Beyond billing error detections: Testing for the sake of testing and compliancy!

It is common knowledge that the main mission of revenue assurance professionals is to protect the telco’s revenue streams. Your objective is clear: put the billing chain under control & fix revenue leakages. But how do you prove to your audit team or a third party that the billing chain is compliant?

If you want to get directions on how to use Araxxe services to demonstrate compliance (ISAE 3402, SOX…) by providing standardized and / or customized positive reporting, download our whitepaper!

Last week, we shared our latest A2P Observatory, informing you of the levels of fraud and potential revenue loss in your region. When you review this observatory, you will have a better understanding of the revenue risk within your region.

If you want to know more about how we detect A2P SMS bypass, join our webinar !

We hope many of you can join us for what promises to be an insightful session.

Can’t join but you do have questions about A2P SMS? Feel free to contact us, we will be happy to help!

Testing during the last quarter shows evidence of high levels of fraud even for reputable brands using A2P SMS to communicate with customers.

Would you like to know if A2P SMS fraud is happening on your network? Araxxe monitors A2P SMS traffic towards 300 operators in over 100+ countries on five continents. When fraud is happening, it’s on our radar!

Interested in discovering A2P SMS Bypass rates in other regions? Click here!

To know more about our flexible detection programs for Incoming and Outgoing A2P SMS bypass, feel free to contact me at frederick.van.de.weghe@araxxe.com

#4 – Which Customer Segments are impacted?

Post-paid retail services are the most impacted segment (40%), followed by post-paid business (27%). Increasing over recent years due to “custom pricing”. This segment is now critical due to the rise of M2M and IoT. Pre-paid errors account for 25% of errors.

Do you want to understand more about the risks associated to billing errors on your network and how Araxxe can help you to address these issues? CONTACT US!

#3 – Statistics on Billing Errors by Location

More billing errors occur whilst roaming (55%), compared to 45% which occur on home networks. This is due to the complexity of roaming billing and the inability of operators to independently verify new plans and promotions. There is no positive effect of the ‘roam like at home’ trend: roaming is easier for consumers, not for operators.

Do you want to understand more about the risks associated to billing errors on your network and how Araxxe can help you to address these issues?  CONTACT US!

#2 – Statistics on billing errors by Service Type

Voice (59%) remains the service most impacted by billing errors. The number of errors associated to data services (25%) continues to increase.  Finally, SMS accounts for 16% of all billing errors identified during our campaigns.

Do you want to understand more about the risks associated to billing errors on your network and how Araxxe can help you to address these issues?  CONTACT US!

Araxxe is one of the world leading providers of fraud and revenue assurance services. Since 2005, we have utilized a global network of robots (Test Call Generators) to verify billing accuracy for operators around the world.  We have realized that many operators encounter similar issues.
Over the next 4 weeks we would like to share some of the insights that we have gained over the years through a series of statistics: 

• #1 -  Which billing errors do we keep on finding?
• #2 – Statistics on billing errors by Service Type
• #3 – Statistics on Billing Errors by Location
• #4 – Which Customer Segments are impacted? 

#1 - Which billing errors do we keep on finding?

Whilst underbilling errors (72%) are the most common issue identified by Araxxe during testing, overbilling errors (23%) are also very common.  
These issues are often overlooked by operators resulting in customer complaints, bad publicity and in many cases financial penalties imposed by regulators.  
Customer experience issues (5%) such as delaying, outdated or misleading roaming welcome messages, bundle usage and data speed throttling notifications negatively impact customers, leading to frustration and complaints.

Do you want to understand more about the risks associated to billing errors on your network and how Araxxe can help you to address these issues? CONTACT US!

Araxxe is proud to attend and sponsor the RAG London event, to be held from September 29th to 30th.

Lisa Taillandier, International Sales Manager of Araxxe, will join an insightful panel discussion about SMS fraud. 
 
To know more about this topic, have a look at Araxxe A2P SMS Bypass radar here.    
If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact us. We will be happy to help!

