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5 Sectors in Africa Seeing a Telecom-Led Transformation

Africa is on the cusp of a significant telecom-led transformation. International telecom and technology companies are leveraging increased investments in the continent to be a part of the coming growth.

To build improved technology and telecommunication services in Sub-Saharan Africa, South Africa-based Solis Investments Group recently announced its strategic partnership with Globe Teleservices.

Backed by a $500 million investment from a US-based development finance corporation, Kenya-based Safaricom is building a new mobile network in Ethiopia.

From 2021, he African Telecom sector is recording significant revenues. Major players like Vodacom, MTN, and Safaricom have reported revenues of up to $6 billion. To facilitate digital payments and transactions, the Central Bank of Nigeria has recently launched its digital currency, eNaira.

Coming back to the technology sector, Liquid Telecom, Africa’s largest Internet and cloud computing company, recently closed a $620 million bond sale. This deal will provide cost-effective broadband fibre connection to over 2.7 million people in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Buoyed by the growth of telecom, let us look at the five most influential industry sectors in Africa.

5 Industry Sectors Influenced by Telecom-Led Transformation

Africa is economically the fastest-growing continent after Asia. The growth of the middle-class community has been a prime driver of economic growth in the region. Adding to that is the sheer dynamism of the emerging technology and startup ecosystem that is pushing the boundaries of innovation. The telecommunication sector stands at the centre of this blooming ecosystem by enabling better mobile phone connectivity across the region.

As compared to a global average of 3%, the mobile phone market in Sub-Saharan Africa is projected to grow by 4.6% by 2025.

Along those lines, here are five industry sectors in Africa that are influenced the most by the Telecom revolution:

1. Banking & Finance

The telecom revolution in Africa is enabling the digitalization of cash and payments and banking across the region’s largely unbanked (or underbanked) population. Mobile Money solutions are exploding and adoption is surging. So much so, that these players are being seen at the forefront of worldwide innovation in the space. Traditional financial services and banking are also changing.

ChiedzaMadzima of Fitch Solutions emphasizes that international investments into resources like bonds and loans in Africa will have a “positive impact” in the long-term future. The invested capital is being utilized towards physical infrastructure, thus improving the bankability of such projects.

U.S-based Africell has secured a $105 million loan facility from Gemcorp. The company will invest a significant part of the acquired capital into building a mobile network in Angola, which is looking to boost its fintech industry sector.

2. Education

Education is another industry sector that communication technology can impact by reducing overall illiteracy rates in Africa. A recent UNESCO report highlighted Sub-Saharan Africa as the region with the highest rate of education exclusion. Over one-fifth of the children between the ages of 6-11 are out of the formal school system.

As more schools closed worldwide (including in Africa) during the pandemic, technology boosted online learning for students in their homes.

Education ministries are now working with telecom operators to avoid charging any data tariffs for online learning websites. For example, South Africa had already implemented a “Zero rating” to provide free access to online learning material.

For inclusive education, the UNESCO report highlighted the following 3-step process:

Identify technology innovations for educational systems with maximum potential.
Test the best innovations with a specific context.
Adapt and scale them for the best results.

3. Mobile Payments

Nearly 60% of online traffic in the African continent comes from mobile phones. Mobile phones are used more for data-based applications like online chats, video content, and online banking than for voice. As mobile usage continues to increase, Africa is witnessing a shift towards mobile-based payments.

A Citi Group research found that three African countries, namely Ghana, Tanzania, and Uganda, are among the ten countries to adopt mobile payments. Egypt and Nigeria, at that time, were two more countries developing their mobile money solutions.

The global pandemic has largely contributed to the emergence of mobile payments in this region. Leading mobile operators are also racing to launch their mobile payment platforms. For instance, Airtel Nigeria CEO Segun Ogunsanya talked about his company’s plans to venture into the mobile money market.

Read More: Why It’s Time for Telecom Companies to Modernize their Tech Strategy.

4. Technology Startups

Thanks to its young workforce, Africa is now the host to many startup companies in the technology space. Technology startup financing is expected to reach a value of $90 billion by 2030. The tech revolution is Africa’s response to mounting challenges like inequalities, climate change, food production, education, and healthcare.

However, tech entrepreneurs & investors continue to face structural reform barriers within Africa. This includes a fragmented market of over 54 countries, complex government regulations, and a lack of digital skills. But industry leaders need a simplified regulatory framework to ensure compliance, which can boost the startup environment. As a result, to boost its digital transformation, African governments must work together to connect their economies.

5. Cryptocurrencies

In addition to mobile payments and startups, Africa’s younger population is driving the growth of digital currencies or cryptocurrencies. As compared to other developing economies, cryptocurrency is still at a nascent stage in Africa. However, a Foresight Africa report states that Africa is the third-fastest growing market for cryptocurrencies.

Similarly, the 2021 Geography of Cryptocurrency report states that cryptocurrency asset volume grew by $105.6 billion in Africa between July 2020 to June 2021. That represents a percentage increase of 1200%.

Going ahead, cryptocurrencies can play a pivotal role in foreign remittances and banking services. Remittance inflows represent the “lifeline” for many poor African families. However, remittance fees are among the highest in Africa. Cryptocurrencies can potentially benefit Africans by eliminating any intermediaries.

Conclusion

According to a UN prediction, over 50% of the global population growth by 2050 will happen in Africa. As a result, the development of the telecom sector will assuredly boost foreign investments and enable the continent to achieve digital transformation.

With its global presence, Globe Teleservices provides hassle-free and cost-efficient solutions for its Telecom customers. We help in developing a range of mobility solutions and cloud services.

Moreover, we can help you pursue your digital transformation journey. Get in touch with us today.

