Telcordia Launches Dynamic Pricing Solution for Indian Operators to Help Increase Revenue Through Network Optimization

Press Release: Telcordia has announced the launch of the Telcordia Dynamic Pricing solution for operators in India. The solution will help mobile operators increase revenue, through increased usage of excess capacity, while helping to defer CAPEX that would otherwise be required to upgrade congested cells.

The Dynamic Pricing solution can help alter subscribers’ behavior by shifting usage to underutilized cell areas or less congested time slots in order to increase network usage and increase mobile network operators’ revenue potential. By offering dynamic discounts, operators can even turn non-customers into customers, increasing overall usage and revenue without compromising existing margins.

“Mobile operators in India are today going thru challenging times and are looking for innovative ways to increase revenues without adding CAPEX & OPEX costs and Telcordia’s Dynamic Pricing solution provides the answer,” said Anuj Kapur, Country Head, Service Delivery Solutions, Telcordia India. “The solution will help operators better manage network usage, relieve congestion, and increase revenue from their existing network by influencing customer usage patterns by offering real time discounts. For example, if a cell site is congested in a particular area, the customer can be sent a message saying if he makes a call from a neighboring cell or at a later time from the same cell, the call would be charged at 20% discount.”

Operators are looking for innovative ways to increase revenues and the Telcordia Dynamic Pricing solution provides the answer. The solution will help operators better manage network usage, relieve congestion, and increase revenue from their existing network by influencing customer usage patterns by offering real time discounts. For example, when a customer enters a lightly used area, a message is sent promoting a discount on calls from that location for the next hour. Thus, price-sensitive customers are directly prompted to increase their total usage (where excess capacity exists). Over time, the effect is that elective calls are shifted to discounted cells, reducing congestion in peak cells.”

“For subscribers, it offers better quality of service as well as more flexible pricing models that fit their needs, which, ultimately, drives higher customer satisfaction and reduces churn”, Kapur added.

The new Dynamic Pricing solution, built on the proven asset base of Telcordia® Service Director, analyzes voice and data network traffic, computes cell-based discounts using a configurable algorithm, and broadcasts the discounts via the cell broadcast center. Indian mobile operators will be able to vary their pricing options based on a range of factors, including cell load, time of day, location, and past traffic patterns. Furthermore, subscriber response analysis feedback to the pricing engine helps operators optimize the pricing and avoid any pitfall of discounting.

This solution is pre-integrated with Telcordia® Real-Time Charging, which enables operators to create and deploy dynamic customer-specific rules for rating, discounting, promotions and settlements, and which, for dynamic pricing, applies the dynamic discounts according to actual usage. The Dynamic Pricing solution also supports an open architecture, making it a vendor-agnostic solution and facilitating integration with other charging applications.

The Telcordia Dynamic Pricing solution and Telcordia® Real-Time Charging are both currently available, either individually or as a fully integrated solution.

As India moves to Mobile Broadband, particularly with the plans for increased availability of 3G, the opportunities and needs for service differentiation will significantly increase, as has been seen by Telcordia customers in other markets such as Brazil, Europe and North America. Telcordia Service Delivery & Charging Suite includes products, solutions and managed services that enable communication service providers to quickly differentiate themselves in hyper-competitive and hyper-growth markets with innovative service offerings.

MTN-Orascom: What exactly is for sale?

www.Wirelessfederation.com/news: A lot of activity and news has been generated around the MTN-Orascom deal which is said to be in the offing. One of the key things to note, which MTN has experienced over the last 3 attempts (Twice with Bharti and once with Reliance) that a deal could be close and yet quite far.
That said, if a deal were to happen, here’s a quick analysis of whats for sale in the Orascom portfolio and why 2 assets are particularly interesting:
1. Djezzy in Algeria: Top line of $1.86 billion with a 46% market share (14.6 million subs) and a 57% EBITDA margin! This is the jewel in the crown. However, there is a downside here as well for some key reasons. Orascom’s relationship with the government and the regulator is strained and Q4 2009 results suffered on account of backdated taxes and penalties. Djezzy has actually seen market share decline by 5 percent and ARPU declined by 16% in 2009. Mobile penetration is in excess of 90% and Q-tel owned Njedma has proven to be an aggressive competitor. Numbers are big and exciting but the hay-days might just be getting over pretty soon though.
2. Tunisiana in Tunisia: Orascom owns half of Tunisiana alongside it’s arch rival in Algeria, Q-Tel (Wataniya) which owns the remaining 50 percent. With 53 percent market share (5.2 million subs) and 54% EBITDA margin this is another rock and roll story. However, with Orange launching and that too with an exclusive 3G license, pressures will build up sooner rather than later.
3. CellOne Namibia, Telecel Zimbabwe, Telecel Central African Republic & U-com Burundi together have 1.8 million subscribers and contribute only $81 million to the top line.
Advantage MTN: With the 2 key markets facing pressure, MTN is very well positioned to make the most of the situation and ensure that margins are intact or could even be expanded if it plays out its cards right with what it knows best about innovative and dynamic pricing, mobile money and fantastic Value added services. Understandably Q-Tel and Orange need to watch this space closely.