Category: Carriers

The telecom industry is undergoing seismic shifts. Investments in consecutive generations of technology are no more a guarantee of a return on capital expenditure. Simultaneously, digital start-ups are overturning traditional products and services of communications service providers (CSPs). Given this state of disruption, telcos need to look at all means to increase revenue and safeguard sustainability.

The opportunities from the web

One interesting area of opportunity is opened up by the internet. This is ironic since data is being seen as the voice-killer in many ways. But clearly, the reality is a bit more complex.

MNOs became a part of the Internet environment with the arrival of mobile broadband services. Interconnectedness arrived between few elements of MNO networks, like Short Message Service Centres (SMSCs), encompassed IF interfaces and unlocked e-mail-to-text and text-to-email messaging. This evolution opened up some opportunities and some risks too.

SMS messaging is susceptible to identity spoofing, faking, spam, and denial-of-service (DoS) attacks. These openings WILL compromise customer experience and satisfaction. Revenues are also under attack from grey routes, which carry the traffic that cannot be billed because they are not subject to contractual agreements.

As per a report byTyntec, 66% percent of messaging traffic is on gray routes

The focus is growing onprotecting the space, even as the openings for revenue gain are emerging.

Messaging has evolved from simple messaging, like notifications and alerts, to real-time user authentication, ticketing, and mobile payment enablement. These new messaging set-ups are deeply tied to a consumer’s identity on the MNO’s network and demand strict adherence to high service quality levels. (For instance, message sources and destinations must be validated, message delivery must be well-timed and dependable) In fact, consumer requirements have rapidly evolved to now wanting real-time two-factor authentication across a variety of apps and app-driven services.

It’s clear that MNO services are likely to be leveraged more and more to validate a user’s identity on the app ecosystem. That suggests the MNO’s role is more than merely that of an access provider.

Other technologies that depend on MNOs are also becoming more mainstream.

Opportunities from IoT

Consider the Internet of Things (IoT) infrastructure, which heavily depends on the coverage and access of the MNO. IoT networks employ MNO infrastructure for main or backup access. IoT devices communicate with platforms, data analytics engines, and central controllers all the time. They send data out and get instructions back. Security protocols would run on the network. Control messages to the devices would also utilize the MNO network.

By some estimates, there will be 35 billion IoT devices installed worldwide by the end of 2020. This massive growth of IoT presents yet another opportunity for revenue generation to MNOs.

The SMS Firewall: Allowing apt monetizing of Application-to-Person (A2P) Messaging

In previous blogs, we have spoken of how enterprise messaging is a real opportunity for MNOs to maintain and increase their messaging revenue. But this is a risk too. Intermediary entities are attracted to the opening to manipulate mobile operators’ security and revenue assurance gaps to evade costs and send unwanted messages.

Mobile carriers did take some steps to safeguard their networks by employing antispam filters and easy blocking mechanisms but they need to do more to enable end-to-end protection. Solutions based on content authentication and reporting also exist. But a comprehensive SMS firewall solution ensures visibility, efficacy, and proactive action.

More traditional areas

Obviously, there is a need to protect the traditional sources of revenue too – voice and SMS. Leaving aside more complex problems like how to drive up usage, there is sufficient room for maximizing the revenue potential of the current subscriber base by reducing fraud.

A good anti-fraud voice solution will allow the MNO to detect inbound and outbound voice call frauds and take the required preventive measures to block such activity. Over time, this will help drive up consumer confidence and trust -all good for sustained relationships and enhanced usage.

As mentioned while talking about A2P SMS fraud, a good SMS solution will be able to actively monitor and blog MO and MT SMSs to prevent fraud and spam SMS activity. This ensures the consumers get only the messages they value and increases their trust in the system.

A drag on prepaid revenue-generating activity is zero-balance subscribers. They sit on the books, but until they recharge, they are unable to deliver any revenues. Rather than treat them as lost causes, MNOs can deploy innovative solutions that help generate some transactions. For instance, a service could generate a missed call on behalf of the zero-balance subscriber and induce a call back with revenue potential.

The enterprise as a revenue source

Enterprises have long been great sources of revenue for MNOs with their use of solutions like International Toll-Free numbers and Premium Numbers. Those services are well-known but there’s innovation-driven evolution possible in the service needs of enterprises too.

