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Signed, Sealed, Delivered

Gaining and maintaining control over subscriber services has never been so important for mobile operators. Increased sophistication of mobile terminals and network infrastructure have enabled more multimedia services for mobile users, but have combined to create new problems in service management.

Willingness to use mobile services is partially derived from the quality of the offer per se, but factors such as data and billing security are important criteria in overall satisfaction with services. Customers want simplicity and transparency throughout the process, from service discovery, through usage of multimedia on the device, to straightforward and fault-free billing of purchases.

Revenues from services will grow in-line with customer satisfaction of service downloads and need for new data protection service offers, providing that the server-side environment from which they are delivered is well managed and controlled for revenue leakage.

How can operators dispel fears of intrusion, fraud and stop claims of service mismanagement by their customers, while streamlining operations with third party providers and plugging the security holes in their billing systems?

Firstly, operator brands must make sure that no revenue is lost from applications that do not work properly, or from customer fear of intrusion on the device by third parties.

A secure connection to the network by means of a trusted gateway and delivery system is essential in managing services. A secure gateway for instance constitutes a single point of entry to the network for data traffic management and control of provider access to subscriber details. The Sicap gateway for instance features “aliasing”, which ensures that subscriber identity (MSISDN) is not revealed to third parties. This prevents unwanted spamming to subscribers and generally keeps control of services on the operator side. Mobile payment services for instance are a particularly sensitive domain and one where both the security stakes and the revenue leakage risks are high. In the case of poorly-designed revenue sharing agreements where the operator pays the provider whether or not the transaction is successfully billed to the customer, huge losses may be incurred from unbilled items slipping through the system. . New technologies such as Near Field Communication (NFC) are arriving on the scene to provide contactless payment from a mobile device. NFC has great potential for contactless ticketing, payments and passive door entry. Trials are underway in France, where major mobile operators, banks and credit card giants are cooperating for SIM-based payment of goods. Fear of transaction fraud is considered the main barrier to take-up by the public who put the telecom industry close to the bottom of the "trust" league , but revenue sharing and control over propriety of the payment applications is also slowing roll out. Various business cases exist, all involving partnership with a specialist in Device and SIM Management over the air. The most secure involve downloading a middlet delivery brick onto the SIM or onto a secure chip in the phone which would require activation by the SIM.

In addition to valuable bank details, a corporate-owned mobile device may contain sales information, or sensitive information. The ability to remotely back up the contents of a device is an important service for many companies. For sensitive data, particularly among business users, a wipe and lock service is of high value in the event of loss of the device. It ensures that files on the device cannot be retrieved by remotely erasing, then locking access to the device contents.

Using over-the-air data retrieval, operators can not only erase sensitive data, they can store user data on a server for later backup and restore in case of loss or in order to duplicate data onto a new device. Let’s take the humble address book as an example. For many mobile users, it is the most indispensable feature stored on the device and/or USIM. Some users are reluctant to buy a new device because they fear that address book transfer will fail or be too complex. When a mobile is reported lost or stolen, it takes three months before ARPU is back to the normal usage level. A back-up and restore solution is therefore a viable investment to maintain ARPU in the event of a problem. It is also recognised as an important service for boosting customer satisfaction with the network carrier brand.

These wipe and lock, backup and restore, remote diagnostics and even virus protection mechanisms are all achieved remotely by an over-the-air (OTA) platform such as Sicap Device Management Center. The software platform updates and protects the user device, regardless of the brand and model. It helps operators increase customer satisfaction and loyalty by providing automatic back up of subscriber phonebook information on not only the SIM card but also on the device itself.

Finally, and perhaps the most tangible of actions an operator can take to gain and maintain customer confidence, is flawless billing of services. Service management is getting harder to control as more and more parties and business models are involved and potentially more error prone. The higher the volume of content, the more need there will be for a real-time credit/fraud check. Proven on a major European network, Sicap revenue assurance software supports every possible revenue assurance rule. The Revenue Assurance Programme (RAP) is a rules-based software tool that compares and cross-checks CDR (call detail record) data with billing data for both B2B revenue sharing agreements and B2C billing checks. It ensures complete and real- time rating capabilities and supports a large number of different file and CDR formats. It supports “Bill Reconciliation” by checking the invoice generated by the billing platform against the appropriate call detail record. The Revenue Assurance Program can handle large capacity CDR processing and set up a schedule of revenue processes off-line. It can access external rating and pricing configurations and can act as a real-time or batch rater. The biggest single source of operator revenue leakage is roaming fraud. A «Near Real Time Roaming Data Exchange» (NRTRDE) initiative recently launched by the GSM Association is currently seducing operators who have fallen prey to roaming fraud. The initiative obliges the operator of a visited network to forward CDRs to the home operator within four hours of the call end time. Adoption of NRTRDE, in conjunction with a revenue assurance programme check could dramatically reduce roaming fraud by allowing quick reaction to unregistered network activity.

The mobile service marketing offer is exciting, but many potential customers on the verge of using them for the first time are expressing their fears. Operators are aware of the importance of environment in which we deliver these services and looking for partners which cover the mobile data value chain, effectively able to “sign, seal and deliver” content. Open networks or access channels are vulnerable and should be protected with a secure gateway, effective over-the-air management of devices and astute revenue assurance mechanisms. Attention to operations on the server side means that services are run properly and reliably, thereby conferring peace-of-mind to customers. I believe that by enabling real-time converged business solutions for operators and their partners, end-users will enjoy their multimedia experience.