The Must-Have Features of a Modern SMS Firewall

Across industries, SMS marketing is eventually outpacing several other mediums to become the most trusted customer communication channel worldwide. That’s why enterprises are increasingly relying on SMS firewall solutions to bolster their marketing abilities allowing them to bring in leads through messaging.

However, the dilemma for leaders lies in selecting the right SMS firewall system. Most leaders are unaware of the features they must evaluate before investing in an SMS firewall system.

To make it easier, this article looks at the top 5 features that a modern SMS firewall must guarantee to help enterprises succeed in their SMS-driven customer approaches.

Proactive Security

The number one feature that an SMS firewall must have today is proactive security analysis and threat mitigation in the SMS traffic an organization handles daily. From common spam texts to intelligent text phishing or fraudulent routing, the landscape of threats that today’s businesses face with their SMS ecosystem is enormous. For an SMS firewall system, they must ensure a safe and spam-free environment for both end-users as well as mobile operators.

In the past, the security of SMS firewall systems had to be managed manually, which necessitated the hiring of dedicated security engineers to cater to SMS traffic alone. Today, however, there are AI and ML-powered SMS firewall solutions, like the Armour SMS Firewall, that offer 360-degree network protection for SMS traffic to and from an organization. This helps prevent fraud and stop revenue leakage, ultimately contributing to rising profitability.

Global Connectivity

Modern SMS firewalls must not be restricted in usage support for local markets. Businesses with ambitious expansion plans internationally will find globally supported SMS firewall solutions to be a core asset in their market penetration efforts. SMS is a trusted communication medium for most consumers, offering brands an opportunity to expand into new markets through seamless SMS marketing campaigns.

An SMS firewall provides a critical digital environment and assets to ensure that the end-user gets the right message at the right time — thus, leading to better conversions.

Better A2P Monetization

It is estimated that the global market for A2P messaging will exceed USD 72.8 billion by 2025. Several new internet-driven businesses are increasingly leveraging A2P as an additional or even their primary revenue channel.

An SMS firewall must be able to offer uninterrupted support and adaptability to new business models that leverage the underlying A2P messaging service. From seamless integration with multiple systems involved in completing the revenue cycle to enabling efficient reporting, the areas of interest are immense.

Flexible Rules Engine

Consumers flock to new devices running different operating systems every now and then. It is impossible for businesses to smoothly manage their SMS marketing initiatives that are heavily dependent on end-user device characteristics.

An SMS firewall should work independently and offer flexibility in rule customization, new policy implementation, and device-agnostic SMS traffic management. Avoid delays in software or hardware updates on end-user devices to stay ahead of the competition. Moreover, the SMS firewall must support all standard rules and best practices that have been proven to be effective in SMS-driven marketing worldwide.

Ease of Use

Features offered by a modern SMS firewall become irrelevant if the user isn’t able to leverage it easily to drive campaigns. The usability of the SMS firewall system is a huge factor that should be evaluated before investing.

Since an SMS firewall forms a critical part of marketing, businesses should integrate the SMS firewall system into their strategies. Once done, they can deploy new configurations on the go from easy-to-use dashboards rather than manual and obsolete interfaces.

The Bottom Line

Protecting subscribers and telecom operators from fraud while enabling better revenue potential in existing channels are perhaps the two most important features from the list we have discussed today. Nevertheless, enterprises must strive towards investing in solutions that offer as many of these top five features as possible.

Alternatively, you can check out our Armour SMS Firewall, designed and developed for future-ready SMS-driven customer outreach experiences for businesses in any sector. Talk to us to learn more.

Blockchain – A Solution to Prevent Telecom Fraud

Revenue sharing fraud, PBX hacking, account takeover, bypass fraud, traffic pumping, subscription fraud – the types of fraud affecting the telecom sector are growing in number. In 2021 alone, telcos lost 2.22% or $39.89 billion of their revenue due to fraud.

Imagine having to deal with all of these frauds in addition to installing new equipment, expanding networks, and ensuring consistent service. Truly, running and managing a telecom business is not a walk in the park. But the right technologies in place can surely turn the tables on the fraudsters.

Fraud in Telecom – A Growing Deterrent

Fraud in telecom is probably as old as the industry itself. For many years, operators and providers just accepted the reality, either absorbing the losses caused by fraud or simply passing them on downstream. However, the occurrence and complexity of fraud are escalating day by day.

More than ever, unauthorized people are taking advantage of telecommunications companies using a variety of fraudulent practices conducted via:

Interconnect bypass that takes advantage of termination rate complexity to make cheaper phone calls
Revenue sharing by misleading users to make calls and pay for premium phone rates
Arbitrage by incorrectly routing international long-distance calls through a third country where call costs are cheaper
PBX hacking – Allowing impostors to exploit unsecured phone networks and take control of phone lines
Subscriptions and online store hacking using stolen IDs or credit card numbers
Traffic pumping, where deceitful local exchanges falsely state the number of calls to their networks to benefit from compensation fees
Account takeover, where online hackers steal user login credentials to create new accounts
SMS phishing to obtain personal information and use it to fake identity or steal money

The Role Blockchain Can Play

As one of the most transformative and widely-discussed technology trends of all time, blockchain carries the potential to completely disrupt the telecom sector. By encrypting data, increasing transparency, and establishing accurate identities, blockchain can boost IoT connectivity, streamline 5G services, and prevent telecom fraud.

As the impact of fraud begins to get out of hand, telecom operators are inclined to face unique fraud challenges – head-on.

Let’s look at the many opportunities blockchain offers for telecom operators looking to combat growing instances of fraud:

Ensure Subscriber Authentication and Tracking

In the telecom industry, there are many ways in which a subscriber’s identity can be compromised. Blockchain technology allows operators to link devices to a subscriber’s identity, carry out regular authentication via public keys, and encrypt digital wallets for safe payments. Such secure authentication helps build a clear picture of stakeholders, ensuring smooth and secure experiences for users.

