July 2015

SMS Bypass Blocking: A Service that Protects & Maximizes A2P Revenue for Mobile Operators

interview with Claire Cassar

As a mobile operator revenue stream, SMS is a two-sided coin.

On one side is Person to Person (P2P) messaging, a business badly tarnished and declining due to major competition from Apple iMessage, WhatsApp, and several other OTT players offering free P2P alternatives.

But the flipside of SMS — Application to Person (A2P) SMS — glitters like gold thanks to global smartphone expansion. It’s a growing and profitable sector for mobile operators today because it’s used for all manner of enterprise-to-user communication. Banks, airlines, and on-line services (such as the Uber taxi) constantly use A2P to send notices, confirmations, or authentication messages to mobile subs.

So how big is this A2P market? Well, a recent research study by Ovum pegged annual A2P messaging volume at 1.8 trillion messages in 2014. And if an MNO earns an average 3 cents in revenue from each message, that equates to a nice $54 billion a year market for A2P.

Now such multi-billion dollar revenue streams need to be protected because they are a magnet for bypass fraudsters. Sure enough: operators today receive big volumes of “grey route” A2P messages — often bulk marketing messages — from senders who are try to sneak their messages in, even though the operator has no commercial agreements with them.

Well, luckily some clever solution vendors, such as Malta-based HAUD Systems, are stepping in to help operators filter out the fraudsters and maximize the revenue potential of their A2P platforms. We are now joined by HAUD’s CEO, Claire Cassar, who provides us with a comprehensive overview of the A2P revenue protection scene.

	Dan Baker: Claire, sounds like HAUD’s new fraud solution in A2P filtering and blocking is very timely. Can you briefly explain the history of how you got into this business?

Claire Cassar: Sure, Dan. We are a revenue assurance and fraud solutions team within Fortytwo Group, a group of companies primarily focused on messaging solutions in the electronic communications industry.

As A2P fraud problems started mushrooming, we realized in 2010 that a dedicated solution would become crucial. So we started developing a product and by 2011 we did our first proof of concept at Jersey Telecom, a small operator in the UK. They soon signed on for the solution and they remain a customer today.

I must say, back in 2012, it was tough getting mobile operators interested in investing to control A2P fraud. Funds for voice fraud and LTE networks constrained budgets quite a bit.

But this forced us to offer a more financially attractive solution. What we offer today is a CAPEX free, revenue share model. These options made it much easier for the operator to say “yes” because they have no upfront investment. Secondly, we take on the responsibility: unless we are successful, we don’t get paid from the incremental revenue they would make.

	Can you give us a feel for the A2P marketplace and the aggregators who do the essential enterprise-to-mobile-operator transport?

Well, there are about 40 to 50 aggregators of A2P traffic out there, and because entry is relatively easy, there’s considerable pressure on aggregators to perform and keep their prices low.

At the Tier 1 level, there are six to 10 aggregators and each of them approaches the A2P business with a very high level of professionalism. Then there are 15 to 20 Tier 2 and many Tier 3 players and below. Syniverse is perhaps the largest message aggregator. Other big players include MBlox, tyntec, CLX Networks, and Infobip as well as our sister company Fortytwo Telecom.

Enterprises and OTT players are eager to select the best carriers at the best prices for their A2P traffic. Remember, a large bank issuing credit cards needs to send SMS notices to customers who may be roaming around the world. So guaranteed global delivery is a growing concern for large enterprises, and to reach all corners of the world, it may need to split its SMS distribution among 4 or 5 aggregators.

One other market trend I think is significant: there seems to be a move towards greater quality in A2P. For instance, one of the larger firms, Dialog Communications, recently issued a press release saying they would not entertain any more grey route traffic and only do direct connections with operators.

	So how does your system work?

We work at the network level with the operators. Now we could offer a cloud solution, but because of security and privacy issues, operators prefer us to host the solution in-country within their own data center.

Our job is to control all incoming SMS traffic — from international, local or direct routes such as SMPP connections. All these routes feed into our central system where they are served by a series of software modules that handle the various traffic types.

The heart of our system is BulkGuard, a pattern recognition module that looks at SMS content to identify bulk messages. The system is set to read through all the messages in a particular timeframe. If it detects similar patterns or content in messages within that timeframe, it will aggregate those and send out a report to the user.

