BICS, a global provider of wholesale carrier services, has announced Airtel Africa will deploy a range of value-added BICS services across seventeen countries to improve revenues from roaming, over and above their current roaming services.

All seventeen of Airtel Africa’s operating companies can now monitor inbound and outbound roaming traffic in real time with BICS’ SMART Webvision, monetise international SMS traffic with its hosted SMS firewall, and increase their overall roaming footprint with its Roaming Hub and Roamfast service. Airtel Africa will also use BICS’ Data Roaming Booster Solution, a service package that will enable Airtel Africa to prevent bill shock and enhance campaign management.

With SMART Webvision, BICS’ integrated quality monitoring, tracking & tracing and business intelligence tool for 2G, 3G and 4G, Airtel Africa can monitor all its roaming traffic based on different tariffs and technologies. The tool offers real-time information and figures on usage and quality of the roaming experience over 2G/3G/4G, allowing Airtel Africa to tailor offers to different types of subscribers and develop new revenue streams.

The bill shock prevention feature of BICS’ Data Roaming Booster Solution allows Airtel to avoid unexpected data roaming charges on subscriber’s bills. SMS messages alert subscribers before they reach preset thresholds, improving transparency and reducing disputed bills. The solution is expected to improve customer satisfaction levels and generate new revenue streams.

BICS