Thwart Roaming Fraud

Detecting and responding to roaming fraud hasn’t been easy for telecom operators until now. Blockchain technology allows operators to implement a smart roaming agreement with designated nodes to constantly verify transactions broadcasted on the network. Every time an event is triggered, it verifies the information and accordingly executes the terms of the agreement.

Enable Real-Time Consent Management

Blockchain-enabled RegTech platforms that use DLT technology can enable real-time consent management. It thwarts Unsolicited Commercial Communication (UCC) across messaging networks, defends unsuspecting, and enables operators to efficiently deal with fraudulent calls on the rise.

Establish Accountability with Regulators

Telecom operators can use blockchain technology to establish much-needed accountability with regulators. Using a unified platform, telecom clients and telemarketers can register all stakeholders and connect with regulators to streamline communication and responsibilities.

Identify Telemarketers

With users inundated with numerous spam calls and messages each day, blockchain can help in the identification of telemarketing calls and get rid of them altogether. It allows telecom operators to verify and shortlist subscribers who have opted for such calls while preventing unauthorized calls.

Efficiently Deal with Stolen Devices

Telecom operators can store unique device or SIM data along with the customer profile in secure ledgers and instantly block stolen devices in the event of a theft. Since a single blockchain network will contain immutable information about all stolen devices, telecom operators around the world will more easily be able to find them.

Summing Up

As the telecom industry grapples with mounting incidents of fraud, blockchain offers the potential to nip fraud in the bud. It provides numerous telecom fraud solutions, including subscriber authentication, roaming fraud prevention, real-time consent management, regulatory accountability, telemarketer identification, and stolen device management.

With fraudsters becoming more and more adept at evading identification, blockchain technology reduces the likelihood and scale of attacks. It helps businesses vet and filter out stolen credentials, secure transactions, and protect business revenue.

At Globe Teleservices and our group company, GTS Tech Labs, we help telecom companies build the blockchain solution they need to keep the business running and the revenue flowing. As an innovative, forward-thinking organization that makes cutting-edge telecommunication products and solutions, we are committed to helping you deal with telecom fraud – without disrupting the customer experience.

The Security Imperative for Telcos Providing Enterprise Solutions

In the pursuit of digital transformation, there is a growing industry demand for enterprise solutions and services from the telecom sector. In the “new” post-COVID economy, existing enterprise solutions do not meet the changing market demands. And mobile apps like Facetime enable innovative communication capabilities, thus impacting the “traditional” telecom industry.

Hence, we are seeing more telecom companies offering enterprise solutions in the form of managed services, storage solutions, and small business services. The latest reports estimate that the telecom enterprise services market is expected to reach $237 billion by 2025.

With the continuous growth of 5G services and IoT connectivity, the telecom infrastructure and services could be targeted by hackers. A successful breach can seriously impact internet connectivity and compromise sensitive information.

In the face of cybersecurity challenges, communication service providers (CSPs) are looking at security-related services as an opportunity for revenue growth. In fact, for CSPs, the revenue for security services grew by a healthy 20% in 2020.

That being so, what are the major security challenges that telecom companies must address, and how? Let’s discuss.

Security Challenges in the Telecom Sector

For major economies, the telecom sector is often the “gateway” for cyberattacks. The growing use of telecom networks and sensitive information is highly attractive to cybercriminals. As online threats grow more complex, the telecom industry must develop higher resiliency against external and internal threats.

Here are some of the leading security challenges in the telecom industry:

1. IoT Security Threats

With over 16 billion connected devices, Internet-of-Things (IoT) networks create more entry points for smart hackers. According to recent reports, security cameras in home networks are the most vulnerable IoT devices, followed by smart hubs like Amazon Alexa.

2. Insider Threats

In the post-pandemic environment, a good portion of the organizational workforce is operating from remote locations. This has increased the number of unsecured networks. The challenge is that most employees are unable to detect insider threats.

Additionally, most user applications do not implement security measures like data encryption. Cloud-powered authentication (including biometric security) can protect user data from insider threats.

3. External Cyberattacks

Cyberattacks like DDoS and DNS attacks continue to grow each year. In 2018, telecom companies were the target of nearly 65% of DDoS attacks. Going by global estimates, DNS attacks exposed 79% of business enterprises in 2020. Additionally, reports state that the telecommunication sector was the most targeted industry for DDoS attacks in the first half of 2021. Recent ransomware incidents have been large and wide ranging in scope.

Telecom companies continue to use dated network protocols like SS7 (Signalling system 7), which make their networks vulnerable to external cyberattacks. The good part is that the majority of telecom companies have implemented security measures for SS7 attacks.

Besides these security challenges, telecom companies must address third-party risks arising from external parties like vendors, partners, hosting companies, and contractors. Attackers can access telecom infrastructures using third-party tools as the “backdoor.”

How can Telecom companies meet these security expectations? Let’s discuss it next.

How Telecom Companies Can Meet Security-Related Expectations

With millions of global customers, the telecom industry is probably the largest collector of customer data, including financial and personal information. Additionally, telecom companies are required to protect sensitive data under various regulations like GDPR (in the EU) and APPI (in Japan). Any compliance failure can result in heavy penalties and loss of business trust.

To fulfil their increasing security-related expectations, telecom companies can consider the following actions:

Protecting Sensitive Data

As discussed previously, the human factor is responsible for most of the insider threats. Using data loss prevention (DLP) solutions, telecom companies can limit human involvement and damage. Effectively, DLP solutions directly protect sensitive data. These solutions can monitor files with sensitive information and limit any data transfer.

