Vodafone Idea on Friday entered into a contract with Route Mobile as per which the latter will provide an international A2P (application to person) SMS monetisation services through its artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML) driven firewall solutions. The firewall solutions are essential for telcos to protect the consumers from unwanted messages. Route Mobile MD & CEO Rajdipkumar Gupta said the deal could potentially bring over $100 million (around Rs 832 crore) annual business for the company.
The telecom operator’s partnership with Route Mobile follows completion of its two-year contract with Tanla Platforms for similar solutions. In the absence of renewal of the deal, Tanla will have a revenue impact of Rs 17 crore and net profit impact of Rs 9 crore on a full-quarter basis post November 2023, according to the company’s exchange filing.
As per the contract, Route Mobile through its wholly-owned subsidiary Route Mobile (UK) will provide its solutions to Vodafone Idea for a period of 24 months. The date from which the partnership will come into effect is yet to be decided, Vodafone Idea said.
“Vodafone Idea is an important operator in the country and our firewall solution will further help them protect their customers against Spam and Phishing,” Gupta said.
Route Mobile said its solution leverages proprietary message simulators, traffic analysis and forecasting tools, business intelligence, data analysis and intelligence databases to offer effective blocking of illegitimate grey route traffic and monetisation of A2P SMS traffic on the network.
On reasons for not going ahead with the partnership, a spokesperson of Tanla Platforms said, “we differentiate on technology leadership and innovation – continuing this partnership necessitated financial structuring which we were not comfortable with. This was a mutual decision and best wishes to Vodafone Idea for the direction they have chosen”.
The termination of the deal with Vodafone Idea is, however, not related to Wisely ATP, which is Tanla’s anti phishing platform, the spokesperson said. The same was showcased by Vodafone Idea to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), after the regulator made it mandatory for telcos to deploy such solutions to control spam.
As telcos are facing a decline in SMS usage from traditional routes like P2P (person to person), monetising A2P or enterprise messaging is a key opportunity. However, some enterprises not only send bulk messages illegitimately through grey routes but also are sending fraudulent messages to consumers. In any way, telcos end up paying termination charges even for illegitimate traffic.
Route Mobile said the erstwhile Idea Cellular network was leveraging its firewall solutions till April 2022 to identify, block and optimally monetize grey route traffic on its network. Under the new engagement, Route Mobile’s solutions will be deployed across the entire Vodafone Idea network on an exclusive basis, the company said in a statement.
