For nearly two decades GVG technology has assisted African governments regulate their telecommunications sectors and combat fraud

For just short of two decades Global Voice Group (GVG) has been successfully supplying innovative technology solutions to support governments in Africa to regulate their telecommunications sectors and combat fraud.

This is becoming increasingly important as African governments realise more and more that sophisticated ICT systems are the only secure and sustainable way to enable them to gain transparency over the telecoms sector.  This is necessary to protect the revenues generated so that additional revenues can be raised for their socio-economic development priorities without incurring further debt or affecting local consumers and service providers.

Governments need to exercise care when selecting a technology partner to assist them to regulate and monitor a globalised and lucrative sector like telecommunications in their countries.  There are many companies touting their products and systems which either do not have the appropriate technology or who are less than honest in their practices. A partner like this needs not only the required technological expertise but also in-depth knowledge of the local context and African conditions.  Furthermore, because of the regulatory aspect, there can be no question of a conflict of interests—collusion with private telecoms operating companies, or corruption. Their business ethics must be “squeaky clean.”

Global Voice Group is a reputable, global and honest partner for governments in Africa—it has a proven track record of successful results at assisting governments to achieve their development goals without dependence on Official Development Aid (ODA) or foreign debt. GVG’s pioneering revenue-assurance and other solutions have been deployed with success in ten different emerging countries—audited statistics demonstrate its track record and the success of its systems.  In this way, the numbers and GVG’s clients speak for themselves and governments do not have to rely solely on what the company says about itself.

GVG is a world-class provider of cutting-edge technologies, financial protection and revenue generation systems. The company’s specialised technology expertise spans a number of areas: financial protection and revenue generation systems, payment technologies and electronic tax collection systems.  GVG’s fraud management system has enabled the detection and disconnection of hundreds of thousands of illegal lines in each of the countries in which its solutions have been implemented.  These lines cannibalise the revenues due to the legitimate mobile phone operators and governments.

GVG’s overall impact is best summed up in the words of Frost & Sullivan, market research and growth consultancy firm and originator of the coveted Frost & Sullivan Best Practice Awards Programme  which was awarded to GVG in 2014; “The relevance of GVG’s solutions to the industry is immense, not only at the level of the regulator, but also for the entire industry.  These solutions and tools enable both the operators and the regulatory authorities to optimise the revenues from the telecommunications industry; guarantee transparency and efficiency in international gateway monitoring; reduce fraud on international calls; and control network quality and integrity.”

Sophisticated ICT systems which enable telecoms fraud to be combatted is of vital importance to governments. Without them, huge chunks of revenue due to the State and the legitimate telecoms operators drains away into the pockets of fraudsters who often employ sophisticated technology themselves to generate their ill-gotten gains.

As an example some revealing statistics for GVG’s TELECOP anti –fraud solution for 2014 and 2015 are summarised as follows:

• A total volume of 5,988,902 Telecop automated test calls were terminated to seven different countries;
• Of the 5,988,902 calls, 507,555 were received by means of bypass fraud—an overall proportion of 8.47% of fraudulent calls detected in the Telecop test calls;
• Through these bypass calls, 166,156 fraudulent numbers were detected or 228 fraudulent numbers detected per day throughout 2014 and 2015;
• A total of 241,448 test calls—or 4% of the test calls— were received in the destination countries without CLI.  Test calls received without CLI are usually followed up by GVG’s clients in order to identify whether these calls are associated with bypass fraud with masked CLIs.

Besides detecting bypass numbers, GVG’s state-of-the-art SIM location technology located more than a dozen SIMbox sites (fraud bypass) in 5 different countries and assisted the regulatory bodies to dismantle these fraudulent systems.  These operations led to the seizure of about 50 SIMboxes (racks of SIM cards) and more than 5,000 actual SIM cards.

While TELECOP’s detection rate for bypass calls was 8.47% for 2014 and 2015, it is important to highlight that the detection rate has reached more than 20% for several destination countries and even 41% for one country in 2014. In Guinea, a peak daily average of 182 illicit numbers was detected in 2014.  In response to this high volume of fraud, GVG worked with Guinea’s telecoms regulator in December 2014 to bring down several fraud sites.  One was running 14 SIMboxes accounting for a capacity of 320 lines.

Countries such as Senegal, Tanzania, Guinea, Gabon, Congo, Rwanda and Liberia have used this sophisticated technology. It is important to remember, also, that all these countries are emerging countries with pressing socio-economic development needs.  Revenue that drains away through fraud means quite simply, for example, that fewer children can go to school, fewer children receive vital vaccinations against life-threatening diseases, less money can be dedicated to improving infrastructure, and less money is available to kick-start flagging economies or to provide for other crucial needs.  Any country attempting to manage the telecoms sector without these sophisticated ICT systems is doomed to failure—as has been demonstrated in some African countries.