Caroline Gow, Product Manager Messaging, iBASIS
STAYING RELEVANT
SMS remains the most ubiquitous communication channel regardless of your data connection or lack of one, your roaming status while traveling, or whether you have an old feature phone or a smartphone. The universal feature and affordability of SMS are what makes SMS a reliable communication tool for government, hospitals, schools, enterprises, and brands to effectively reach a wide range of subscribers despite the emergence of various OTT channels in the market.
INSPIRING TRUST
MNOs recognize the importance of their role as a credible gateway of messaging to reach end users. Trust of subscribers is paramount to MNOs.
Fraudulent activities such as spam, phishing, spoofing and scam are rampant everywhere and SMS as a channel hasn’t been spared. Fraud-related SMS messages are able to pass through MNO networks because bad actors can bypass and abuse routes from multiple entry points (e.g., international, domestic, SMPP, and SIM farms). In effect, subscribers—especially those who are not tech savvy—are vulnerable to these possible fraud attacks.
END-TO-END PROTECTION FOR EFFECTIVE MONETIZATION
The need for securing and protecting MNOs’ networks is more crucial now than ever. SMS Firewalls are available in the market to protect the network from frauds including grey routes, channels being used by some aggregators to make bigger profits by abusing the vulnerability of mobile phone networks. Choosing the right firewall provider is key to MNO’s success in protecting against frauds. The right partner not only provides cutting edge SMS Firewall technology, but also has the market knowledge and expertise of A2P SMS to deliver a full managed services option that will allow MNOs to effectively monetize to its full potential the addressable A2P revenue. Partnering with a neutral provider is also important to guarantee MNO’s best interests.
According to Mobilesquared, there was an estimated worth of USD $3.64B in lost income of MNOs in 2021 from A2P events via SMS channel due to grey routes. This number represents 16% of the total potential A2P SMS income of MNOs. SMS attacks ncreased in 2021 by an average of 30% from 55% of MNO respondents in ROCCO’s SMS Firewall Vendor Benchmarking Report 2022.
iBASIS offers a comprehensive A2P messaging monetization solution with a Tier-1 Independent Firewall technology partner inclusive of full managed services and a 3rd party firewall efficiency test that provides an extra layer of firewall evaluation.