**$US500 billion global communications industry faces US$10-25 billion leakage problem
SYDNEY, Australia
Global telecommunications companies could be losing US$10-25 billion in revenue due to leakage in the use of
infrastructure networks.
This was revealed at the telecommunications panel discussion during the recent Teradata Universe conference in Sydney
attended by telcorepresentatives from the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Asia.
Revenue assurance is one of the biggest issues facing the telecommunications industry today, said Jim Powell, Teradata
vice president for communications industry in Asia Pacific.
In the telecommunication industry revenue assurance means ensuring that a service provider (whether a telephone carrier
or ISP) is billing and collecting revenue that is commensurate to the use and sale of its products and services. This
means that if a mobile phone user makes a 20-minute call a phone company should be able to bill and collect the
corresponding revenue.
But this does not always happen due to leakages.
In some instances a phone company can only bill for 15 minutes of a 20-minute call due to leakage. Global estimates
showed that the US$500 billion communications industry could be losing a minimum of $US10-25 billion in leakages.
A ten per cent reduction in leakage can add millions of dollars to the revenue stream of any telecommunications company.
For some carriers this may spell the difference between profitability and failure, said Powell.
She said Australian telecommunications companies led by the three major providers, Telstra, Optus and Vodafone are
investing in IT and data warehousing solutions that can help prevent revenue leakages.
The first step in stopping this revenue leakage problem is to know where and how big the problem is. Using an enterprise
data warehouse, telecommunications companies would have a better control of data capture and analysis which are vital in
resolving this problem, Powell said.
ends