LatAm Operators Reduce Losses to Fraud

Telecoms operators in Latin America and the Caribbean are expected to reduce their losses in 2006 to 9% of their total revenues compared to 13.2% in 2005, according to a new study conducted by global revenue assurance company Subex Azure and telecoms consultancy Analysys.

The study estimates that regional operators will lose approximately US$13bn in 2006, compared to US$14bn in 2005 through fraud and other types of revenue leakage. Around the world, operators are expected to lose an estimated 12% of revenue, or over US$1.5tn in 2006.

"This is the fifth edition of this survey which now included 14 Latin American and Caribbean operators, compared to four in the 2005 version. In 2005, telecoms operators failed to capture an estimated 13.2% or nearly US$14bn through fraud and other types of revenue leakage," Azure Latin America's sales VP Carlos Cué told BNamericas.

Globally, most operators (47%) said they would accept losses between 0.5-1%, while 6% of respondents said they would accept losses of up to 4% of their revenues. Larger operators and fixed line companies are less tolerant to losses, accepting only 0.8%, compared to mobile operators (1.1%) or smaller companies (1.3%).

Latin American operators said they would accept losses of up to 3% of their revenues, which is lower than the 4.5% accepted in the 2005 survey.

"Within the survey in Latin America and the Caribbean, systems integration, rates and problems in billing generate the highest losses for companies, above the global average. However, losses in other areas are lower than worldwide," Cué said.

According to the survey, for the next 12 months operators expect the largest losses to come from external fraud, poor business processes and pricing and implementation of new products.

"Seventy-nine percent of the respondents said revenue assurance is today more important than it was 12 months ago," Cué added.

In Latin America, Azure Solutions has an office in Mexico from where it manages businesses across the region.

BNAmericas.com"

Posted to the site on 9th November 2006