Once we do the filtering, we then pass the traffic to an SMS gateway where the operator determines the routes where all this A2P traffic should come from. And it’s at that point where our solution picks up the traffic again and determines if all the rules are being obeyed and the traffic is being steered properly. Finally, the traffic goes to the operator’s core network and the SMSC where the message is delivered to the end customer or consumer.

As you’d expect, the local fraud department can set its own rules in the system and can alert the user via email or SMS as certain thresholds are met. In this way, the system can be monitored 24/7 and requires less intervention at the NOC level so it can be more timely, effective and preemptive.

And it’s not fully automated: the human element is needed for fine-grain analysis of the contents to ensure that bank notifications and other legitimate A2P traffic is allowed through the network to the consumer.

	How much fraud are you seeing in the SMS traffic?

The everyday percentage is not that alarming. It’s maybe 1 to 2% in most networks that we’ve seen.

However, there are occasional spikes reaching 10% of the total volume. So if you’re a mobile operator with 50 million subscribers, that’s definitely alarming. It’s critical to stop the traffic immediately before it reaches the subscriber. Otherwise, the operator is likely to get many complaint calls in the call center — not to mention the damage to the brand image and possible subscriber churn.

To screen the traffic, we look for where the A2P traffic is coming from. And if it’s grey route traffic we block it because the operator cannot charge for it: either no agreement is in place or the sender is fraudulently trying to sneak messages through. Fraudsters use a number of bypass techniques such as faking the global titles of legitimate senders, or maybe spoofing to make the message appear to be an on-net subscriber.

Another fraud concern is the SMS equivalent of premium rate offers where the receiver of the message is asked to call back to a revenue share number.

Still another issue is a flooding attack of SMS messages, similar to a DDoS attack on a server or firewall. To manage that problem, user alerts are triggered whenever a high spike in traffic is experienced.

	And how do you monetize this SMS fraud and revenue assurance service of yours?

It’s usually done at the point where the A2P traffic is collected — at the entry point or SMS gateway. Here the traffic is monetized and we would get a revenue share from the gateway with the rest of the money flowing to the operator.

So the operator is more protected: they can ensure they get monetized because they only have one partner to deal with to do that. And on top of that they get a solution at no financial risk to them.

Operators also like the idea of getting the solution through our managed service option. This is attractive because the mobile operator gets our expertise and quicker results. In a recent installation, an operator in Bangladesh saw a 45% reduction in fraud in the first 32 hours, and they started boosting their A2P revenue within 72 hours of installation.

	Just like other forms of bypass, I’m sure the fraudsters are constantly innovating and trying to skirt around your controls.

Yes, one of the latest threats is coming from Global Title (GT) scanning. The fraudsters learned to mimic the GT of the operator in order to terminate on the network. It’s made to look like the operator’ own traffic.

A lot of international disputes are arising from this fraud. Why? Imagine Vodafone is seeing lots of Verizon traffic. When it sends the bill, Verizon comes back and says the amount of traffic was 50% less. What’s happening is that someone is impersonating Verizon’s global title to terminate on Vodafone.

This trend is going strong so we devised a new feature in our system to identify this type of fraud.

So the price of safety is constant vigilance — and for HAUD Systems, that means constantly developing new features that stop and hopefully anticipate the next A2P fraud scheme.

	Claire, thanks for this nice briefing on A2P. Good luck growing this important new service.

Claire Cassar

Claire Cassar graduated Bachelor of Arts and Doctor of Laws from the University of Malta, following which she read for a Masters in Economics of Competition Law with the University of Malta. She worked at Vodafone Malta for 9 years during which time she headed the Legal, Regulatory and Corporate Affairs departments. She also worked for a short while in Vodafone Qatar during its start-up phase in 2009 as a Marketing Manager. Upon her return to Malta, she was appointed as Consumer Sales Manager in Vodafone Malta where she was responsible for the direct and indirect sales channels for Vodafone Malta’s consumer segment.

She joined Fortytwo Group in 2011 and was appointed as CEO of HAUD Systems Limited in April 2012. Since then she has been responsible for the HAUD start-up phase and the go-to-market strategy for the company as well as the commercial aspect of HAUD’s product offerings.

