STD Codes: Difficult to Manage and a Perpetual Revenue Gap

Everyone in telecommunications knows that destination (STD) codes are notoriously difficult to manage and can result in serious losses if they’re not dealt with correctly.

For example, calls to expensive international mobile destinations now represent approximately 60 per cent of all internationally destined traffic and the explosive growth in mobile numbers in particular makes it increasingly difficult for operators to identify and manage these codes.

With tens of thousands of customers, many with their own tariff plan, revenue assurance teams are finding it difficult to check call detail records (CDR) and match incoming revenue to the outgoing cost. In fact, many telcos know that they have loss making routes but don’t have the visibility of the data that would allow them to identify the gaps and take the necessary steps to address it.

This has a serious impact on the bottom line for any telco business and often, as data is often copied across badly, having a problem is one part of the business compounds the leakage across all other parts.

For example, we were recently working on a project for a well-known integrated computing and network services company.  Having noticed a change in calling patterns from France to India, we ran a report using our global number range management (GNRM) database tool. The report showed that calls to mobile numbers in India were being billed at a national cheaper tariff than they should have been. This was costing the company more than €1,000 a month just in France. Armed with the knowledge that they had a problem in France, the Company was able to check for the same issue across all of its geographies.

And, this particular company is not alone. Here at BIAAS we’ve worked on many similar projects, with similar results for some of the world’s largest telcos. The enlightened among them are investing thousands of pounds in order to save literally millions. The innovators among them are considering how they can make more use of the data to avoid issues before they happen by using the GNRM as a billing accuracy tool rather than just in revenue assurance.