Telcos 'leaking' US$176b a year

Revenue loss among telcos is increasing globally, but decreasing among European and North American operators, according to new report.

The world's telecoms operators "leaked" US$176b in revenue in 2006, or 12.1 percent of their combined turnovers, compared to 11.6 per cent last year.

The figures are from the fourth annual Operator Attitudes to Revenue Assurance survey conducted by Analysys on behalf of Subex Azure, a company which specialises in 'revenue maximisation' for telcos. 

Fraud is the biggest single source of revenue loss, according to the report, swallowing 2.9 per cent of turnover. Poor credit management, incorrect service usage data and incorrect payments to other networks are growing areas of loss.

The largest operators, those with five million or more subscribers, suffer the lowest losses.

"From this year's research it is clear that operators are more concerned about all sources of revenue leakage," said Danny Dicks, principal analyst at Analysys. "It is apparent that revenue assurance has become much more of a board-level issue."

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