Between September 2011 and December 2013 Dr. Cassar was also the Group General Counsel for Fortytwo Group and its subsidiaries. Dr. Cassar is also currently Chair of the Women’s Forum sub-committee as part of the CHOGM 2015 preparations where Malta will host the Commonwealth Heads of Government Summit. Contact Claire via

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Hadoop and M2M Meet Device and Network Management Systems — interview with Eric Wegner — Telecom big-data in networks is more than customer experience managment: it’s also about M2M plus network and element management systems. This interview discusses the explosion in machine-to-machine devices, the virtues and drawbacks of Hadoop, and the network impact of shrink-wrapped search.
The Data Center & Cloud Infrastructure Boom: Is Your Sales/Engineering Team Equipped to Win? — by Dan Baker — The build-out of enterprise clouds and data centers is a golden opportunity for systems integrators, carriers, and cloud providers. But the firms who win this business will have sales and engineering teams who can drive an effective and streamlined requirements-to-design-to-order process. This white paper points to a solution — a collaborative solution designs system — and explains 8 key capabilities of an ideal platform.
Big Data: Is it Ready for Prime Time in Customer Experience Management? — interview with Thomas Sutter — Customer experience management is one of the most challenging of OSS domains and some suppliers are touting “big data” solutions as the silver bullet for CEM upgrades and consolidation. This interview challenges the readiness of big data soluions to tackle OSS issues and deliver the cost savings. The article also provides advice on managing technology risks, software vendor partnering, and the strategies of different OSS suppliers.
Calculated Risk: The Race to Deliver the Next Generation of LTE Service Management — interview with Edoardo Rizzi — LTE and the emerging heterogeneous networks are likely to shake up the service management and customer experience management worlds. Learn about the many new network management challenges LTE presents, and how a small OSS software firm aims to beat the big established players to market with a bold new technology and strategy.
Decom Dilemma: Why Tearing Down Networks is Often Harder than Deploying Them — interview with Dan Hays — For every new 4G LTE and IP-based infrastructure deployed, there typically a legacy network that’s been rendered obsolete and needs to be decommissioned. This article takes you through the many complexities of network decom, such as facilities planning, site lease terminations, green-safe equipment disposal, and tax relief programs.
Migration Success or Migraine Headache: Why Upfront Planning is Key to Network Decom — interview with Ron Angner — Shutting down old networks and migrating customers to new ones is among the most challenging activities a network operators does today. This article provides advice on the many network issues surrounding migration and decommissioning. Topics discussed include inventory reconciliation, LEC/CLEC coordination, and protection of customers in the midst of projects that require great program management skills.
Navigating the Telecom Solutions Wilderness: Advice from Some Veteran Mountaineers — interview with Al Brisard — Telecom solutions vendors struggle mightily to position their solutions and figure out what to offer next in a market where there’s considerable product and service crossover. In this article, a veteran order management specialist firm lays out its strategy for mixing deep-bench functional expertise with process consulting, analytics, and custom API development.
Will Telecoms Sink Under the Weight of their Bloated and Out-of-Control Product Stacks? — interview with Simon Muderack — Telecoms pay daily for their lack of product integration as they constantly reinvent product wheels, lose customer intelligence, and waste time/money. This article makes the case of an enterprise product catalog. Drawing on central catalog cases at a few Tier 1 operators, the article explains the benefits: reducing billing and provisioning costs, promoting product reuse, and smoothing operations.
Virtual Operator Life: Enabling Multi-Level Resellers Through an Active Product Catalog — interview with Rob Hill — The value of product distribution via virtual operators is immense. They enable a carrier to sell to markets it cannot profitably serve directly. Yet the need for greater reseller flexibility in the bundling and pricing of increasingly complex IP and cloud services is now a major channel barrier. This article explains what’s behind an innovative product catalog solution that doubles as a service creation environment for resellers in multiple tiers.
Telecom Blocking & Tackling: Executing the Fundamentals of the Order-to-Bill Process — interview with Ron Angner — Just as football teams need to be good at the basics of blocking and tackling, telecoms need to excel at their own fundamental skillset: the order-to-cash process. In this article, a leading consulting firm explains its methodology for taking operators on the path towards order-to-cash excellence. Issues discussed include: provisioning intervals; standardization and simplicity; the transition from legacy to improved process; and the major role that industry metrics play.
Wireline Act IV, Scene II: Packaging Network & SaaS Services Together to Serve SMBs — by John Frame — As revenue from telephony services has steadily declined, fixed network operators have scrambled to support VoIP, enhanced IP services, and now cloud applications. This shift has also brought challenges to the provisioning software vendors who support the operators. In this interview, a leading supplier explains how it’s transforming from plain ol‘ OSS software provider to packager of on-net and SaaS solutions from an array of third party cloud providers.
