Take your eyes off the ball for one second and it’ll all be gone in a flash...
Ehsan Ahmadi
CEO at VOX Solutions, Building solutions to turn pain points into opportunities | Capacity Media’s Power 100 | Juniper Research's Industry Mover & Shaker | MEF Member | GSMA Member | Forbes Member
The first telephone call was made on March 10th, 1876, by Alexander Graham Bell. Bell demonstrated his ability to “talk with electricity" by transmitting a call to his assistant, Thomas Watson. The first words transmitted were "Mr Watson, come here. I want to see you”. Telephony captured the imagination of the world and took it by storm. The rest as they say – whoever ‘they’ are! – is history…
Voice has traditionally been a cash cow for mobile network operators (MNOs), and governments alike. Some governments introduced a telecommunications tax levied on international incoming voice traffic into their country which was a nice little earner. That was until the arrival of the Over-the-Top (OTT) players changed the market for ever.
The actors providing these OTT services are the US Internet groups known as ‘GAFA’ (Google, Apple, Amazon and Facebook) and others such as WeChat and Viber. Their rampaging success has created numerous challenges for telecom operators, cannibalizing their revenues whilst tying up network resources they paid handsomely for and for which OTTs pay them nothing. The same fate awaited SMS which is a slightly newer construct.
Flash calling can seriously hurt any MNO’s A2P revenues as it uses a missed call (with no answer) to the recipient’s handset to verify their number.
SMS was conceived back in the mid-1980s, never designed to be a two-way means of communication. Launched in 1992, SMS morphed into the Person-to-Person (P2P) communication juggernaut it became within a handful of years but when the OTTs arrived and really got their feet under the table, P2P SMS volumes started to shrink. They still are on a one-way trajectory downwards. Thankfully though there is a glimmer of light for MNOs in the shape of Application-to-Person (A2P) SMS.
A2P SMS volumes started to exceed those of P2P globally a couple of years ago and are constantly growing. Why haven’t the OTTs delivered the same knockout blow to A2P though? Simple. No other channel ensures delivered content is read as much as A2P SMS does.
…which leaves you with one option.
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Please, enjoy the rest of the article on the VOX Carrier Blog.
All things SaaS | MBA, New Business Development
3 年The rise in flash calling is driven in part by MNO efforts to close down the more common bypass channels. The fraudsters are always probing for another way in. Another example of the dynamic nature of mobile fraud and the need for quick and active response to protect your subscribers.
VP of Operations
3 年Insightful! You actively share valuable information about the most?reliable?techniques to?monetize?the services offered by MNO's.
Independent Consultant | Business Messaging | CPaaS | Conversational Commerce | Wholesale | Brand Building | Domain Names | Mobile Intelligence | Digital Identity | Anti-Fraud
3 年Ehsan Ahmadi , a great educational piece. So few mobile operators are aware of the level of threat to their Business SMS revenues Flash Calling can be!
VP Global Strategic Partnerships at VOX Carrier
3 年Must read!
Insightful. Flashcalling is a real treat that not many MNOs are aware about.