MT billing is one of the most crucial issues in SSA mobile content today. It’s at the heart of technical challenges, moral debates and significant business concerns. In fact, several major operators in the region still don’t offer it. For instance, at time of writing, major players such as Globacom Nigeria or Orange Senegal do not make MT billing available to third party WASPs. The first obstacle is often technical implementation. But even once the MT billing platform is up and running, the biggest issue remains.
Operators are concerned that their subscribers won’t react well to MT billing, and that the damage to their image caused by the negative feedback will outweigh the financial benefits. That fear is increased by how fiercely competitive most markets have become. A top executive at one of the continent’s largest strategic investors told me a few weeks ago that in some territories, they simply would never implement MT billing. And among those who do run it, their oversensitivity to every single user complaint makes it difficult for content providers to roll out their services. As a result, WASPs waste precious resources on “crisis” situations often triggered by as few as 5 user complaints to the operator.
On many aspects, such caution is understandable. Most users on SSA’s almost exclusively prepaid low ARPU markets purchase airtime on a punctual basis, according to immediate means and needs. The price of a standard MT billed event, $0.5 on average, is enough to make at least 1 on-net call, or to send 2 or 3 SMS. How annoying then it must be for the user to have just that amount of airtime left and to receive an MT billed WAP push for a tune she won’t even be able to download, given that airtime is also needed for data. Of course, the official response to this is that the end-user signs up willingly, and can send STOP at any time at no cost. Still, the above example scenario, which is frequent, (in my empirical experience, at least 25% of MT billing events consume 70% or more of the end-user’s remaining airtime) shows that the current model is clearly flawed.
So should we throw the baby out with the bath water? Of course not. There are enough risks and uncertainties for content providers entering SSA markets today: they should at least be able to benefit from the reassuring recurrence of MT billing. But why couldn’t regulators or operators make an extra move to protect their users, by implementing a prepaid airtime threshold for MT billing? That way, if the threshold is, say, $0.5, any billed MT that would bring the user’s airtime below that level would automatically be treated as an unchargeable. It would not get delivered, and the user would therefore not be billed for it. There are obvious implementation costs and short term losses of income associated with such a measure. But it could be a small price to pay compared to how bad things might otherwise get.
by Alexander Grouet
The views expressed by Alexander Grouet do not necessarily reflect those of Mira Networks