Enterprise functions like customer service, marketing, and sales are potential consumers of solutions like bulk and auto-diallers, virtual roaming numbers, and collaboration and conferencing solutions. MNOs have the infrastructure capacity and the skill and experience of managing complex IT backbones and infrastructure. It’s a small step from there to monetizing that capacity by offering data center, cloud computing, and infrastructure support to enterprises in an on-demand model.

That apart, more collaborative and inventive business models are emerging as MNOs come to understand that the greatest asset they possess may be the data they have about millions of consumers and their habits. They are looking to monetize that data to good effect. For instance, telecom operators are building innovative partnerships with consumer product companies and financial services companies to drive up sales and revenues. This is an exciting space with great promise.

Telecom companies are a part of the essential fabric of economic activity in the modern economy. Even as specific revenue opportunities and threats emerge, it’s fair to expect telcos to carry on.

The battle for customer acquisition and retention has become cutthroat in the telecom industry. With more consumers’ choices than ever, tremendously low switching costs, and universal access to new services, the telecom industry is undergoing rapid change and growing competition.

As the revenues from traditional voice and messaging avenues continue to shrink, and over-the-top media services like Skype, Facebook, Netflix, Amazon, and others eat away at the principal offerings, telecom operators must prioritize their investments in customer engagement and experience strategies.

This is imperative to drive customer stickiness and advocacy.

Data from an Ericsson survey reveals:

• An average smartphone customer requires 4.1 days, and 2.2 attempts to complete an interaction with a telco.
• A one-day delay in achieving an action turns into a 30% decrease in customer satisfaction
• Only a third of customers think that their telecom operator understands their needs as a customer
• 46% of customers believe that their provider is hiding behind ‘bad’ technology, such as canned responses, impersonal contact forms, and do-not-reply emails.

As telecom operators continue to battle for customer loyalty, a key strategy to help them differentiate is offering subscribers consistent experiences across different touchpoints and interaction channels.

While operators need to have the right people and processes to help shape customers’ experiences, it’s also necessary to have the right technologies in place. Together, the people, processes, and tools will deliver a foundation for providing consistent experiences to customers across various channels cost-effectively.

It also needs to be said that while focusing on measures that reduce customer effort seems the right thing to do, this alone will not take telecom operators to the next level of customer experience. There are two reasons:

1. They get caught up in fixing existing business models to solve the issues of today’s customers. This restricts them from structurally reinventing themselves to meet the future expectations of customers.
2. They are tackling only one driver (that is, customer effort) of customer experience

Why is Customer Engagement Crucial to Telecom Operators?

Customer engagement is the procedure of improving customer interactions with a business at different touchpoints – research, pre-sales, onboarding, usage, support, and so forth.

Unfortunately, numerous telecom operators heavily invest in enhancing all the customer management life cycle stages only until the purchase point. Once the contract is signed and the service is purchased, fewer businesses actively focus on customer engagement or invest in augmenting it.

This results in:

• Poor customer satisfaction ratings, damaging brand equity
• The dwindling impact of referral marketing programs
• Higher customer support costs due to rising volumes of complaints
• Underperforming cross-sells/up-sells
• High customer churn
• Low customer lifetime value (CLV)

All of the above, in due course, turns to lost revenues.

The lack of suitable customer engagement solutions makes established operators more susceptible to revolutionary competitors like OTT players and digital-first market entrants who are better armed to engage with customers across numerous touchpoints/channels.

Consequently, the legacy operators’ ability to bring their old tactics of customer engagement to a new digital maturity level becomes crucial.

8 Ways Telecom Operators Ensure Customer Experience

Introducing Ease and Usability at Each Step

What more can be done to reduce consumer effort? Operators looking to offer ease and usability have dramatically diminished the number of tariffs and options and eliminated one-off fees. They have also addressed shorter-term options, keeping in mind that unhappy customers locked into long contracts can become social media critics.

But few operators have reduced their small print, rewriting them in plain language. Fewer have achieved a simple, combined fixed-mobile bill displaying a single total (monthly charges, plus VAT, minus discounts).