More information about the event in RAG's website.

Araxxe is proud to inform you about its contribution to the latest release of CFCA’s “Communicator Newsletter”, with an informative article on billing errors in the telecom industry.
The article gives insights and interesting statistics on common billing errors. It explains why integrating test call programs into Revenue Assurance controls helps operators to identify issues that otherwise might go unnoticed.

Ready to learn more? Log into the CFCA “Members Portal” and download the Communicator Newsletter!

The Digital Revolution has been one of the hot topics in the press and medias over the last years. From a Telecom Operator standpoint, the digital revolution basically means a myriad of new services: the so-called ‘digital services’. But new services usually also mean new risks of revenue leakage…

If you want to get insights on the impacts of a change from traditional services to new digital services and their consequences on existing revenue assurance controls download our whitepaper!

Did you know …we are using Artificial Intelligence to beat fraudsters to detect and prevent Fraud ?

Telcos harness the power of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to analyse huge volumes of data to extract insights to provide improved customer experience, improve operations and increase revenues.

Araxxe has caught the train too! By analysing huge data volumes generated via our worldwide campaigns and observatories, we identify evolving fraud trends to adapt our campaigns to avoid counter detections, maximize insights and improve results.
 
Would you like to chat further about this? Let’s grab a virtual coffee and discuss what difference a managed service could mean to you. Contact us!

Last week, we shared our latest A2P Observatory, informing you of the levels of fraud and potential revenue loss in your region. When you review this observatory, you will have a better understanding of the revenue risk within your region.

If you want to know more about how we detect A2P SMS bypass, join our webinar!
We hope many of you can join us for what promises to be an insightful session.

Can’t join but you do have questions about A2P SMS? Feel to contact us, we will be happy to help!

Testing during the last quarter shows evidence that companies using A2P SMS to communicate are more likely to use fraudulent routes. This indicates a significant increase in revenue loss.
 
Would you like to know if A2P SMS fraud is happening on your network? Araxxe monitors A2P SMS traffic towards 300 operators in over 100+ countries on five continents. When fraud is happening, it’s on our radar!
 

Interested in discovering A2P SMS Bypass rates in other regions? Click here!

To know more about our flexible detection programs for Incoming and Outgoing A2P SMS bypass, feel free to contact frederick.van.de.weghe@araxxe.com

RA managers are tasked to uncover the invisible and even the unknown but existing internal controls often don’t let them dive deep enough to detect all billing errors. 
Eric Priezkalns has illustrated this accurately in his article for Commsrisk by using the powerful metaphor of an iceberg.
 
Thanks to our worldwide coverage, SIM multiplexing technology and experienced knowledge centre, we are the perfect partner to help unravel even the Unknown Unknowns, ensuring revenue protection and happy subscribers. Testing is knowing!

Ready to learn more? Contact us and find out how we do it!

Summer is coming and people are keen to travel again. As travel increases roaming revenues will start to recover. Are your systems ready to take advantage of this opportunity? Why not run a health check?  Araxxe can help you ensure that you maximize revenues and customer experience during this important time.

I want to know more about the Summer Health Check!

In order to secure your roaming revenue, Araxxe has developed a specific campaign to spot problems associated to the identification of major risks:

• Summer Roaming Health Check: A short intensive one-week testing campaign targeted to identify key risks associated to your most important roaming destinations. Araxxe will provide alarms as problems are identified, on completion of the campaign you will receive a report providing detailed results of all tests.

Following the Summer Health Check, Araxxe can provide operators with a continuous billing verification service. This will identify additional billing configuration issues across against a wider range of plans and charging scenarios, further minimizing your revenue loss all over the year.

Click here to know more about the Summer Health Check!

Araxxe is the market leader in billing verification, with 15+ years’ experience supporting some of the largest telecoms operators in the world. Using our global network of robots we can efficiently validate all roaming scenarios to ensure that your customers are billed correctly for all roaming use.

