The report is based on the responses of over 100 operators around the world, to investigate levels of revenue loss globally. Fraud was again the single largest area of revenue leakage having increased to 2.9 per cent of turnover. There were also increases in revenue leakage due to credit management, incorrect service usage data and interconnect/partner payment errors.
There continues to be significant regional differences with losses across Europe and the Americas reducing, however losses have increased in Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and Africa. When looking at losses by operator type the larger operators (those with in excess of 5 million subscribers) are typically suffering a lower percentage of revenue loss than their counterparts.
On a positive note, the report revealed that more operators are now trying to reduce revenue leakage at the product planning stage in an effort to fully recoup future revenues. Additionally, revenue assurance is continuing to move up the corporate agenda at many operators, with ultimate responsibility increasingly being at CEO or CFO level - interestingly, these operators have shown lower levels of revenue leakage.
Danny Dicks, Principal Analyst at Analysys, said: "From this year's research it is clear that operators are more concerned about all sources of revenue leakage. It is apparent that revenue assurance has become much more of a board-level issue."
Subash Menon, Founder Chairman, Managing Director & CEO, Subex Azure Ltd said: "Reducing revenue leakage is a continuous exercise, as every time new products are launched or systems changed, there is the potential for fraud and revenue leakage. This year's research shows there is still plenty of work to do, however there are signs that operators are starting to be much more pro-active with regards to implementing revenue-assurance measures."
