MACH, the leading provider of cloud-based managed communication services, today announced the launch of its new Bill Shock Prevention solution designed to increase consumer confidence in data roaming. By alleviating consumer concerns associated with bill shock, the offering encourages greater data roaming usage, which results in increased roaming revenues for operators, and enhances the overall customer experience, so increasing customer satisfaction. The solution also ensures compliance with regulatory requirements, and helps operators improve revenue assurance by avoiding some of the problems that have been associated with the provision of roaming services such as bill disputes or exposure to debt.

Mobile data usage has witnessed unprecedented growth in recent years, fuelled by smartphone and tablet adoption as well as a greater variety of feature-rich content and applications available for mobile connected devices. Despite the rapid growth in domestic data consumption, the vast majority of consumers – 58 per cent according to recent research MACH conducted with YouGov – continue to switch off 3G connectivity when travelling abroad due to fear of bill shock. This fear hinders operators’ ability to deliver recurrent revenues from roaming – estimated to offer an additional value of up to $900 million globally if such concerns could be alleviated.

Guy Reiffer, Vice President Marketing & Partnerships, MACH, commented: “In order to remove the fear of bill shock and increase confidence in and uptake of data roaming, mobile network operators require granular, real-time insight into data usage. Furthermore, compliance with the latest EU regulation and the GSMA’s recently announced Data Roaming Transparency Initiative will only be achieved by operators that can take proactive steps to ensure customers are notified about their data usage. MACH’s Bill Shock Prevention solution gives operators exactly this kind of insight, playing a vital role in helping them to grow roaming revenues through increased usage and improved customer retention.”

Part of MACH’s M Serve cloud-based portfolio of fast-to-market mobile data monetization services, Bill Shock Prevention monitors subscriber data roaming usage in real-time and provides immediate alerts. Operators can pre-define usage thresholds that then trigger alerts to the operator and send SMS notifications to subscribers. End-users are also able to query data usage when roaming through SMS to gain real-time insight into their current usage levels. In certain cases, operators can block data traffic when consumption reaches particularly high-levels, thereby avoiding the risk of bad debt.

MACH’s M Serve portfolio also comprises its Data Optimization solution, which significantly lowers the cost of delivering data roaming and domestic services to subscribers for mobile network operators and MVNOs. The first to be launched under the M Serve brand, MACH’s Data Roaming Engine revolutionizes the way tariffs can be designed and implemented, allowing mobile network operators to offer all subscribers a bespoke set of data roaming packages, and giving control of costs and flexibility of service choices back to the subscriber. All M Serve solutions are created and deployed using MACH’s Managed Service Delivery Platform in a way that is very much faster than operators can do themselves in-house, significantly speeding operators’ time-to-market with new data services.

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About MACH

MACH connects and monetizes the telecom world with its comprehensive and growing portfolio of cloud-based communication services, called MACH Embrace. It provides its 650 operator customers with solutions to monetize mobile data, simplify interoperability between networks, optimize wholesale processes and protect revenues. MACH is the largest provider of data and financial clearing solutions for wireless roaming and operates the globe’s largest and fastest growing open connectivity roaming hub, Link2One. It inserts the operator in the content and application value chain and serves the reseller and wholesaler community with its A2P messaging solutions. Headquartered in Luxembourg, MACH has offices in 12 countries. Its customers include Orange, Telefonica, T-Mobile, Telus, Verizon Wireless and Microsoft, as well as enterprise messaging customers like KLM. For more information, visit www.mach.com.