MTS Belarus and over-the-air Device and SIM management specialists Sicap have have recently announced the imminent marketing of a new credit screening service for MTS prepaid customers.

Sicap credit screening gives mobile users a zero-touch, always-on glance at their pre-paid balance. Real time information is enabled by connecting a Sicap over the air SIM applet to the MTS call billing server. As such, each call is immediately debited from the account balance and the updated remaining credit displayed.

MTS Belarus can roll out the service very quickly. The confirmed partners will demonstrate the credit-screening service and be committed to providing the best customer care and self-care in Belarus, market leader MTS can leverage the power of its Sicap-implemented Dynamic SIM tool kit (D STK), a flexible information delivery platform which has been in service since 2008 in the MTS Belarus network. With over 50% market shares, the leading operator MTS consistently relies on Sicap technology to sustain loyalty building and to retain custom through service differentiation. Perhaps the greatest competitive advantage of the D STK platform for MTS is the extremely quick conception to roll-out times for the new services, enabling them to be positioned as the sole operator on the market to propose credit screening.

MTS and Sicap will explore a number of similar SIM-based service opportunities which could include dynamic screening of preferential call rates, special offers or credit top-up alerts.

Benefits for the operator are not limited to accrued customer loyalty. Because real time information screened directly on the mobile device is perceived by mobile users as a great way of simplifying their mobile experience, a large number of them are prepared to pay a nominal fee for these services. As services grow on the D STK platform, the financial gain curve will quickly be exponential.

Sicap’s confirmed over-the-air expertise means that they can guarantee usability of screening services in the Belarus market context on at least 80% of devices, whether on the home network or in a roaming context.

According to Simon Hofer, Managing Director of Sicap Eastern Europe, “The Sicap SIM DSTK implementation has opened up a myriad of opportunities for MTS to get to market quickly with sticky services which customers really want. We will proudly demonstrate credit screening with MTS at the 2009 TIBO congress in the Belarus capital and share with them our experience of dynamic services on two other continents.”

About Sicap
The Sicap portfolio focuses on customer satisfaction and service continuity for mobile end-users. Server-side software enables operators to ensure that the latest multimedia and customer care services are seamlessly delivered to any device or SIM. The offer extends to include platforms which facilitate business between network operators and their partners. Hosted implementations or carrier-grade OSS platform installations provide operators a choice of service levels and investment.
For further information about Sicap, please visit www.sicap.com

About MTS Belarus
The Mobile TeleSystems Joint Limited Liability Company (MTS JLLC ) has been providing the network services on the territory of Belarus starting from June 27, 2002.

The MTS JLLC founders are the MTS OJSC on the Russian part and the Beltelecom RUE on the Belarusian part.

For 6 years of successful operating in Belarus the company has become a leader among the mobile operators in terms of the number of subscribers, network infrastructure and radio covering. Since September 2004 the MTS JLLC has had the largest number of subscribers, and since the end of 2005 – the best infrastructure network providing the highest quality of communication. At present the MTS coverage zone includes 94% of the territory of the country with more than 98% of the population.

The MTS JLLC is a part of the Mobile TeleSystems Group, which offers its communication services in six countries of CIS with the total population of more than 230 millions. Owing to MTS presence at the CIS market the company provides its Belarusian subscribers with preferential roaming in Russia, Armenia, Uzbekistan, Ukraine and Turkmenistan.