Illegal call termination costing network operators $150 million a year
Cost of illegal ‘SIM box’ call termination estimated at more than $150 million per annum to mobile operators
Mobile networks are losing revenues worth at least $150 million annually from the illegal termination of minutes, also known as ‘GSM Gateway’ or “SIM box fraud”, according to UK mobile anti-fraud specialist, Revector.
“SIM box fraud” takes place when individuals or organisations purchase hundreds of SIM cards which offer free or low cost calls to mobile numbers. These are then used to channel national or international calls away from mobile network operators and present them as local calls on their networks losing them significant international call revenues.
Andy Gent, CEO of Revector commented: “Operators that don’t take measures to remove SIM box fraud are literally letting significant revenues slip through their shareholders’ fingers. They are also risking lower customer satisfaction: call quality can be severely reduced and standard features such as caller line identity are also removed.”
Revector identified illegal SIM box termination in more than 50 countries during the last two years. In some cases SIM cards were generating up to 10 cents per minute for more than 20 days per month, costing an operator up to $3000 per SIM, per month in lost revenue. One well known European operator estimated losses in excess of $15 million through SIM box fraud per year.
“The scale of SIM box fraud is driven by the easy availability of GSM gateway hardware and the wide range of different offers available from mobile network operators. Organisations can effectively go into business terminating GSM calls and generate thousands in revenues, which should rightly be collected by network operators,” continued Gent. “We have seen countries where tens of thousands of SIM cards are being used for illegal termination at any one moment in time.”
Revector offers mobile network operators a quick and cost-effective way to identify SIM box fraud so that they can suspend fraudulent SIM cards in a matter of minutes. Customers include Vodafone, Bharti Airtel, Hutchison Three, Zain, Digicel, Etisalat, Telenor, Tele2, Tigo, MTS, NTT DoCoMo, Rogers, T-Mobile and Cable & Wireless.
Gent concluded: “SIM box fraud is only one of the ways in which mobile networks are being used to generate fraudulent or illegal revenues. We are seeing a number of new ways in which the mobile networks are being manipulated for illicit ends.”
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About Revector:
Founded in 2002, Revector creates products and services that enable telecommunications companies to quickly and effectively counter fraud. Working with operators including Vodafone, Bharti Airtel, Hutchison Three, Zain, Digicel, Etisalat, Telenor, Tele2, Tigo, MTS, NTT DoCoMo,Rogers, T-Mobile and Cable & Wireless, Revector’s products have enabled mobile network operators to remove millions of pounds worth of fraudulent activity from the networks.
About GSM gateway or SIM box fraud:
SIM box fraud occurs when the cost of terminating national or international calls exceeds the cost of a local mobile to mobile call in a particular country. Individuals and organisation buy multiple SIM cards and sell capacity to terminate calls on the open market. This leads to lost revenues for mobile network operators. SIM box fraud is illegal since those who undertake this activity are not licensed to provide telecommunications services in country. Consumers will be unaware that their call is being routed via a SIM box fraud but may experience a reduced quality of call or a reduction in telecommunications services, such as caller line identity.
Media contacts:
Chris Bignell
XL Communications
Tel: 07834 020460
Gary Marshall
XL Communications
Tel: 07733 224654
