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Tag: Billing

  • The future of direct carrier billing and carrier-OTT partnerships

    The future of direct carrier billing and carrier-OTT partnerships

    Increased smartphone penetration and a rise in demand for over-the-top (OTT) content have driven the growth of the global direct carrier billing (DCB) market. Valued at US$29.8 billion in 2019, the global DCB market is estimated to reach US$70 billion by 2025, fuelled by a surge in video and audio streaming, as well as consumers’ preference for seamless, secure, and accessible payment modes.

    Linked directly to consumers’ mobile phone bills, consumers can enjoy fuss-free transactions in the absence of a bank account or credit card with DCB. This is in contrast with credit card payments that require consumers to input their credit card number and name. In comparison, a simpler checkout process results in lower abandonment rates and higher conversion rates for merchants. This payment method is also more secure as personal information is not being shared.On top of offering convenience, DCB presents unprecedented opportunities for carriers to tap into Asia-Pacific’s (APAC) unbanked population – totaling more than 1 billion. In Southeast Asia, where financial inclusion is particularly low, about 75% of the population does not have access to formal banking services.

    A flurry of lockdowns and stay-at-home measures have resulted in the rise in video and audio streaming in the past year. According to The Trade Desk, 180 million consumers stream 8 billion hours of over-the-top (OTT) content per month in Southeast Asia, making its OTT market one of the fastest-growing in APAC.

    By 2025, Media Partners Asia predicts that video-on-demand subscriptions will reach 417 million in the APAC region, up from 269 million in 2019. Of which, China will account for 65% of the total subscriptions.

    This trend in increased streaming is expected to persist in a post-pandemic environment driven by more affordable subscriptions, quicker download speeds and a growing DCB market, which in turn spurs more partnerships between carriers and OTT providers.

    Carriers have an advantage in delivering content with a billing mechanism already in place. This gives consumers an added incentive to subscribe to services by OTT providers such as Netflix, Disney+ and Spotify, bundled into carrier subscriptions so that consumers can have all their content needs met by a single source in a single bill. According to Ovum, carrier billing is also the most popular method of revenue sharing in such partnerships.

    For carriers, it means providing added value and better brand positioning in a competitive landscape. For OTT media providers, it means higher conversion rates. The result is win-win as both parties achieve the benefits of increased user acquisition, retention and essentially, revenue.

    Apart from OTT giants like Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime, APAC has a diverse market that includes regional and even local OTT providers. In South Korea, for instance, home-grown Wavve is the leading OTT media provider. This is followed by Netflix. When LG UPlus entered into an exclusive deal with Netflix in 2018, its subscriptions for its IPTV grew by 20%. More recently, it was reported that LG UPlus is now exploring a partnership with Disney+, which has amassed more than 100 million global subscribers just 16 months after its launch. SK Telecom, on the other hand, is reportedly signing a partnership with Apple TV+.

    In India, one of the fastest-growing markets for OTT content in the world estimated to reach US$5 billion by 2023, partnerships are highly coveted to court a burgeoning smartphone population. Worldwide Mobile Data Pricing also noted that India has the cheapest average cost of mobile data in the world, at Rs 6.7 (US$0.09) per gigabyte. According to Ovum, about 56% of Indian consumers are already paying for more than one online video service, with the pay-per-use model being more well-received as compared to monthly subscriptions. To attract more consumers, OTT providers are turning to subscription video on demand or advertising video on demand. Amazon’s miniTV is one such provider that offers its content free.

    Moving forward, the onus is on carriers and OTT providers to better curate content suited for the respective markets and attract consumers consumption. This is on top of overcoming challenges such as integrating seamless back-end systems and ensuring that streamed content is high quality without comprising on profit margins.

  • Vinaphone debuts carrier billing on Google Play

    Vinaphone debuts carrier billing on Google Play

    Vietnam’s Vinaphone has become the fourth and last of the nation’s four major mobile operators to launch carrier billing over Google Play using the Fortumo payments platform.

