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Get the latest announcements from MEF Members across the mobile ecosystem globally in this weekly review of member news…

Proximus spends €569m on full ownership of BICS

International communications provider BICS has announced that Proximus acquired MTN and Swisscom’s shares in the company for a transaction value of €569 million.

The acquisition makes Proximus the sole shareholder of BICS and TeleSign. BICS said it will now be able to accelerate its growth plans through a combination of investments in key domains.

Proximus said that the best way to execute upon its plans and have the necessary flexibility to create long-term value for BICS and TeleSign was to acquire 100% ownership of BICS. MTN and Swisscom will remain commercial partners of BICS.

“Having served on the BICS Board of Directors since 2011, I have seen first-hand the impressive track record of diversification and growth of BICS,” said Matteo Gatta, BICS CEO.

“With the support of Proximus, we will accelerate this trajectory. Thanks to our scale we are best positioned for the inevitable international voice market consolidation while pursuing opportunities to strengthen our core mobility services.

“In addition, we are increasingly exposed to the fast-paced digital transformation, thanks to our best-in-class Cloud Communications, IoT, and All-In Roaming solutions which build upon BICS’ extensive network reach.

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Anam wins “Best SMS Firewall” at Juniper Telco Innovation 2021 awards

Innovative use of analytics, machine learning and Managed Service is a key differentiator for Anam whose successful management of A2P grey route leakage on the mobile network fuelled significant customer growth during 2020.

Anam, the leading Mobile Operator partner for monetizing grey route messaging, is delighted to announce that the company has been selected as the Best SMS Firewall, by international industry specialists, Juniper Research. This award was given under the Juniper Research Telco Innovation program – Future Digital Awards.

Announcing the 2021 winner, Juniper stated “Anam has developed a powerful suite of products and services for mobile operators to ensure protection against messaging fraud and security breaches”. The study was conducted in Q4 2020 with vendors measured on a range of criteria including Product Innovation, Features and Benefits, Product Partnerships, Certifications & Compliance and Future Business Prospects.

The use of grey routes for transmission of A2P SMS is illegal and fraudulent. The management of such traffic onto legitimate contract routes with controlled GDPR ensures the mobile operator is remunerated for traffic carried on their network. A lucrative market exists for fraudsters seeking to defraud mobile operators and resulting in increasingly sophisticated spam and scam techniques.

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Syniverse and Minu Launch Verified SMS in Brazil

Syniverse, the most connected company in the world, has launched, together with Minu, previously known as Minutrade, its first Verified short message service (SMS) project in Brazil. The collaboration between the two companies will allow Minu to send SMS messages with an additional layer of verification, which gives its customers more confidence in interacting with its brand through text Messages by Google.

Companies use SMS messages to share useful information with their consumers. Important details such as resetting passwords, confirming account creation, or confirming appointments are commonly sent via SMS to customers and employees. However, as these communications are often made from random or unknown numbers it can be difficult to trust the source. Some may even come from fraudsters pretending to be institutions that consumers trust and request private information or send links to malicious websites.

Pablo Mlikota, President, Americas, Syniverse:  “Verified SMS by Google is a key component of our Syniverse CPaaS Concierge and allows companies to deepen their relationship with their customers, who come to trust more in the brands with which they interact, which creates loyalty. In addition, these same relationships lay the foundation for companies to produce new revenue streams, with messages designed to increase engagement and conversions for their marketing campaigns. We appreciate the opportunity to work with Minu and solve a business challenge that they will overcome with our Syniverse CPaaS Concierge.”

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Boku Inc. Launches Direct Carrier Billing with Microsoft in South Korea & Saudi Arabia

Boku Inc. a leading global provider of mobile payment and identity solutions, has today announced it has launched a new mobile payment method for Microsoft in both South Korea and Saudi Arabia.

Customers of South Korea’s SK Telecom and Saudi Arabia’s Saudi Telecom can now make seamless and secure cardless payments in both Microsoft Xbox and Microsoft PC Stores.

Microsoft Gamers and PC users are now able to speed through checkout by using their phone number as their on-file payment method. To that end, Direct Carrier Billing will further accelerate the access and utilization of Microsoft products via digital payments for millions of SKT and STC subscribers.

Jon Prideaux, Chief Executive Officer of Boku Inc, commented, “We’re excited to further extend Microsoft’s mobile payments acceptance through our global carrier coverage that includes strategic partners like SKT and STC. Our collaboration with Microsoft is a promising achievement that will provide convenience and security to the millions of existing Microsoft platform users as well as attract new ones.”

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The evolution of messaging from SMS to next-gen applications

David Turner, Vice President for Neustar’s Global Numbering Intelligence product line, writes about the evolution of messaging, and delivering a successful customer engagement

Recent trends in messaging will create significant growth in secure A2P messaging, RCS, and 2FA services. Neustar discusses how its GSMA PathFinder solution can manage this massive increase in volume, securely and reliably, to get the right messages to the right recipient when it matters most.

How does PathFinder futureproof service providers for the demands that RCS and A2P messaging will create?

By 2023, A2P traffic growth is expected to increase by 40%. As the leading authority on number resolution, PathFinder helps service providers ensure that their traffic is routed accurately, securely, and cost-efficiently. Using virtual resources with edge nodes and a cloud infrastructure, our carrier-grade application is built to anticipate and scale to capacity requirements that will exceed the projected growth – ensuring subscriber’s messages get through.

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Telecoming implements Evina’s Eyewitness technology to secure subscriber acquisition

As a leader of monetization technology for digital services, we develop and deploy technology for User Acquisition in the mobile environment. We are genuinely committed to fighting against mobile ad fraud that can imply $ 20bn in losses this year (according to our partner Juniper Research). In that sense, we are happy to communicate Eyewitness technology’s implementation in our digital advertising campaigns.

This technology identifies malicious traffic and behaviour to protect the user and optimize digital marketing investments. ‘Eyewitness’ records the user acquisition process to guarantee transparency during the mobile purchase process.

According to Roberto Monge, COO of Telecoming:  “Direct Carrier Billing is the payment technology with the most significant potential in acquiring customers due to its simplicity in the process. To place it at the forefront of the mobile industry, we need to keep transparency and security in every transaction.”

In Europe, 95.2% of smartphone users browse the mobile Internet, and in Africa and the Middle East, this ratio is around 93%. Just this year, the global figure for Internet display ads viewed on smartphones will exceed 31,300bn, and in two years it will reach 40,400bn. Mobile display ads investment will be over $ 27,480M in 2021 and will surpass $ 34,000M in 2023.

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