Ready to learn more about us? Contact us and we will be glad to help you!

Some App providers give subscribers the opportunity  to earn easy money by allowing their SMS allowance to be used to terminate A2P messages allowances. 

How does it work?

• the subscriber installs the app on their smartphone, 
• the subscriber lets the App send SMS from its unused SMS Allowance 
• the subscriber cashes out through PayPal, cryptocurrency etc.

What does it mean?

Technically, the App has simply turned a smartphone into a Simbox by using subscribers’ SMS to bypass the legitimate A2P stream and avoid A2P termination rates. The operator is losing termination revenues, the fraudsters make margin and all the while, a free income is generated for subscribers…



How can Araxxe help?

Leveraging our extended portfolio of A2P SMS origins, Araxxe is detecting A2P SMS Bypass. Our detection method detects fraudulent messages terminated by physical Simbox and Reselling apps and does not get confused by the mix of subscriber profiles and machine profiles. One SMS is enough to prove that fraud is happening. Additionally, SMS Reselling App Monitoring provides key insights on the SMS traffic sent by these SMS Apps to support Operator’s countermeasures.

Ready to learn more? Contact us and we will be glad to help you!

Operators mostly rely on their full traffic processing tools to monitor their revenues and costs, but have you ever thought of using a Test Call Generator?
This whitepaper will help you making the decision to choose either between buying hardware and execute the controls yourself or outsourcing Revenue Assurance management to a third party.

Download the whitepaper ‘Why you should consider a Revenue Assurance managed service approach’ here and if you have any questions related to it or to any of our Revenue Assurance or Fraud Detection services, please don't hesitate to contact us. We will be glad to help!

New rate plans, new mediation systems, a new version of the Intelligent Network, VoLTE or VoWifi updates and many more…
Quick time-to-market means a high risk of incurring billing errors… Are you testing whether the billing of new tariff plans or migrations was done correctly?

Agility and speed are key factors to ensure a smooth transition. Araxxe offers exactly that in the form of a phased approach.
Do you want to know more? Click here or contact us!

A robocall trying to sell you something is illegal unless a company has your written permission to call you that way in the US. Yet every year billions of these calls are delivered to unsuspecting customers around the country. The FCC has now stepped and fined one of the telemarketing companies behind these calls $255 million for transmitting over 1 billion calls during the first quarter of 2021. Click here to see the article. 

Araxxe can help demonstrate compliance of "Robocall Mitigation Programs" with regulatory expectations, such as those of the FCC. Do you want to know more? Contact us!
 

Choosing for a Managed Service for Fraud Detection and/ or Billing Verification has multiple added values:

• Integration is easy: simple and non-intrusive in your system.
• Roll-out is fast and flexible: we start testing within 5 weeks 
• Expenses are predictable and lower: you save on capital and operational costs
• You get a service, not a tool: no upgrades, no configuration efforts, no maintenance. We take care of everything.

On top, with Araxxe you get:

• a Live Portal with real-time and actionable reporting 
• a direct link to a skilled revenue assurance and fraud team 

Do you feel like having a chat? Let’s grab a virtual coffee and discuss what difference a managed service could mean to you!

Over 20% of consumer complaints mentioned in the “Q3 2020 Telecoms and Pay TV Complaints report” issued by Ofcom —the UK’s communications regulator— is linked to billing, prices and charges. Summarised per type of provider, the report showed:

• 24% of complaints across pay TV providers were issues relating to billing, pricing, and charges
• 20% of complaints across pay-monthly mobile providers were issues relating to billing, pricing, and charges
• 17% of complaints across landline providers were issues relating to billing, pricing and charges
• 14% of complaints across fixed broadband providers were issues relating to billing, pricing and charges

Based on this study, Araxxe advises to prioritise looking into the invoices of PayTV and Mobile subscribers. Need an extra pair of eyes? Araxxe has a proven track record ensuring worldwide players can bill their subscribers correctly, making for happy and loyal customers. At the same time, these players can count on Araxxe to help increasing their margin through the detection of underbilling errors.