    The operator’s 20 million subscribers will be able to use the Fortumo platform to pay for apps and in-app content using their airtime balance.

    With the launch, 95% of the population of Vietnam can now make payments on Google Play through Fortumo – significant for a country with smartphone penetration of 40% but credit card ownership of below 2%.

    Fortumo will also provide Vinaphone with access to its Fortumo Insight statistics and data analytics platform, which helps operators analyze the performance of Google Play and use the data to make improvements to their payment infrastructure and marketing campaigns using the platform.

    “Vietnam is one of Asia’s fastest growing markets for mobile services. Vinaphone has been able to successfully capitalize on this expansion and enabling Google Play for carrier billing is the logical step for Vinaphone to accelerate the growth further,” Forumo chief business officer Gerri Kodres said.

    “Fortumo has established itself as the provider of choice for carriers in Asia and we are proud to help Vinaphone make Google Play payments available to millions of their users.”

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  • Telecoms billing market on pace to $14b in 2022

    Telecoms billing market on pace to $14b in 2022

    The global telecom billing and revenue management market is expected to reach$14.2 billion in 2022 with a CAGR of 8% from $7.6 billion in 2014.

    The factors that are favoring the market growth include, hastily growing telecommunication sector, deployment of innovative services and increasing number of customers, whereas factors such as quick growth of subscribers, network clogging, plunge in quality of services, and fallout of services area are inhibiting the market growth.

    North America and Europe have the highest adoption of billing and revenue management in the telecom ecosystem and regions such as Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa along with Latin America offer a lot of opportunities for the vendors.

    Countries in Asia Pacific such as China and India have large subscriber bases and ever changing regulatory scenarios, thus creating demand for billing and revenue management solutions.

    The global telecom billing and revenue management market is segmented on the basis of deployment type, service, software, and geography. On the basis of deployment, the market is segregated into on-site and cloud.

    On the basis of service, the market is categorized into system integration, planning and consulting services, operations and maintenance services, managed services and others. The market is segmented on the basis of software into negotiation, revenue assurance, partner management, fraud management, billing and charging and others.

    The key players in the global telecom billing and revenue management market include Accenture, Cisco, Oracle, Ericsson, Hewlett-Packard (HP), SAP, Huawei Technologies, NEC, Amdocs and Comverse.

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  • Cellcard launches carrier billing in Cambodia

    Cellcard launches carrier billing in Cambodia

    Cambodian mobile operator Cellcard and mobile payments company Fortumo have teamed up to offer direct carrier billing for digital content.

    Cellcard’s 4 million subscribers will be able to pay for digital content via their monthly mobile bill.

    The alliance is aimed at providing payment options for the Cambodian market, which has a credit card penetration of less than 5% but a smartphone penetration of around 40%.

    Fortumo’s direct carrier billing platform is used by smartphone app stores Google Play and Windows Phone Store, digital media companies including Sony, Hooq and Gaana as well as game developers such as EA Mobile nad Gameloft.

    The company’s alliance with Cellcard comes in the wake of recently-announced partnerships with Reliance Communications in India, Zong in Pakistan and Viettel in Vietnam covering payments over Google Play.

    Across APAC, Forumo’s direct carrier billing platform is now available to 1.5 billion customers in 16 countries.

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  • Indosat Ooredoo, Fortumo bring direct carrier billing to Indonesia

    Indosat Ooredoo, Fortumo bring direct carrier billing to Indonesia

    Indosat Ooredoo has partnered with mobile payments platform provider Fortumo to launch direct carrier billing in Indonesia.

    The partnership is expected to enable the Indonesian mobile operator’s 69.8 million subscribers make online payments by charging purchases to their mobile account, without the need to use a credit card.

    “This strategic collaboration with Fortumo will bring more benefits to Indosat Ooredoo customers and allow transactions at a wider network of merchants,” said Prashant Gokarn, chief of new business and innovation at Indosat Ooredoo. “We look forward to continuing to provide innovation that brings more value to our customers as part of our goal to become a leading digital telco.”

