A2P SMS revenue loss: Asian focus

Nefarious organisations, as well as lone operators, can essentially eat-up a significant portion of Application-to-Person messaging (it goes beyond SMS) revenues from Mobile Network Operators with no considerable investment requirement. As indicated in a previous article which focused on SIM box activity in Europe, SIM box activity is wide-ranging and global. A $60 billion business opportunity is at stake here. 

The focus of this article is to hone into SIM box activity in Asia and give interested parties a reliable indication as to the money most MNOs in the region are leaking.

Leaving millions on the table

Results based on research and tests carried out by HAUD’s research team in Bangladesh, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines on unprotected networks indicate that most Operators are leaking in the region of 30% of their A2P SMS traffic to SIM box activity.  On average, and backed by data collected internally, the price for an A2P SMS for the direct protected route is $0.04 in most markets in the region.  SIM box pricing, on the other hand, is averaged out at $0.0055. The discrepancy in pricing between direct pricing and SIM box pricing, therefore, is staggering.  Moreover, when one considers that the overall SIM box traffic in the markets analysed is of around 30%, the business loss implied is highly significant.   Most MNOs in the region are losing millions of dollars every month to this highly distributed, but potentially illegal activity.

Monetise effectively with the right partner

Awareness is paramount. Most MNOs are ill-equipped to prevent this leakage, for this requires a telco graded A2P Monetisation solution able to handle messages at scale especially for on-net filtering. Algorithmic-powered solutions can detect ‘grey routing’ of Application-to-Person traffic without affecting subscribers. 

A dated solution would be unable to adequately protect the operator and subscribers without causing any service disruption. As a first point of call for basic solutions would typically be to block the ‘compromised SIM’ altogether, thereby potentially causing accidental churn because of false positives and blocking actual subscribers.

Increase subscriber value

It is no secret that diminishing ARPU (average revenue per user) is hurting most MNOs profitability because of declining P2P voice and SMS traffic. By engaging the right partner to analyse, filter and monetise A2P traffic effectively, operators would reduce the impact of grey routes and revenue leaks. A boost in revenues from A2P SMS with minimal investment would be a welcome change for such MNOs as it would allow to tap into and recover revenues from their existing SMS business

Contact us to know more about how to best protect your network.  Protect A2P SMS revenues; it benefits your subscribers and your bottom-line.


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