Amdocs has released the findings of a global research report that showed that 73 percent of service providers plan to expand their prepaid offerings to include services that are traditionally offered only to postpaid customers. The research, conducted by leading analyst firm Ovum also found that nearly half of the service providers polled said they needed to make moderate to large changes to their business and operational support systems (B/OSS) in order to answer the technical challenges involved in expanding prepaid services.
"Greater availability of high-end devices such as smartphones, along with services like messaging, mobile broadband and applications, are increasing customer expectations from prepaid wireless services," said Sara Kaufman, analyst at Ovum. "Prepaid wireless services are becoming even more prevalent around the world. Ovum forecasts prepaid will grow from 75 percent of total connections worldwide in 2010 to 77 percent by 2015. Service providers understand that the prepaid wireless strategies they adopt today will have a major impact on future profitability."
The Research reveals a fundamental shift in service provider strategies for prepaid wireless. Service providers are moving to offer prepaid customers with services and devices traditionally available only to postpaid customers. They are also moving to offer hybrid payment models.
The research is based on qualitative interviews of senior executives from 19 service providers in Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific, collectively serving hundreds of millions of subscribers. Interviews were conducted between August and November 2010.
In 2010 alone, Amdocs' prepaid solutions supported a total of nearly 100 million prepaid subscribers at service providers in North America, Asia-Pacific and Europe. Amdocs Prepaid, based on Amdocs' innovative Turbo Charging technology, provides a complete prepaid solution, from network session and event control, through service creation and delivery, to real-time charging and customer management.