    Fortumo’s direct carrier billing platform is used by leading app stores (Google Play, Windows Phone Store), digital media companies (Sony, HOOQ, Gaana) and gaming companies (EA Mobile, Gameloft, Kinguin, Rovio).

    To enable global carrier billing for these merchants, Fortumo has partnered with more than 350 mobile operators across the world.

    “Connecting with Fortumo gives mobile operators immediate access to additional revenue from all the segments of the digital industry,” said Siddharth Sahi, VP of business development and carrier relations at Fortumo.

    The two companies cite data which show that there are over 65 million smartphone owners in Indonesia, but less than 5 million people have access to credit cards.

    They said this meant that a majority of the digital population cannot make online payments. As a consequence, digital merchants lose out on revenue from a majority of the population. Carrier billing resolves this problem by allowing any mobile phone owner (both prepaid and postpaid) to make payments through Fortumo.

  • Fortumo brings direct carrier billing to Indonesia

    Fortumo brings direct carrier billing to Indonesia

    Fortumo and Indonesia’s leading digital telco, Indosat Ooredoo, today announced the launch of direct carrier billing. The partnership will enable 69.8 million Indosat Ooredoo subscribers to make online payments by charging purchases to their mobile account without the need to use a credit card.

    “We are pleased to build this strategic collaboration with Fortumo, one that will bring more benefits to Indosat Ooredoo customers and allow transactions at a wider network of merchants. We look forward to continuing to provide innovation that brings more value to our customers as part of our goal to become a leading digital telco,” said Prashant Gokarn, chief of new business and innovation at Indosat Ooredoo.

    Fortumo’s direct carrier billing platform is used by leading app stores (Google Play, Windows Phone Store), digital media companies (Sony, HOOQ, Gaana) and gaming companies (EA Mobile, Gameloft, Kinguin, Rovio). To enable global carrier billing for these merchants, Fortumo has partnered with more than 350 mobile operators across the world.

    “Connecting with Fortumo gives mobile operators immediate access to additional revenue from all the segments of the digital industry. We are excited to partner with Indosat Ooredoo on carrier billing and look forward to growing revenue from carrier billing, the payment method with the widest coverage in Indonesia,” said Siddharth Sahi, vice president of business development and carrier relations at Fortumo.

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  • Leading Tier 1 Operator in Malaysia deploys Elitecore’s Crestel Online Charging Platform

    Leading Tier 1 Operator in Malaysia deploys Elitecore’s Crestel Online Charging Platform

    Elitecore Technologies, a global provider of BSS and Packet Core solutios, announces that a leading Tier 1 Operator in Malaysia has deployed Elitecore’s 3GPP compliant Online Charging System (OCS) for their voice and data services; the solution enables its subscribers to keep track of their account, services and usage in real time. It supports dynamic notifications to customers prior to reaching their credit thresholds and also supports admin action in real time on threshold breach. The solution enables real-time charging of VOIP calls over SIP interface for post-paid subscribers on FTTX network.

    Elitecore’s real time OCS is a modular solution integrated with operator’s existing CRM and Billing systems, without having to go through a transformation of its existing billing system to support next generation services. The entire project was completed in just 3 months. The platform supports features such as single touch Point of Credit Governance for customer, Self Care service interaction in real time with accurate and timely information related to their usage, time/volume based rating, differential rating, advice of charges, shared balances, policy based discounting etc.

    Dhaval Vora, VP, Product Management, Elitecore says, “With our Real Time charging Solution, the operator is well prepared to support the growing demand for data services and benefit from enhanced real-time capabilities for its Data, Voice & Internet Services. Better real-time processing and instant notification of credit balance status enhances user experience and eliminates bill shock scenario.”

    The solution helps operators to add subscriber value through personalized offering, ensures optimum network utilization & greatly increases service usage and ARPU. Moreover, the solution is future ready which can support multiple networks on the same platform.

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