Several customers don’t understand billing, random credits, loyalty schemes, and unclear terms. This eventually results in more calls to customer service centers and long queues in retail outlets – which do not add value.

While most of these efforts help to achieve a better experience, there are some delight opportunities. For instance, customers can still be surprised by a zero-configuration experience.

Proactively Resolving Customers’ Hassles

Being proactive helps both sides. For instance, informing customers about planned maintenance means reduced effort for business (lesser calls to helplines) and less disappointment for customers (less time spent in call queues or troubleshooting the problem themselves).

Extending that philosophy could mean providing automatic migration to the latest tariffs, eradicating customer hassle (switching) while also lessening operator effort (maintaining legacy portfolios).

Enhancing Accessibility via Seamless Interactions Across Preferred Channels

Accessibility is an opportunity to provide advanced and personalized customer experiences based on seamless omnichannel customer interaction and engagement. Operators who want to delight today’s customers need to start by making swapping between channels hassle-free. The whole interaction history must be available at every touchpoint. For instance, an in-store sales rep can see what a call center agent has promised. Interaction continuity is mandatory. For instance, enabling a customer to talk to the same agent after a dropped call to a hotline. An enhanced omnichannel experience means seamless swapping and smart channel integration. For instance, leveraging interactive voice response (IVR) in a mobile app when customers are incapable of resolving issues and proactive follow-up when promised response times are exceeded. The information must flow seamlessly, between the physical and digital world, for instance, by enabling customers to scan a QR code on a device or printed communication.

Emphasizing on Quality and Performance Over Technical Specifications

Prominent operators are already emphasizing on customer service performance and quality. They meticulously monitor and address the possible deterioration in customer experience (such as dropped calls and low video or audio quality) by leveraging Quality of Experience (QoE) features in the network, Operational and Business Support Systems (OSS/BSS), and devices.

However, most operators need to put in extra efforts to express they care about customers’ perceptions. One instance would be a system to inevitably compensate customers for poor experiences before they complain, turning potential dissatisfaction into a delight. Operators could also innovate their business model to sell a customer-specific QoE instead of data volume and bandwidth.

Providing Flexible Services that do not Confine Customers

Customers expect to adjust the services they purchase in a flexible and personalized manner.Enabling customers to align their product or service should come without standard tariffs or increased out-of-bundle costs. By linking unit prices per service for all (not just new) customers, operators could minimize customers’ reconnections, saving on Subscriber Acquisition Cost (SAC). To limit the Average base Revenue Per Unit (ARPU) dilution in this situation, operators require an upsell strategy as a countervailing measure. An example would be to modify all sliders for present customers to keep them on the same ARPU, then let them pick “pay less” >or “get more.”

Fairness and Consistency are Significant Hygiene Factors

Customers who think they have been mistreated are prone to quitting. Taking care of such “hygiene” factors reduces customer churn. Things like making equal offers for existing and new customers, eradicating small print, and sticking by the service promises are a given. Advanced experiences might include cash-back warranties or a one-click “try before you buy” offers.

Transparency Gratifies the Primary Requirement for Safety and Builds Trust

Customer service divisions of prominent telecom operators must provide complete transparency about the present state and expected processing time of service cases. For example, operator mobile apps can display a customer’s inquiry status, significantly curtailing inbound calls. Where an offer or service is highly customized, customers need to see their CLV-based status, expected service level, and features or services they might have to pay for.

Customer appreciation is the fundamental customer experience emotion

Operators need to connect with and learn about their customers. For example, by connecting with their customers on social media, an operator could augment their CRM data and empower agents to relate to a customer’s personal life (where appropriate) more precisely (with knowledge about hobbies and interests, a reference to latest holiday photos, and so forth).

To Conclude

There are two distinct aspects to administering the customer experience—one reactive, the other proactive.

The reactive aspect requires getting the basics right. Negative customer experiences stem most commonly from incomplete network coverage, uncompetitive tariffs, and bad customer support. Essentially, these three variables are the fundamental pillars of the customer experience.

The proactive aspect focuses on how operators position themselves in the broader value chain —multiple networks, numerous devices, and several service providers. Collectively, these three aspects represent a multi-tiered opportunity: not only more users (and SIM cards) but also more uses (spanning multiple devices) and more recurrent usage (of OTT and other services). This proactive aspect of the equation is about embracing complexity.

