Keeping it Real(time) Real-time charging, service delivery and all things real-time

When thinking about prepaid, some service providers still automatically focus on voice and SMS services. But with the ability to offer innovative communication applications such as personal call manager and wallet service, or social media packages, prepaid today also means data plans and better devices.

Indeed, today’s prepaid market offers service providers the opportunity to improve the customer experience and encourage loyalty and differentiation in markets where subscribers can (and do) move easily between service providers.

Traditionally, prepaid has dominated low-ARPU, emerging markets, where customer churn is common. Growth rates there are mostly double digit, including eye-popping numbers like 50% annual growth in India and 34% in Egypt (Global Wireless Matrix 1Q10 from Bank of America Merrill Lynch – April 13, 2010).

But prepaid growth is not limited to emerging markets. Prepaid subscribers are also growing twice as fast as postpaid worldwide, with Ovum forecasting that prepaid will grow to 77% of total connections by 2015 (“The future of prepaid wireless,” November 2010).

So the revenue opportunities are there for prepaid, as are opportunities to reduce customer churn and improve customer experience. However, there is a potential obstacle to maximizing prepaid revenue, which will be the topic of my next blog.