Potraz commissions US$19m traffic monitoring system

Pand Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe ( POTRAZ), this week commissioned a US$ 19 million Telecommunications Traffic Monitoring System ( TTMS), a technology that is set to curb revenue leakages and improve the ICT sector's surveillance and performance.

The deal was implemented in partnership with Global Voice Group ( GVG), a Spanish-based organisation on a Build, Operate, and Transfer ( BOT) model where they will invest and share revenue.

POTRAZ will be entitled to 60 percent while GVG gets 40 percent of the revenue over a tenure of 54 months.

TTMS is an exceptionally innovative monitoring tool, which puts POTRAZ in a better position to combat network fraud, and enhances billing integrity and revenue assurance in the sector.

According to the International Telecommunications Union ( ITU), the Sub-Saharan region is among the most affected by Subscriber Identity Module box ( SIMbox) fraud globally since 2010.

SIM Box Fraud is one of the most common types of telecom fraud worldwide where fraudsters bypass legitimate routes and use VoIP “Grey Routes” to terminate traffic towards GSM Gateways located in the destination network.

Undesirably, grey markets tend to grow rapidly.

The chicanery is revenue damaging and according to Nigerian Regulator ( NCC), Nigeria is losing around US$ 60 million each year due to SIM boxing, call masking, and refilling while ITU acknowledges that Ghana has lost more than US$ 100 million as a result of fraudulent SIM boxes over the years.

TTMS, therefore, helps in the monitoring and controlling of the telecommunications sector over the possible fraud due to the misuse of internet services, the system empowers the regulator to efficiently discharge regulatory duties towards revenue evaluation and cross-verify the quality of telecom services.

POTRAZ director- general, Dr Gift Machengete, told Business Weekly on the sidelines of the launch event on Monday that the system, would help in improving the visibility of market dynamics, and provide accurate realtime data collection.

“Until now, POTRAZ has relied on a self-declaratory regime, where operators declare their revenues.

‘‘However, the information and statements provided by Mobile Network Operators ( MNOs) have the potential of being inaccurate, which means the nation may be prejudiced of revenue,” said Dr Machengete.

However, he added that; “The Authority has not had a challenge or suspicion of under-declaration of revenue by any of the operators.”

ICT commentator, Tawanda Karombo, said the newly introduced system would help in ameliorating fraud activities in the sector given the prevalence of racketeering activities in the telecoms sector lately where employees are defrauding millions of dollars from their employers.

“TTMS helps in revenue collection on part of the government, so any suspicions that operators were under-declaring their revenue will now be taken care of.

“Also we have heard of dealers who are selling voice and data bundles out of operators' knowledge, which means losses for the operators, this new system therefore will make sure that those dealers are taken care of because the system can detect the amount of data or minutes that are being used on a network, which is then matched with what is coming from the operators so if there is a mismatch it means there is a lot of fraud going on, we have seen a lot of employees from telecoms companies being dragged to court for that,” said Karombo.

Each year, billions of dollars in fees and taxes across the world are lost due to the illegal termination of international calls that bypass the international gateways of licensed operators, a major issue of concern in countries that lack sufficient visibility of the telecommunications sector.

however, said the process of setting up the system was affected by the Covid-19 pandemic since it was an international tender.