Operators must embrace the new open, dynamic, and multi-dimensional ecosystem. Making the most of these opportunities demands operators must comprehend customers’ behaviors and preferences and build strategies that reflect them to optimize the customer experience. By embracing complexity, operators can not only reaffirm their significance but also magnify the breadth and depth of their revenue-generating activities.

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.

Until a few years ago, email and SMS were the primary ways to send out business messaging to customers. However, the proliferation of smartphones and the internet have transformed the “business to consumer” communication landscape. From email and SMS, now we have social media, messaging applications and instant messaging all set to influence business messaging.

The digital impact on business messaging

The business messaging landscape is also witnessing rapid evolution as customers become more informed and digitally savvy. As the smartphone becomes an extension of the customer’s life, business messaging has become more refined, contextual, and sophisticated. That apart, along with the ubiquitous SMS, new mobile messaging technologies are becoming a part of the business messaging ecosystem.

Business messaging continues to rise in prominence and importance owing to the growing adoption of digital marketing solutions. With the era of notifications and alerts upon us, enterprises across the globe are looking to deliver quality information regarding their products and service offerings to their potential customers in a medium comfortable to both – the customers and the enterprise. This has been a major contributor to the incremental rise of A2P communication especially for enterprises as they vie to build customer loyalty, boost customer interaction, and build stronger customer relations.

Channels of business messaging have also proliferated because of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. As more businesses moved online, the need for effective and efficient communication and customer engagement services only increased.

Email marketing, once a very popular and preferred channel for business messaging has slipped down the popularity ladder. Customer inboxes are usually flooded with offer-related emails, making the discovery of relevant information harder consequently leading to low opening rates. Text messages and SMS’s, comparatively experience greater reachability. Gartner reports that “SMS open and response rates as high as 98% and 45%, respectively — in contrast to corresponding figures of 20% and 6% for email.”

This is further expected to contribute to and drive A2P SMS market growth

Enterprise A2P SMS services also continue to rise in prominence for business messaging as it is highly popular amongst startups and small enterprises. Lower costs associated with A2P SMS continue to be a major attraction along with increasing numbers of smartphone and internet users.

SMA retains its power

While SMS still continues to be a powerful business messaging channel, businesses are looking out for technology options that make SMS more engaging. Business messaging too is looking to access functionalities like embedded images, video buttons, animation, suggested replies, etc. readily available on consumer applications. RCS or Rich Communication Services (RCS) builds on this potential by helping businesses achieve truly engaging messaging experiences and bring about a messaging evolution.

Taking both SMS and RCS into account, the messaging industry is expected to grow from 1.55 trillion messages of A2P traffic in 2018 and to surpass the 2 trillion mark by 2023.

However, in the business messaging landscape, despite new developments, SMS technology is set to maintain its important position despite messaging apps continuing to vie for market share. This is especially so as email, though a preferred mode of business messaging, usually ends up in spam folders and has low read rates.

Instant messaging is still navigating regulatory waters as they can be available only as downloaded apps. Since these companies are usually outside of the regulatory control of local governments, enterprises are wary of depending on them and especially for critical functions.

While RCS looks like the most probable candidate, ensuring how to use it to best interact with the customer and get the best cost while doing so is going to be the next frontier to navigate.

Navigating the security landscape

The conversation about the changing dynamics of business messaging is also incomplete without speaking of security. Along with ensuring the quality of communication, maintaining consumer trust using strategies such as two-factor authentication and employing firewall solutions will gain momentum. The use of blockchain to further encrypt messages can bolster the security posture. However, the regulatory chasm still remains to be crossed. As such, it hardly comes as a surprise to see research predicting 3.5 trillion SMS business messages will be sent in 2023 – an increase from the estimated 2.5 trillion in 2019. The focus on A2P messaging will continue to be the preferred enterprise medium to communicate with the customers.

In Conclusion

Voice, premium, instant messaging, SMS, OTT, white route messages, and grey route messages, both, constitute a massive opportunity for telco players and service providers – either to identify opportunities or to evaluate gaps that cause revenue and customer trust to leak and dissipate. While they explore new and potential opportunities that drive profit, building and maintaining customer trust by proactively maintaining a great security posture becomes critical. Elements like Network protection, building trusted, carrier-grade, real-time communications across IP network borders to enhance security, performance, and reliability will contribute to customer retention and revenues. A new world of business messaging is already here.

