Tata Comm joins hands with Anam to support operators in fight against SMS fraud and grey routing

NEW DELHI:  Indian Telecom giant Tata Communications announces that it has partnered with Anam, the world’s fastest growing application-to-person (A2P) messaging monetisation service provider, to create an end-to-end solution that helps mobile network operators globally to tackle revenue loss caused by A2P SMS spam, fraud and ‘grey route’ messaging traffic – where message aggregators take advantage of non-contracted routes to send large volumes of A2P SMS messages.

Juniper Research estimates that global messaging traffic will double in the next three years, yet revenues generated by P2P messaging are in decline  as the popularity of OTT apps grows. Against this backdrop, A2P SMS presents an opportunity for mobile network operators to tap into a market that is estimated to reach almost $60 billion by 2018, as businesses in industries such as financial services, media, travel and hospitality use mobile channels to increasingly engage with their customers.

Tata Communications’ Mobile Messaging Exchange brings together messaging originator communities, who want to reach more mobile subscribers globally, and mobile network operators, who want to monetise A2P traffic termination. The combination of Mobile Messaging Exchange and Anam’s SMS firewall protects mobile networks against grey routing and spam traffic, ensuring secure and reliable SMS delivery, and enabling mobile network operators to recoup revenues owed to them by unauthorised message senders.

“It’s been estimated that grey routing could be costing mobile network operators globally up to USD 5 billion annually in lost revenues,” says Anthony Bartolo, President of Mobility and Collaboration Services at Tata Communications.

“Furthermore, there is no guarantee that messages sent using grey routes are actually delivered to their intended recipients. A2P SMS can be a hugely effective customer engagement tool for businesses – no OTT service can today match the ubiquity of SMS. But in order for mobile network operators, messaging aggregators and enterprises to reap the benefits of SMS, secure message delivery and reliability are key. The combined capabilities of Tata Communications and Anam enable mobile network operators to maximise revenues from A2P messaging, and ensure that messages will always get safely from A to B.”said Bartolo.

“Tackling grey route traffic is a highly attainable opportunity for all mobile network operators,” says Brian D’Arcy, Chief Commercial Officer, Anam.

“It involves a two-phased approach to firstly protect the network with the right technology and business processes, and secondly guarantee reach via global connections to A2P messaging users. The combined expertise of Tata Communications and Anam creates an end to end A2P delivery channel with a focus on generating new revenues for mobile network operators," said Anam.