General8.11.2012

FTS Unveils New Revenue Opportunities for Africa’s Operators

FTS demonstrates how billing and charging will help operators monetise M2M, fibre and fixed line at AfricaCom

FTS, a global provider of billing, customer care and policy control solutions for communications and content service providers, today announced that it will be discussing the most promising revenue opportunities for Africa’s operators at AfricaCom, the conference for Digital Africa, covering the converging telecoms, media and ICT sectors.

FTS will be exhibiting at AfricaCom in Cape Town from 13th to 15th November, demonstrating its policy control and billing solutions at Booth E13 and discussing the monetisation potential of M2M, fixed line and fibre for Africa’s communications service providers.

M2M is expected to be one of the telecom industry’s fastest-growing sectors, meaning new revenue opportunities for operators. Billing and policy control are vital requirements, and operators need to know how to meet the very distinct requirements of M2M billing.

“FTS can help operators overcome the challenges posed by the high-volume but low-value transactions of the M2M sector,” commented Nir Asulin, CEO, FTS. “Operators will need to be able to offer new deals, services and pricing models quickly and easily, and FTS can help them increase both revenues and margins. In Africa, M2M presents a great opportunity because of the nature of continent: there are many rural areas without good infrastructure and M2M communications can help underpin utility services, such as water and power, for example.”

FTS will be demoing its billing capabilities, including M2M billing, at AfricaCom, as well as discussing the opportunities that the current fibre revolution presents for the region’s fixed line operators.

With their existing networks and infrastructure in place, wireline operators are perfectly positioned to capitalise on the influx of fibre optic and transform their networks and offerings, creating new, high quality services for consumers and reaching out into some of the more remote areas for the first time. New revenue opportunities include offering transmission services to cellular operators and ISPs, and providing next generation services to government authorities and public bodies, as well as businesses and private consumers.

“Operators need to be fully equipped to take advantage of the services offered by the new networks, including high speed Internet, IPTV, VoIP, cellular backhauling and online services,” explained Nir. “Implementing a smart billing system coupled with convergent charging and policy control provides the ability for cross-sell and up-sell offerings – generating revenue from existing subscribers with new personalised applications, content and services.”

FTS has a strong heritage in Africa working with many of the region’s operators and is experienced in providing convergent billing, customer care and interconnect solutions designed to handle the most sophisticated requirements of an operator at the speed of marketing. It has long-standing relationships with many of Africa’s leading operators in Nigeria, South Africa, Cameroon and Zimbabwe, providing the company with a great depth-of-understanding of the issues and challenges facing the continent’s operators.

Visit FTS on Stand E13 at AfricaCom, CTICC Cape Town, South Africa, 13-15 November 2012. To schedule a meeting with or request a demo from FTS at the show, please contact [email protected].

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