Explore our end-to-end billing verification solutions here and feel free to contact Frederick Van de Weghe to receive more details or to get an invitation to an exploratory call.

Join our Virtual Master Classes where Araxxe subject-matter experts and industry thought leaders will present on the latest in Revenue Assurance and Fraud Detection.
Topics include:

•    End-to-End Billing Verification for World-Class Revenue Assurance
•    How well do your robocall mitigation systems really work?
•    Are you getting what you are paying for from your international transit partners?
•    Are you fully monetizing your A2P/Commercial SMS termination revenue?

We have planned these four 90-minute sessions starting at 1:00pm Eastern Time, Tuesday through Friday, April 20-23.
Reserve your seat and share this invitation as you see fit.
Click here to see the program details. To see the speakers speaker bio’s, click here.
We’d be delighted if you could join us for any/all of these sessions. 




Can’t join but you do have questions about Revenue Assurance and/or Fraud Detection? Contact us on marketing@araxxe.com. One of our experts will contact you asap!
 

We are glad to announce that Emmy Léger, Product Account Manager, will explain how Araxxe uses test SMS messages to identify and measure bypass fraud around the world - during her participation in the next episode of RAG TV, organized by Risk and Assurance Group.
Don’t miss the presentation on Wednesday March 31st | 01:00 pm London | 02:00 pm CET | 07:00 am EST (UTC -5): 

• Click here to add this event to your calendar.
• To see the presentation, click here. 

Do you want to discover more interesting figures about A2P SMS Bypass fraud worldwide? Click here!

Questions? Reach out to Frederick Van de Weghe, our Chief Commercial Officer. We will be happy to help you!

Araxxe is pleased to announce its participation in CFCA’s educational KNOW Sessions as facilitator of the webinar about Outgoing International Fraud.
Are carriers duly delivering your international calls?
A recent survey carried out by Araxxe on behalf of a major operator identified that 42% of calls towards international destinations were delivered incorrectly:

Erroneous routing has several consequences:

• Financial impact: Costs may be unduly paid to Transit Carriers.
• Liability Risk: Security and confidentiality of bypassed calls cannot be guaranteed.
• Degraded Customer Experience: Lower answer rates, lower average call durations, poor voice quality.

This webinar will provide insights using a case study and will explain how Araxxe assists in identifying and addressing these situations. 
We hope many of you can join us for what promises to be an insightful session.


Can’t join but you do have questions about Outbound Traffic Fraud? Feel free to contact us! One of our experts will contact you asap.

Billing errors really lead to complaints, brand damage and overloaded customer service desks as you can see in this unfortunate story related by E. Priezkalns (https://commsrisk.com/new-phone-new-billing-confusion/). Implementing a proper end-to-end billing verification process helps avoiding revenue impacts due to overbilling. Contact Araxxe and see how we can help keeping your customers satisfied!

“How do I get my subscribers to use more data services?” “How can I improve data services monetization?”. Telecom operators have been trying to answer these questions over the last years, launching large panels of offerings about data services: focus on subscriber habits rather than data volume, new pricing models, new features… in one word: innovation!

If you want to get directions on how Data services have evolved, download the whitepaper ‘Why Data Services Need High Definition Revenue Assurance’ here and if you have any questions related to it or to any of our Revenue Assurance or Fraud Detection services, please don't hesitate to contact us. We will be glad to help!

Would you like to know if A2P SMS fraud is happening on your network? Araxxe monitors A2P SMS traffic towards 300+ MNO’s in over 100 countries on five continents. If fraud is happening, it’s on our radar!

In the coming weeks, Araxxe will start sharing regional insights into infection rates of the players gravitating around the A2P ecosystem, historical trends, and the financial burden of this type of fraud. Keep an eye on our social networks or contact us and let us know if you would like to receive these updates personally!