MACH has announced a range of solutions designed to offset the impact on mobile operator roaming revenues of the recent European Union (EU) pricing regulations.
The company says its EU Compliance Power Pack will immediately counter the forecast reduction in revenues by implementing smart rating and price optimisation.
It says this allows mobile operators to reprice certain services such as voice and SMS in order to create new revenue streams offsetting the anticipated effects of the EU regulation.
The measures introduced by European regulators impose wide-ranging pricing restrictions and administrative obligations on mobile operators.
Voice, SMS and data service prices will be capped with effect from 1st July 2009, with further reductions in caps becoming effective in 2011.
Operators will also be required to bill on a per second basis under the new regulations.
The legislation also requires operators to notify subscribers of high usage to avoid so-called "bill shocks", requiring real-time usage reporting and notification processes.
European officials said they will monitor changes to other operator charging structures to ensure that these are not increased to compensate for the impact of the new legislation.
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| Lodewijk Cornelis, CMO at MACH |
Lodewijk Cornelis, CMO at MACH, said its Power Pack includes a solution to the "bill shock" problem, by triggering timely customer notification whenever a usage threshold is reached.
He said this solution gives mobile operators the ability to provide customers with timely data usage information while roaming.
"The regulations approved by the European Parliament, combined with increasing competition both from within the mobile industry and from alternative communications technologies, mean that operators have to continuously monitor and reassess retail and wholesale pricing strategies," he said.
"MACH solutions turn, what seems at first sight to be, a huge obstacle to growth into an opportunity for operators to differentiate their offerings and reduce their operational costs."
The EU is also preparing legislation to force carriers to allow VoIP to run on their cellular networks.
Earlier this month, EU Telecoms Commissioner Viviane Reding said that "action" should be taken against carriers that use their market power to block "innovative services".
Cornelis said the new solutions allow operators to use sophisticated simulation techniques to optimise retail and wholesale pricing of non-EU roaming traffic, increasing revenues while at the same time maximising customer value.
He said The Power Pack also handles the complex task of rating usage data in real time by reference to regulatory capping, and its applications process all of the administrative changes to inter-operator tariff structures to ensure accurate and timely settlement before and after the regulations come into effect.
MACH clears two out of every three roaming calls on GSM and CDMA networks and settles more than 60 per cent of the inter-operator wholesale invoice amounts.
