STC Joins i3forum to Fight Wholesale Fraud

In a move to help bolster the industry battle against fraud, Saudi Telecom Company (STC), the largest telecommunications company in the Middle East, has joined i3forum, the club for wholesale telcos. STC is the first Middle Eastern Carrier to become part of the i3forum, the announcement said. The tone of the announcement, with a comment from STC’s Revenue Assurance and Fraud Management General Manager, shows that i3forum increasingly positions itself as an anti-fraud body, motivating STC to join.

“We are honoured to join the i3forum and become the first Middle Eastern Carrier to participate. It is critical that we collaborate with our peers and help to drive our industry forward. Together, we can solve challenges and find new ways to innovate locally and across the globe,” said Sami Bin Ghadir, Revenue Assurance & Fraud Management GM at STC. “The i3forum has demonstrated its ability to put ideas into action and create real change for Carriers. As its membership continues to grow, it is a great time to be part of the i3forum”.

The i3forum had defined its aims and roles in fighting against fraud. As World Broadband News reports, the threat of fraud has led competing organisations to work together:

As wholesalers expand broadband via land, submarine and satellite systems, not only does their ability to deepen their services and customer base grow, but so too do the targets they present to potential attackers and others hoping to exploit wholesalers’ systems for their own gains, [i3forum founder and Chairman] Millet said. In some cases, attackers target wholesalers’ networks; in others, they take over end-customers — whether that’s customer-facing carriers or consumers and businesses themselves.

A collaborative approach can build a more robust anti-fraud platform, i3forum said:

“Some of this fraud enters via common back-end infrastructures wholesalers use to communicate with each other,” Millet said. “By working together and using modern approaches such as virtualization, open source and blockchain, i3forum members can combine resources to create a platform that’s more efficient and effective at preventing fraud,” he said.

Marianne Curphey
Marianne Curpheyhttps://curpheymedia.co.uk/index.htm
Marianne Curphey is an award-winning freelance writer, blogger and columnist. She is a former Editor of Guardian Money online, City News Editor of The Guardian, Insurance Correspondent of The Times and Deputy Personal Finance Editor at The Times.

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