion revenue loss each year. The report also reveals that traditional financial criminals are the ones turning their attention to telecom scams. The report has suggested that developing or failed nations are the main originators of telecom fraud that is perpetrated in developed nations like the USA or the UK.

In a nutshell, telecom frauds are unfortunately common as they have continued to evolve at pace with telecom technology. These myriad frauds have shown the potential to adversely impact the revenue of telecom service providers. Also, along with revenue loss, this scenario is also tarnishing the reputation of telecom companies.

Clearly, it is extremely important for telecom service providers to invest in fraud detection and security technologies. The good news is that by partnering with the right telecom solution provider, fraud can be easily detected and avoided.