By: Telecom Tech Outlook.
As the telecom sector increasingly facilitates digitization, governments and regulators must replace their old paper-based approach to stay on par with today’s evolving landscape. With the digitization of governance and regulation at the core of its business, Global Voice Group (GVG) assists governments and regulators in effectively leveraging, overseeing, and regulating ICTs across the telecom sector. Ever since its inception in 2005, GVG has been among the pivotal IT solution providers in Africa, addressing the critical needs created by market liberalization for the state agencies across the telecom and fintech sectors.
While market liberalization and digitization gain traction in Africa, GVG spearheads this transformation with a cutting-edge data acquisition platform that offers full telecom billing and revenue verification at the country level. GVG helps governments and regulators seamlessly upgrade billing events within telecom networks-from calls and SMS’s to different types of specialized data services and location-based billing. “Our platform has evolved to address profound changes in the business model of telecom industry, driven by increasing demand for mobile broadband and the growing impact of OTTs”, says James Claude, CEO of GVG. Deemed as a pioneer in the disruptive RegTech space, GVG also aids the banking and regulatory compliance sectors in keeping pace with the transforming landscape and bridging the technological gap.
GVG’s data acquisition platform leverages big data technologies and machine learning (ML) to collect metadata directly from the telecom network. This enables numerous stakeholders to precisely measure and bill various types of revenues and absorbs the value of metadata without any revenue leakages. GVG additionally implements a Build-Operate-Transfer model as part of its partnership with governments of developing countries like Tanzania, Rwanda and Ghana. The company invests in capacity building of these countries and trains their authorities to ensure maximum operability of their data systems. These systems directly connect the authorities to the source of data in the telecom and fintech industries for real-time visibility into both markets. The connection allows governments and regulatory authorities to achieve transparency and compliance throughout these industries, and compliance throughout these industries, and harness them as a driver of socio-economic development. “The data technologies we use are non-intrusive, and yet they provide 100 percent reliable, comprehensive, and tamper-proof information”, Claude states.
GVG’s uniqueness stems from its ability to work collaboratively with its clients, develop a strong partnership with them, and offer the necessary customization options for their existing infrastructure. “Rather than just establishing provider-client relationships, we firmly believe in partnering with our client and providing them with a proper capacity building” adds Claude.
In an instance, the lack of adequate regulatory control over the fast-growing Mobile-Money (MM) industry in Rwanda posed a significant hurdle for its governments and the Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Authority (RURA). They required a system to monitor and oversee MM services in terms of regulatory compliance, security, quality, interoperability, and enforcement of KYC, CFT and AML standards and rules. In 2015, GVG delivered the first phase of its Mobile Money Monitoring (M3)platform that served as real-time data getaway between MM providers and the Rwanda authorities. A year later, GVG implemented the full M3 platform that included real-time data capacity to empower the RURA with complete visibility across the MM usage statistics in the country along with the detailed transaction information for investigation and regulatory surveillance purposes”, says Claude.
With a significant footprint in Africa, GVG leverages its R&D to develop new scopes of applications for its data acquisition platform, and expand its services to provide digital financial transactions and digital identity, which are critical to the socio-economic development of many countries.
