You'd never imagine it would be possible, given how aggressive wireless companies are in their billing in the U.S., but in some other parts of the world, fraud and billing errors are so rampant when it comes to mobile technology that operators are losing almost one-quarter of their revenues. A new report from Juniper Research (News - Alert) found that mobile network operators may lose nearly $300 billion to a combination of fraud and billing error by 2016.

The report, called “Mobile Revenue Assurance & Fraud Management: Business Strategies & Forecasts 2012-2016,” found that as the level of billable events has increased – operator-billed revenues totaled more than $900 billion last year – networks have in turn experienced an upsurge in leakage across the revenue cycle from sales to network configuration, rating, and billing.

So where is all this revenue “leaking” to? The report notes that while such leakages are often the result of system error – ranging from incorrect billing to chargeable call records not being transmitted to the billing system for rating and charging – networks are also experiencing a sharp rise in fraudulent activity.

According to the report, revenue leakage levels are currently highest in the Africa and Middle East, where there are particularly high rates of interconnect bypass fraud (under which fraudsters avoid paying call termination fees) and SIM cloning.

The report makes some recommendations for preventing the revenue leakage. These include the implementation of revenue assurance and fraud management solutions that will help network operators substantially reduce the scale of potential global leakage by more than $250 billion within the same time frame. 

According study co-author Dr. Windsor Holden, the introduction of a more formalized risk management approach will significantly alleviate these issues.

“By consolidating and automating its operational processes, the MNO can establish 360 degree visibility of the complete revenue chain in order to detect hidden losses or fraudulent activity rapidly,” said Holden. “What is required is a combination of real time analytics and proactive business intelligence.”

To find a copy of the report, visit www.juniperresearch.com.