BTC Mobile, said to be the fastest developing company in the Bulgarian telecoms market, has implemented Neural Technologies' Minotaur solution to enable it to tackle fraud on its network.
BTC Mobile is part of the larger BTC Group, Bulgaria's main telecommunications provider, and has over a million mobile subscribers. A fraud review carried out by the operator in 2006 highlighted several areas of concern, the most pressing of which was bypass fraud. Bypass fraud is the illegal routing of calls in order to avoid paying interconnection fees. Legitimate operators negotiate interconnection agreements between each other that define the routes and the cost to terminate calls on their network; routing calls in a manner that avoids these agreed interconnection points is bypass fraud. The advent of Voice over IP (VoIP) has made bypass easier and more common and large telcos are losing significant revenues to VoIP routing.
Based on the review, BTC Mobile entered into a tender process to find an external fraud system to protect its profits and reputation. Neural Technologies' Minotaur solution came top of the list. "We selected MinotaurTM based upon its proven track record and its flexibility in accommodating new fraud trends and service offerings. We have not been disappointed; to date we are identifying in excess of 80% of bypass fraud on our network and expect to see this figure rise in the near future. Fraudsters should be aware that BTC Mobile has got tough on fraud and is no longer an easy target!", stated Mihail Radulov, the operator's Fraud & Revenue Assurance Manager.
Luke Taylor, Commercial Director of Neural Technologies (Nt), said, "We are delighted to be working with the fraud management team at BTC Mobile. Their proactive and professional approach to combating network fraud, coupled with the capability of Minotaur and Nt's dedicated support, is already delivering outstanding results and is set to provide them with an early return on investment".