According to Azure Solutions, the global revenue-assurance company, mobile operators worldwide are losing billions of dollars from unintentional or malicious revenue leakage. It estimates that annual global losses are over $72 billion and this figure is likely to increase with the emergence of 3G and other next-generation technologies.

These losses are based on the findings of Azure’s recent ‘Operator Attitudes to Revenue Assurance 2005’ report, which was conducted in conjunction with telecoms analysts Analysys. The report reveals that mobile operators continue to lose more revenue than compared to fixed-line operators, with major sources of loss being fraud, poor systems integration and invoicing system errors.

In order to help mobile operators, Azure has recently launched Certo 2, the latest version of its automated revenue-assurance solution designed to help mobile telcos analyse, detect and correct revenue-leakage problems in real time. Certo 2 is designed to meet the demands of high-volume current and next-generation 3G mobile networks, while at the same time lowering the time and effort needed to deploy and managed an enterprise-wide revenue-assurance program. Several mobile operators have already purchased the system.

Certo 2 complements Azure’s industry leading fraud-detection and interconnect solutions, for both mobile subscription and usage assurance including:

· Retail usage assurance – for pre-paid and post-paid services
· Interconnect settlement assurance – for incoming and outgoing traffic
· Roaming clearing assurance – for TAP-in and TAP-out
· Content assurance – subscriber charges and out-payments
· Subscription assurance – recurring fees for provision of services

John Cronin, president and CEO of Azure Solutions, said: “Considering that the average global mobile ARPU is approximately $20 per month, operators are losing the equivalent of a month and a half’s revenue per user. It may not sound much, but when you add it all together that is significant lost revenue. At a time when mobile revenues are actually decreasing and operators are looking to roll-out 3G services, effective revenue assurance can make a positive impact on an operator’s bottom line.”

Azure will be exhibiting at Hall 2, Stand G84 at the 3GSM World Congress, taking place at the Fira de Barcelona, Barcelona 13-16 February 2006.