Telecom Merger Juggling Act: How to Convert the Back Office and Keep Customers and Investors Happy at the Same Time — interview with Curtis Mills — Billing and OSS conversions as the result of a merger are a risky activity as evidenced by famous cases at Fairpoint and Hawaiian Telcom. This article offers advice on how to head off problems by monitoring key operations checkpoints, asking the right questions, and leading with a proven conversion methodology.
Is Order Management a Provisioning System or Your Best Salesperson? — by John Konczal — Order management as a differentiator is a very new concept to many CSP people, but it’s become a very real sales booster in many industries. Using electronics retailer BestBuy as an example, the article points to several innovations that can — and are — being applied by CSPs today. The article concludes with 8 key questions an operator should ask to measure advanced order management progress.
NEC Takes the Telecom Cloud from PowerPoint to Live Customers — interview with Shinya Kukita — In the cloud computing world, it’s a long road from technology success to telecom busness opportunity. But this story about how NEC and Telefonica are partnering to offer cloud services to small and medium enterprises shows the experience of early cloud adoption. Issues discussed in the article include: customer types, cloud application varieties, geographic region acceptance, and selling challenges.
Billing As Enabler for the Next Killer Business Model — interview with Scott Swartz — Facebook, cloud services, and Google Ads are examples of innovative business models that demand unique or non-standard billing techniques. The article shows how flexible, change-on-the-fly, and metadata-driven billing architectures are enabling CSPs to offer truly ground breaking services.
Real-Time Provisioning of SIM Cards: A Boon to GSM Operators — interview with Simo Isomaki — Software-controlled SIM card configuration is revolutionizing the activation of GSM phones. The article explains how dynamic SIM management decouples the selection of numbers/services and delivers new opportunities to market during the customer acquisition and intial provisoining phase.
A Cynic Converted: IN/Prepaid Platforms Are Now Pretty Cool — interview with Grant Lenahan — Service delivery platforms born in the IN era are often painted as inflexible and expensive to maintain. Learn how modern SDPs with protocol mediation, high availability, and flexible Service Creation Environments are delivering value for operators such as Brazil’s Oi.
Achieving Revenue Maximization in the Telecom Contact Center — interview with Robert Lamb — Optimizing the contact center offers one of the greatest returns on investment for a CSP. The director of AT&T’s contact center services business explains how telecoms can strike an “artful balance” between contact center investment and cost savings. The discussion draws from AT&T’s consulting with world class customers like Ford, Dell, Discover Financial, DISH Network, and General Motors.
Mobile Broadband: The Customer Service Assurance Challenge — interview with Michele Campriani — iPhone and Android traffic is surging but operators struggle with network congestion and dropping ARPUs. The answer? Direct resources and service quality measures to ensure VIPs are indeed getting the quality they expect. Using real-life examples that cut to the chase of technical complexities, this article explains the chief causes of service quality degradation and describes efficient ways to deal with the problem.
Telco-in-a-Box: Are Telecoms Back in the B/OSS Business? — interview with Jim Dunlap — Most telecoms have long since folded their merchant B/OSS software/services businesses. But now Cycle30, a subsidiary of Alaskan operator GCI, is offering a order-to-cash managed service for other operators and utilities. The article discusses the company’s unique business model and contrasts it with billing service bureau and licensed software approaches.
Bricks, Mortar & Well-Trained Reps Make a Comeback in Customer Management — interview with Scott Kohlman — Greater industry competition, service complexity, and employee turnover have raised the bar in the customer support. Indeed, complex services are putting an emphasis on quality care interactions in the store, on the web, and through the call center. In this article you’ll learn about innovations in CRM, multi-tabbed agent portals, call center agent training, customer treatment philosophies, and the impact of self-service.
21st Century Order Management: The Cross-Channel Sales Conversation — by John Konczal — Selling a mobile service is generally not a one-and-done transaction. It often involves several interactions — across the web, call center, store, and even kiosks. This article explains the power of a “cross-channel hub” which sits above all sales channels, interacts with them all, and allows a CSP to keep the sales conversation moving forward seamlessly.
Building a B/OSS Business Through Common Sense Customer Service — by David West — Delivering customer service excellence doesn‘t require mastering some secret technique. The premise of this article is that plain dealing with customers and employees is all that’s needed for a winning formula. The argument is spelling out in a simple 4 step methodology along with some practical examples.

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