iTouch, a multinational wireless application service provider which started out in Cape Town, has hit out at the mobile phone networks for their billing methodology, which it says is non-standard and bills customers even when premium content has not been delivered.
Wayne Levine, iTouch SA sales director, says the burgeoning youth industry of ringtone and operator logo requests, among other content services, is bedevilled by billing which is done when the request for content comes in, not when the content is received by the consumer.
iTouch markets a "short code" number to which the user sends an SMS, requesting a poem or other content to be sent to a cellphone.
"In the old days, one would interact with an IVR system, go through various options and be sent a specific piece of content," he says. "That is dying a rapid death. Instead you send a code to a phone number, such as 35050, and you expect delivery of the content." Content ranges from premium-rated weather information, news and operator logos, to downloads.
Customer fallout
Levine says the iTouch call centre is inundated with calls from customers who do not receive their content, yet are billed for it. "The network doesn`t know or care whether the content is actually received. It just bills, and a huge amount of content is not being delivered."
He says the billing technology, called Mobile Originating (MO), is in place with all the SA networks that offer these services. "What they should do is institute Mobile Terminating (MT) billing, which is the global standard."
He adds that another "fundamental problem with MO billing" is the fact that WASPs are forced to use different short codes for different services on different price bands. This means that a more expensive Java download cannot be marketed on the same, top-of-mind code as a ringtone. MT billing resolves this inflexibility, and is "altogether a more flexible and assured" way of billing.
"The problem is that the operators do not talk to the WASPs when they roll-out their services," he says, adding that on iTouch`s instigation, "at least now the networks share one short code for all services, across the networks".
Operator perspective
MTN`s consumer portal manager Gary Trehair says all networks in SA use MO billing. "If a request comes in, MTN will bill the customer. If it is not delivered, the recourse is to go to the service provider customer care channels."
He says the assertion that MT is necessarily better than MO depends on its implementation. "One can bill when it is sent, which may still not guarantee delivery, or when it is correctly delivered."
He adds that MT as a whole is globally "only standard on a number of premium services. There are many billing methodologies. MTN is looking at a number of them, and MT would be one of them, but I cannot confirm that we will roll it out."
Vodacom, which is rumoured to be rolling out MT billing, was not available for comment.
Cell C offers an IVR-based ringtone service.
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