Pete Cashmore, CEO and founder of Mashable once famously said that attention is the new currency. Every business is vying for the customer’s attention. In a world where the average consumer is glued to the smartphone, the mobile has become the new battleground for brands in this quest for customer connection.

Businesses reach out to customers through various channels such as social media platforms, Facebook messenger, and instant messengers such as WhatsApp. However, contrary to what some may believe, SMS communication is still alive and thriving. That said, if the aim is to connect and engage, businesses need to think beyond sending plain text SMS. They need to send rich texts to gain customer’s attention. Enter RCS!

Rich Communication Services (RCS) create messaging touchpoints that are more engaging and provide a rich experience to customers. RCS adds that value in Application to Peer (A2P) SMS.

No wonder brands are willing to spend $18.04 billion on RCS.

RCS enables businesses to send multimedia and experiment with different types of content such as hyperlinked texts, rich images, and even polls and quizzes through A2P SMS.

The results are evident too. According to mGage’s research, RCS achieved a 14 times higher engagement rate and a better response rate than other methods used previously.

While businesses are expected to benefit from RCS, how do mobile operators stand to benefit from it?

Let’s delve into the subject to know more.

How Can Mobile Network Operators Benefit From Rich Communication Services?

1. Better customer experience

With the help of rich communication services, businesses can send high-resolution pictures and heavy files to their customer contacts, share locations and add emoticons and features to their messages to make them more interactive. Such messages will improve customer engagement by virtue of being more interesting and inviting. Businesses can also brand their messages to give them a distinct identity. These features enable mobile operators to strengthen their connection with the customer by being consistent across all the channels they use to communicate. This is a remarkable difference from the current fragmented experience offered to them. Most importantly, the transition from SMS to RCS is seamless. Studies show that customers are already overwhelmed by the number of channels being added to the ecosystem. They don’t want to download an additional messaging app to interact with businesses. However, RCS does not require the customer to download another app. They are automatically upgraded to RCS. So, they can leverage the benefits provided by apps like WhatsApp and Signal from the default messaging app available on their smartphone.

2. New revenue-generating opportunities

RCS provides a unique opportunity for mobile operators to generate more revenue beyond their traditional revenue channels. Businesses are forever on the lookout for new digital channels to reach out to new and existing customers. Some channels are effective, while some do not offer the kind of ROI expected. For example, a banner ad generates an average of 0.1% CTR. As SMS is more personal and sent to the in-built messaging app, the CTR and open rates are much higher. Add to that the power and engagement of RCS and the brand campaigns promise to outperform by 207%. According to Gartner, the interoperability of SMS and its better reach to customers makes it an extremely viable marketing channel for businesses. They know that it’s a channel that customers will use regularly. In fact, operators are expected to generate $52.5 billion from RCS messaging by 2028.

3. Improved customer retention

Some messaging platforms have come under the scanner due to data privacy concerns. SMS and RCS are still considered safer options as they are known to protect customer’s data by default and are permission-based. This helps businesses to communicate safely with their customers and retain them. Apart from helping businesses, RCS messaging can also be useful for mobile operators to retain their customers. Instead of sending plain text SMS to their customers, operators can send rich communication with capabilities to enable customers to respond to messages. They can use rich templates to create brand recall for customers. Most importantly, they can reduce customer churn by creating an engaging and consistent experience for customers across the entire communication ecosystem the customer uses.

Conclusion

RCS provides many benefits to both businesses and subscribers. The future of RCS messaging looks positive as carriers like AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile are planning to embrace RCS from 2022. Also, considering that SMS is still the most used form of communication in many countries and does not require an app to be downloaded, RCS messages have a scope to reach out to more customers than the new messaging platforms.

However, there are also a few shortcomings, such as both the network and texting apps must support the protocol. Otherwise, the customer might not be able to use RCS across all networks. Also, some regions such as Europe and France are still slow in adopting RCS. The other bottleneck in adoption is that only 8.9% of global mobile networks support RCS messaging.