Cross-Platform Security

Security solutions mostly focus on a particular operating system or platform. However, the reality is that any IT infrastructure in any telecom company comprises a mix of operating systems and platforms.

Cross-platform security solutions provide all-around protection across multiple operating systems and platforms. With cross-platform security, telecom companies can protect sensitive data stored in all IT environments.

Additionally, telecom service providers can implement a holistic approach to security across the following four key areas:

Telecom standardization process consists of secure protocols, storage, and algorithms.
Product development process includes securing the hardware & software components, development process, software updates, and version control.
Deployment process includes a secure network design, security parameter configuration, and hardening measures.
Operations process consists of securing operational procedures and monitoring the security performance, vulnerabilities, and external attacks.

Conclusion

As more telecom companies provide enterprise solutions, they must integrate the security aspect. However, there is no quick fix to safeguard applications and sensitive data from external threats. Telecom companies must go beyond basic measures like firewalls and anti-malware tools to address their security needs.

At Globe Teleservices, we are partnering with a host of telecom companies and empowering them to meet their security requirements.

We can help you achieve optimum efficiency. Reach out to us with your business needs.

How the Evolving Threat Scenario Has Made MFA Necessary

The focus on security is rising as businesses digitally transform, the world of work globally evolves, and collaboration across borders proliferates to drive innovation.

Business employees today are no longer operating on their networks when accessing data or applications. Therefore, there’s a growing concern about data breaches and ransomware — mandating data and privacy compliance regulations to standardize robust security policies.

To that end, enabling Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) has become non-negotiable to increase protection against cyber-attacks, phishing, data breaches, etc.

The ABC of MFA

The digital landscape encourages consumers to use the web and mobile applications to access various services. Businesses, as such, are at a greater liability to store data securely and ensure that cybercriminals don’t exploit user login to gain entry into critical systems.

Regrettably, password or username-based authentication is now unreliable and unwieldy. Such authentication systems make it difficult for users to remember and manage passwords across multiple accounts — precisely why they start repeating them.

Passwords lacking complexity further weaken security and make it easy for malicious elements to acquire data and information using malware, hacking, and phishing. Mobile number frauds, for example, can have devastating effects. Scammers can access bank accounts, social media, emails, and more, causing havoc. As more enterprise users employ mobile and personal devices, the data across enterprise networks needs to be secured.

Therefore, MFA authentication becomes essential as a part of a security strategy since it employs multiple methods to affirm identity and authority. For businesses offering telecom services, including virtual networks of any size, implementing MFA assures data and information security.

Phone-based authentication has become predominant since the rise of smartphones, and as such, global lawmakers are treating MFA more like a necessity. Australia, for example, is looking at making MFA mandatory for telcos. In Australia, number porting now needs mobile companies to verify users and subscribers in several different ways to identify fraud and discourage fraudsters who scam mobile phone users.

Two-factor authentication is one of the most common forms of MFA. While 2-FA is better than simple passwords, telcos now also need to enable hardware and software authentication tokens generated with a mobile app. For this, telecom operators have to ensure that they are employing a platform that allows them to enable MFA easily while giving them proactive insights into any anomaly that could signal a potential breach.

Employing an MFA platform that helps users and future-proofs businesses is emerging as a strategic priority — this explains its soaring market value (at over 10% CAGR).

However, this platform must deliver comprehensive services that enable end-to-end multi-factor authentication. This includes token generation, token delivery, and token authentication.

Deliver a Multi-Layered Protection Framework

The MFA platform has to deliver a multi-layered protection framework that verifies the user and identifies the transaction identities of the user.

It must also employ a zero-trust framework since the security perimeters have now blurred with rising smartphone proliferation. A zero-trust framework enables agility, visibility, and greater control and makes it easier to improve the security stand by helping businesses stay ahead of the threats curve.

Enable Token-Based Authentication

MFA platforms must allow businesses to enable token-based authentication and simplify the authentication process. Token-based authentication sends a request to the server employing a username and a password. The server validates this input based on the values registered in the credential database. Once confirmed, the server responds with a token.

An MFA platform must allow businesses to generate time-based tokens to prevent misuse. Besides, it is essential for the token length and expiry time to be configurable according to the needs of the business.

Allow Multi-Channel Token Delivery

Token delivery has to be reliable, scalable, and secure. The MFA platform thus has to employ a robust token delivery system that uses multiple channels such as SMS, Flash Calls, data Voice, email, Push Notification, and operator verification.

Enabling concurrent delivery of OTPs on two or more channels further increases security and impedes malicious efforts.

Identify Anomalies and Offer Intelligent Insights

MFA platforms have to employ new-age technologies like AI and ML to proactively identify anomalous behavior on the network. These technologies can also be used to identify changes or drifts in customer behavior to make security more proactive.

The platform should also offer clear and detailed, data-backed insights. Identifying the preferred and most cost-effective channel for OTP messages and gaining insights into a delivery percentage, average cost saved, and top 5 error codes of failure on SMS, Voice, Flash Call, and Email become essential to improve security and cost efficiencies.

Moreover, such platforms must ensure that they enhance user experience over the authentication journey. This includes having mechanisms that allow Mobile Out of Coverage messages and information on failed past transactions over the selected channel.

In case of an undelivered OTP or if an OTP input doesn’t happen in time over a specific channel, the platform should have a CTA that tries out other OTP channels, such as Flash Call or Voice dial-in.

In a Nutshell

As an enterprise’s financial and social transactions move online, telcos and many other industries must look at their authentication systems and evaluate if they can navigate the evolving threat landscape.

Operating systems, service providers, and account-based platforms need MFA. As such, experience in navigating the requirements and exceptions becomes essential.

We can help with that. Reach out to us today to explore more.

