Mobile firms bleed billions to fraud and bill errors
2 April 2012
BBC News - March 29, 2012
Mobile phone firms are losing $58bn (£36bn) a year worldwide to billing errors and fraud, a report says.
Juniper Research found operators were "leaking" revenue because the complexity of networks made fraud and errors harder to spot.
The problem is worst in Africa and the Middle East, where 15% of revenue is lost annually, compared with 1% in Europe and about 2.8% in North America.
The mobile industry is estimated to have generated $920bn in 2011.
"The developing markets lose the highest proportion of their revenue because they have a greater number of pre-paid customers and it is easier to control what happens on the network when there is a contract in place," said Juniper research director Windsor Holden.
"Also, developing nations have put their efforts into building subscriber bases rapidly and less thought has been given to how to deal with leakages."
Category: ICT