Unless these challenges are resolved, businesses and operators cannot realize the full potential of RCS. However, operators can partner with trusted solution providers to optimize the usage of RCS messaging and gain a competitive advantage.

To know more, contact us.

As enterprises and individuals both embrace digital transformation, telcos are also being pushed to innovate to meet market and subscriber demands. Value-added offerings that leverage the capabilities of technology solutions like 5G connectivity and A2P SMS for enterprises promise telcos the ability to generate revenue and thrive in a competitive market. For example, Ericsson predicts that telcos will generate additional revenue of $3.7 trillion by 2030 through various 5G-driven options.

However, as telcos get more innovative with their offerings, they have to be careful about opening the doors to new problems. One major concern in that context is the need to prioritize subscribers’ privacy.

Over the last few years, subscribers have become increasingly aware of their right to privacy. Studies have shown that 60% of subscribers are concerned about how their data is used. 47% of them believe that the apps they use gather their data through GPS, microphones, etc. There is a general uneasiness about privacy because of a lack of trust about the intent of businesses that have access to their data. It’s not just about the privacy of course. People are also worried about safety and security as cyber crimes have increased by 600% in 2020 alone.

As technologies get more sophisticated and operations more high-touch, telcos need to find ways to protect the privacy of their subscribers. They need to do this to regain the subscribers’ trust.

Here are some ways to safeguard their privacy.

How Can Telcos Protect The Privacy Of Their Subscribers?

In 2018, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was initiated across the EU to protect people’s privacy. Telcos were also covered under this regulation. This means that telcos were equally responsible for safeguarding the subscribers’ privacy and data.

To safeguard subscribers from data breaches or privacy threats, telcos are implementing solutions such as:

1. Content filtering

A2P SMS has become a popular communication channel for enterprises to reach out to subscribers. However, subscribers have been receiving an overload of SMS. Many of these messages are spam. To ensure that subscribers receive only genuine messages, telcos have started using content filtering options to identify and block spam messages. These filters look for messages with specific keywords or certain types of content, which could be considered spam, and block them before sending them to subscribers. Many countries in large telecom markets have already initiated a process where the messages are scrubbed, standardized, and sent in a specific template to safeguard subscribers from spam messages.

2. SMS firewall

Considering that SMSes are vulnerable to suspicious malware attacks and spams, telcos use SMS firewalls to block illegal SMS traffic. When a message comes to the telecom operator’s network, the firewall immediately scans them for its originator, source, and route. It analyzes the messages and classifies them. The messages are immediately blocked, and the sender is informed if found to be suspicious. Telcos can also set intelligent firewall rules to determine which messages are authorized and unauthorized and also allow or reject SMS traffic accordingly. An SMS firewall protects the subscribers’ privacy and protects the telcos from losing their reputation and revenue over spurious messages.

3. Direct routing

Grey routes have always been a concern for telcos as the messages are sent through unauthorized networks. As there is little control over these unethical routes, telcos stand to lose an estimated $62 billion of their revenue. Also, considering that these SMSes are sent through unethical networks that are inherently subject to less management and oversight, they could pose a privacy threat for subscribers and expose them to vulnerabilities. The solution to this problem is direct routing. Telcos can directly connect with operators in different countries, so the messages are sent directly to the subscribers in that country. Telcos can also set up re-routing or test the routes to ensure that the messages are sent through reliable networks. Telcos can also identify and fix routes that are suspicious to safeguard the data and privacy of subscribers.

Conclusion

Although telcos use sophisticated tools to bring transparency in their solutions, they cannot combat privacy breaches alone. Safeguarding the subscribers’ privacy requires combined efforts from Governments and enterprises too. Governments have started implementing regulations such as GDPR. As for enterprises, they are also developing products that have privacy firmly integrated into all phases of development. Ericsson says that even telcos must implement privacy by design to ensure that security and privacy policies are followed.

Innovative solutions will become a mainstay in the future. Subscribers will widely use technologies like 5G and connected devices. By making privacy a default element, telcos, enterprises, and governments will be able to safeguard the subscribers from vulnerabilities and ensure that they receive the best service and experience. Telcos and enterprises must also work with a trustworthy telecom solutions provider to ensure that their solutions are safe.