Building Relationships with Customers Across Channels

Most companies understand that customer satisfaction is key to long-term sustainability and growth. But delighting customers in today’s digital era requires you to constantly seek their feedback and learn how you can further enhance the experiences they have across channels and touchpoints. Read on as we discuss how you can build customer relationships across channels.

The Growth of Omnichannel Communication

Offering a compelling omnichannel experience was once a competitive differentiator for brands. Today, it has become a mandate for survival. The main driver for this has been the sudden and widespread growth of the e-commerce industry, with the global market expected to total $5.55 trillion in 2022.

As more and more customers across the world use a variety of channels, such as websites and mobile apps (even brick-and-mortar stores and shops), they expect brands to offer seamless communication experiences across each of these channels.

Successful omnichannel communication requires organizations to map individual customer journeys by determining the channels they use, the touchpoints they engage with and the experiences they encounter. And then, they need to create a seamless experience that allows customers to flow from one channel to another seamlessly. But this entails redefining the way brands communicate with their customers.

The Challenges of Building Sustained and Consistent Customer Relationships

Although omnichannel communication is a critical component of business success, the challenges of building sustained and consistent customer relationships are many:

Getting a single view of customers: As businesses get increasingly global, customers are spread across different regions and territories. This causes a big challenge for organizations as they cannot get a single view of customers across different locations and channels – mainly because different teams use different systems and approaches for customer communication.
Quickly responding to customer requests: Today’s customers expect organizations to respond to their requests/demands in real-time and resolve their issues within a few hours. But with customers using different devices and channels, ensuring each customer is attended to via a channel and in a language they’re most comfortable with isn’t easy.
Integrating interaction data from different sources: Combining different interaction channels and converting them to one holistic customer journey requires combining data from diverse sources. More often than not, the data formats are as varied as the number of channels and stored in siloed systems that poorly integrate with other systems.
Delivering seamless journeys: Offering an omnichannel customer experience that seamlessly weaves through different interaction channels is another hurdle that organizations have to cross to boost customer response rates. Brands must be available across different devices and platforms to ensure the different touchpoints are connected, so customers can advance through the entire customer journey without interruptions, dropping off or picking up from anywhere, at any time, and on any device.

How an Intelligent Omnichannel Solution Can Change That

An intelligent omnichannel solution can help organizations understand customer needs and take steps to improve customer experience. Investing in such a solution can allow companies to reduce the cost-to-service, limit churn, and increase customer value.

Using comprehensive analytics, a modern platform can collect insights that matter the most in the customer journey and empower organizations to act on these insights and improve the products, services, and experiences they offer customers. Here’s how:

Reach customers across channels: An intelligent omnichannel solution can measure customer experience across channels, including website, POS, email, mobile app, and more. It can pick up conversations from one channel and continue them across others, delivering a seamless omnichannel experience to customers across various touchpoints.
Get in-depth actionable insights: Using an advanced solution, enterprises can unearth actionable insights and capture real-time customer emotions. Modern and intuitive dashboards can provide necessary insights into customer concerns and needs while presenting ideas and suggestions to improve customer experience.
Respond in real-time: A modern solution can enable enterprises to respond to customers in real-time. The minute a customer interacts at a touchpoint, they can converse with them in their preferred language to boost satisfaction and response rate. Since a modern solution uses an interactive conversational UI, companies can reduce drop-offs and maintain their CSAT scores.
Measure customer feedback:Via Net Promoter Score (NPS), Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT), and Customer Effort Score (CES), an intelligent omnichannel solution can aid in measuring customer satisfaction, evaluating the likelihood of customers recommending the brand, determining the level of customer service quality, and more.
Resolve customer queries quickly:A unified communication solution can help categorize, assign and track issues and take them to closure. Via an integrated action module, enterprises can respond to customer queries instantly and resolve them with the expected speed and quality.

Conclusion

Organizations need to provide seamless and consistent experiences across all communication channels to convert customers into die-hard brand advocates. So, it’s only natural to invest in an intelligent omnichannel solution to reach customers across channels, get in-depth, actionable insights, respond to them in real time, and measure customer feedback to improve their overall experience. Let us show you how telecom brands around the world have enabled new opportunities by tapping the omnichannel needs of their customers and users.

The various aspects a call anti-fraud solution must cover

Security breaches and fraud are not new in the telecom industry. As technology gets sophisticated, hackers and fraudsters too get smarter. They are on the constant lookout for vulnerabilities and are relentless in testing firewalls for cracks and weaknesses. Scammers and fraudsters attack, take their profits, and leave before they can be stopped.

In 2021, total global telecom revenues stood at approximately USD 1.8 Trillion. But the amount of telecom revenue loss due to fraud stood at $39.89 Billion. Fraud losses increased by 28% or approximately USD 11.6 Billion between 2019 and 2021.

Voice fraud is one of the top inter-carrier fraud cases. Voice fraud burdens subscribers with huge bills and affects MNOs and their residential and commercial subscribers. Some of the common types of voice fraud are IRSF (International Revenue Share Fraud), False Answer Supervision (FAS), Number Hijacking, Interconnect bypass, and Roaming Fraud. Call Forwarding Fraud, Wangiri fraud (a Japanese term for one (ring) and cut), SIM Box fraud, and PBX hacking are some of the other kinds of voice fraud that are making the chamber of horrors for telecom operators.

IRSF (International Revenue Share Fraud)

IRSF fraud assumes a backdoor revenue-sharing agreement between an IPRS or a communications provider. The fraudster manipulates the telephone service and receives compensation for the traffic. IRSF fraud generates anything between $4 and $6.1 billion in damages.

Standard monitoring solutions fail to identify this kind of fraud easily as it is very hard to sift through large volumes of daily traffic to identify anomalies.

False Answer Supervision (FAS)

False Answer Supervision (FAS) can be of two types. The first kind is the Early Answer fraud where a call connection takes place before the subscriber answers the phone. The second kind is the Late Disconnect fraud where the call remains active and the billing clocks even after the subscriber hangs up.

Number hijacking is also another kind of FAS fraud. Here the fraudulent operator keeps the customer waiting for the connections for as long as possible or until the maximum call timer runs out.

Interconnect bypass or SIM Boxing

Interconnect bypass fraud allows fraudulent operators to profit from the spread between low retail prices for on-net and off-net calls and higher international interconnect rates. This fraud enables the unauthorized insertion of traffic onto another carrier’s network. It is also called SIM Boxing.

The fraudulent party replaces the expensive international interconnect with a cheaper, practically free, routing channel and pinches the difference.

Wangari Fraud

Wangari fraud is a call-back scam. Wangari is a Japanese term that means one ring and cut. The fraudsters give a missed call to unsuspecting subscribers to call back to fraudulent premium numbers. CSPs incur direct and indirect losses because of Wangari fraud.

However, the lack of timely threat intelligence and the lack of a platform to exchange data in real-time impede operator capabilities to identify Wangari Fraud proactively.

PBX hacking

PBX and VoIP hacking is when fraudsters hack into telecom networks and pump up significant traffic levels for an IPRS. PBX hacking is a common and well-known form of telecom fraud and can lead to enormous revenue losses. According to the Communications Fraud Control Association (CFCA), in 2019 PBX hacking was the number 1 telecom fraud method, causing a global fraud loss of $3.64 billion.

CDR-based anti-fraud systems cannot break active calls and hence are not well-suited to prevent PBX hacking. They also perform poorly with traffic disguised with statistical patterns. PBX attacks can last for hours and go undetected in the absence of the right anti-fraud systems.

Grey Calls

Grey routes have been giving telecom operators sleepless nights for decades. Grey calling routes bypass licensed carriers by terminating international calls onto domestic telecom networks using unlicensed and illegal telecom setups.

The illegal operators host their equipment at places where their calls can reach multiple cell sites for the calls to get widely dispersed. They also employ multiple SIM boxes, rotate SIM cards, manipulate calling patterns, etc. to outfox traditional fraud detection systems.

SIM Box fraud is illegal since the operators running these setups do not have the required government licenses. These networks not only lead to huge revenue losses but can also impact national security because these routes can be easily exploited by terrorists and anti-national elements.

The solution

Traditional fraud detection systems often do not provide the depth of scanning needed to combat the growing sophistication of telecom hackers and fraudulent agents. Telcos now need to be able to proactively prevent potential fraud by developing their capability to identify suspicious inbound and outbound traffic streams based on behavioural patterns and anomalous traffic.

Fraud detection systems that use technologies such as AI and ML make the telecom security perimeter more airtight. AI-ML-powered detection systems help detect fraud calls in real-time based on various parameters.

Parameters such as behavioural analysis (from a single Calling Line Identification), call volume, the time gap between two calls, number length, adjacent number checking, call distribution working and after working hours, and the number of unique destination numbers in a given period and consecutive attempt gap of a failed call attempt are some such areas to configure.

The right anti-fraud solution leverages machine learning algorithms for faster and proactive anomaly detection and navigating challenges like Interconnect bypass or SIM Boxing.

These solutions protect the subscribers from fraud, quality fluctuation, and surprise bills and can be fully configurable to meet specific business needs. AI and Machine Learning algorithms make proactive and continuous scanning of traffic routes possible and easily point to anomalous traffic.

In Conclusion

Voice fraud has been and shall continue to remain a lucrative criminal activity. As technologies advance, so does hacker and fraudster sophistication. A comprehensive anti-fraud detection system thus emerges as a critical investment to secure networks and revenue. By strengthening the security perimeter and establishing powerful firewalls driven by AI and ML, telecom providers can minimize fraud risks and prevent revenue and reputation leaks. Talk to us to see how to win against the fraudsters.

Business Messaging – Trends, Threats, and Opportunities

The world of business messaging has come a long way. With positive customer experiences known to increase customer spending by up to 140%, organizations are looking to put customers at the centre of their communications strategy and build longer and stronger relationships. But to successfully do this, they need to move away from standard content and deliver push messages and targeted campaigns that are more aligned with customer expectations.

At the recently concluded MEF Summit “Future of Mobile”, experts from around the world provided several insights into the future of messaging. Read on to learn all about the latest trends, threats, and opportunities in the world of business messaging.

Trends

The future of business messaging isn’t about adopting a one-size-fits-all strategy to communicate and interact with customers. It is about contacting the right ones at the right time with messages that address their specific needs.

By reaching out and engaging with customers over their preferred messaging channels for marketing, sales, and customer support, enterprises can enable easy and convenient conversations and pave the way for great customer experiences.

Let’s look at the top three trends that are going to shape the realm of business messaging in 2022 and beyond:

Metaverse communication: The many discussions (and excitement) around the Metaverse surge have proven time and again that business messaging is set to shape its ongoing evolution. As users begin to shift to a digital and 3D version of themselves, consistent and convenient business messaging will play a critical role in the end-user experience. Right from speech-to-text conversions to communication via virtual keyboards: the opportunities for companies to enable messaging in the virtual world will be aplenty.
Omnichannel messaging: Companies looking to capitalize on the wave of transformation will have to move from plain-Jane SMS strategies to omnichannel messaging. Right from voice and video to other types of rich mobile content; brands will have to engage in conversational messaging – and not just one-way communication to drive meaningful engagement. For example, for customers who have just placed an online order, it would pay to build customer trust by providing real-time updates on the delivery status and wait times while also allowing them to connect with a live agent on demand.
Rich and personalized experiences: Good customer experiences are key to influencing brand loyalty; according to a study, 73% of customers agree that customer experience helps to drive their buying decision. Therefore, to make a difference, companies will have to move away from boring text to rich media, transform how they connect with customers and provide experiences that deliver value. Instead of just sending random messages and campaign content on a bunch of channels, companies will need to talk to customers on channels they are most comfortable with and on which they want to be spoken to. They will need to leverage context history to deliver content, recommendations, and campaigns that are tailored to make every engagement more meaningful.

Threats

Owning, sustaining, and managing a complex relationship with customers is not without its set of challenges. Let’s look at the top challenges companies have to contend with while making the most of all the innovations in the realm of business messaging:

Authentication: As organizations move towards personalized and rich forms of business messaging, authentication will remain one of the biggest challenges to overcome. With cases of money laundering, network infiltration, trolling, IPR theft, and sharing of misinformation surging, companies will have to look beyond SMS authentication and invest in advanced authentication and authorization tools that ensure only authorized people have access to business or customer data.
Identity: With business communication getting increasingly digitized, organizations face a tough time in identifying genuine people and managing relationships with them. Verifying digital identities on the web and validating 3D avatars in the Metaverse requires organizations to invest in modern identity verification technologies to tie each digital identity to a physical human being while meeting a sundry list of emerging privacy requirements.
Security: Security is yet another challenge facing the realm of business messaging. In the digital world, the probability and ease of stolen identities are immense, organizations need to establish strict security strategies and put effective controls in place that protect not only the physical identities of people but also their digital ones.

Opportunities

Allowing customers to reach out to businesses through their preferred channels, giving them the freedom to respond at their own pace, and being available 24×7 are just some of the steps businesses can take to increase customer satisfaction and loyalty. If you want to move away from one-way, static SMS communication toward omnichannel rich messaging, here are opportunities you need to capitalize on:

Leverage practical tools across the mobile value chain to deliver a seamless and secure messaging experience
Raise awareness of issues around trust in mobile products and services within the ecosystem for stakeholders to take necessary steps
Establish industry best practices across your enterprises across omnichannel messaging, personalization, security, and authentication
Create a more transparent, innovative, and fraud-free market to boost business revenue while improving the trust customers have in your business

The doors rich business messaging opens for organizations big and small are many. Unfortunately, many haven’t tapped into this massive enterprise messaging opportunity. With customer-focused companies known to increase their revenue 1.4x faster than non-customer-focused companies and with businesses that prioritize customer experiences enjoying a revenue increase of 4-8% higher than their competitors, to bring conversations to wherever the customer is, you need to evolve toward a more sophisticated and tech-oriented way of sending messages to customers and create connections that count.

Reach out to us to know how you can successfully embrace the latest trends, thwart evolving threats, and capitalize on the many opportunities.

Do telecom companies have a customer experience problem

Telecom companies are facing a deluge of modern-day challenges: right from intense competition to the inability of their legacy infrastructure to keep up with the pace of disruption. While these challenges certainly impact the overall bottom line; another realm of the business that is constantly affected is customer experience.

With high-speed and high-quality communication services becoming a basic requirement – both in personal and professional spheres – telcos are increasingly finding it difficult to drive seamless customer experiences.

The CX challenges plaguing the telecom industry

The telecommunications industry has, traditionally, operated in a siloed manner, focusing only on a standard set of processes and technologies. But in today’s digital era, as new trends constantly enter the market, this must change. Telcos have to make substantial progress toward augmenting their network capacity to meet the constant demand for higher-speed networks. But this is easier said than done.

In 2022, and beyond, the industry will be confronted with new challenges (and opportunities) presented primarily by:

The dynamic regulatory and legislative environment that demands stringent regulations to be met
The constant emergence of new technological innovations like IoT, 5G, and edge that have to be embraced to drive value
An evolving competitive environment https://www.globeteleservices.com/iot-in-the-age-of-5g-opportunities-and-threats/where new-age, digitally-savvy players are mushrooming at an accelerated pace
The huge list of options consumers have in purchasing and consuming high-quality communication and internet services from wireless and satellite providers
The presence of siloed and rigid legacy systems that are not only difficult to operate but also difficult to manage, maintain, and integrate
The growing instances of mobile and cybersecurity attacks that require a thorough and detailed reassessment of security and risk management practices

These challenges directly (or indirectly) impact telcos’ ability to deliver an omnichannel customer experience – regardless of the device, network, or geography. At the same time, manual ways of operating the business and the over-reliance on proprietary systems make forecasting customer needs and delivering personalized services across the customer lifecycle a perennial challenge.

Solutions to focus on

As the digital age demands instant service gratification, consumers have extremely high expectations. Although customer service has always been critical to building and maintaining a competitive edge in the extremely crowded telecom market, with new norms and new economic conditions coming into play, the only way to sustain customer satisfaction and reduce churn is by meeting these expectations.

In today’s post-pandemic era, winning customer trust and loyalty is a totally different ball game, and depends entirely on the quality of service and level of satisfaction. As the pandemic accelerates the adoption of digital channels, seamless customer experiences have become vital. This is especially true as people work from their homes and require reliable service and support 24×7. At the same time, with autonomous vehicles, smart factories, and remote energy grids requiring top-notch, high-bandwidth communication services, it is time for telcos to move from being reactive to proactive. They must make sense of the billions of data points – to meet customer expectations of easy, fast, and first-time-right services.

Right from personalized offerings to efficient device management, quick customer service turnaround to high bandwidth connections – delivering unmatched customer experiences requires telcos to focus on the right solutions and platforms. Here are some tips:

Build a robust customer experience strategy: The first step in delivering seamless customer experiences is by building a robust customer experience strategy that takes into account consumption patterns. Understanding how consumers engage with telecom providers and how they consume services can help in charting out a plan for how and where they should be engaged for maximum satisfaction.
Invest in a modern customer data platform: Investing in a modern customer data platform that brings offline and online data from different sources into a unified location can aid in meeting telecom service expectations. Since all customer data is easily accessible, telcos can have a single and updated view of the customer journey and curate solutions and bundles that best meet their needs and preferences.
Enable seamless customer journeys: Constantly collecting customer data across the lifecycle and analysing it to offer the best products that match unique preferences is a great way to enable seamless customer journey experiences. Using this data, telcos can engage with customers in the most personalized manner and deliver services that are modern, relevant, and up-to-date.
Leverage AI innovations: Modern AI-based systems offer capabilities that can be leveraged to further optimize customer experiences. By measuring emotional and behavioural customer responses to product experiences, these systems can aid in turning emotions into actionable insights that can then be used by telcos to solve problems and drive better results.

In today’s digital era, it is not the number or variety of telecom services offered that matter; customer experience is gradually becoming the only competitive differentiator – as the demand for high-quality, high-speed internet connections surges. As telcos look to disrupt the extremely competitive marketplace, providing an exceptional customer experience across a variety of systems and customer touchpoints is a top business priority.

To deliver superior telecom customer experiences that aid in the consumption of more services, telcos must invest in the right solutions and platforms. This will not only help them in delivering services quickly but also in cross-selling and upselling new services – as and when they are launched. They can adjust to new trends, keep up with the pace of the competition, and continue to serve customers with the same speed and efficiency.

Why it’s Time for Telecom Companies to Modernize their Tech Strategy

Telecom companies have come a long way from the days when they provided basic telephony services. This sector is now a ~$1.5 trillion market that makes all communication possible. This sector is now providing internet services, mobile enablement, and network services and fulfilling the soaring demand for digital services. As customer demands evolve, this sector has to evolve and embrace new technologies too. It must modernize its tech strategy to leverage the multiple opportunities in the market and improve profitability while innovating to deliver greater value to consumers and businesses.

Telecom companies have identified the need for digital transformation to drive competitiveness in today’s complex business environment. However, legacy technology is severely impeding their capacity to pursue a digital-centric future with 70% of telcos struggling to integrate digital channels while others express concern over data security, short-term profit loss, and poor customer experience.

Updating legacy technology makes sense because telcos now must:

Leverage new, cutting-edge technologies to drive competitive differentiation

Giving legacy technology an overhaul is essential to drive competitive differentiation in a cut-throat business environment. Technologies such as AI, M2M, and big data have the potential to disrupt the telecom landscape and enable those operating in this space to improve their business opportunities, increase their customer base, and improve brand recognition opportunities in the face of rising competition from OTT platforms.

While a complete overhaul of the legacy systems might seem improbable at first, building a strategy that enables the gradual adoption of these technologies through applications and processes is a good starting point.

Identify new revenue streams

Increasing competitiveness demands telecom providers proactively identify and capitalize on new revenue streams. At the same time, it is equally important to identify and plug revenue leaks. Legacy technologies and systems are usually siloed and fail to provide a comprehensive 365-degree view of all revenue interactions.

Modern-day technology applications come to the rescue here and provide comprehensive, data-backed insights into performance, areas of improvement, and new revenue streams. This becomes essential since MVNOs are facing stiff competition not only amongst themselves but also from the rising proliferation of OTT providers.

Elevate customer experience

Driving elevated customer experience is another frontier to conquer for telecom operators be it by improving service and driving personalization or making the right product or service offerings.

Modern-day technologies, for example, can help telecom operators upsurge their revenues on SMPP Bulk Messaging, reduce operational costs, and enhance the customer experience. Using the right technology infrastructure, telcos can also elevate enterprise customer experiences by ensuring that the business connects with the customer more seamlessly.

Offering capabilities such as 5G, robust A2P messaging, or enabling RICH messaging also needs a technology upgrade as legacy technologies are not capable of handling the demands of these services.

Drive security and compliance

Given the increasingly complex regulatory and compliance landscape, telecom providers need to drive greater data security. That apart, telecom companies must also work towards improving their security posture to address grey routes and making the network safe as enterprises move towards hybrid work and mobile payments adoption accelerates.

Legacy networks and tech stacks are now unsuited to meet the needs of an expanding threat landscape. Network security attacks, for example, have been a point of concern and remain so in the face of rising cybersecurity threats. Network virtualization is in fact, imperative to thrive in today’s threat landscape to allow operators network slicing to separate network resources and guarantee greater security.

Proactive route testing, home routing, and re-routing capabilities are also essential to improve the security posture. It helps operators analyze the information exchange between two parties and identify discrepancies that reveal suspect routes and direct proactive attention to the same.

Address enterprise needs proactively

Enterprise needs are changing as the world of work continues to experience constant disruption. Digital transformation for telecom operators thus becomes non-negotiable if they want to improve their topline and fulfil the demands of the new normal.

Telecom companies now need to address enterprise unified communication needs along with the usual suspects of connectivity and messaging and develop their capabilities to provide greater customization across services.

Whether it is enabling e-KYC, improving security, providing customized billing, etc.- they need new technologies such as AI and ensure that their IT systems can adapt to the changing needs. Legacy technologies and systems, given their monolithic nature, make it harder to drive agility in today’s fast-paced business environment.

Telecom companies need to identify how they will integrate with legacy technologies to leverage the advantages that new technologies and digital transformation offer. Telecom companies have experienced the greatest challenge in a generation where they have to keep businesses and individuals connected while meeting unprecedented demand for connectivity. Moving along the path of digital transformation and updating the legacy stack is the only way forward.