News
Deal paves way for U.K. incumbent to give customers more visibility, control over usage.
BT has picked BSS provider Openet to supply real-time charging solutions to its U.K. MVNO arm, it emerged on Wednesday.
According to Openet, its virtualised Evolved Charging solution enables BT Mobile to give customers access to real-time usage information. It can also enable the telco to assess mobile customers’ usage mid-bill cycle and automatically switch them to a more suitable tariff, if necessary.
Openet said it also gives BT Mobile the power to rapidly test and introduce new mobile services, minimising associated costs.
"We required flexible technology that gives us the ability to react to rapidly changing market conditions. Openet’s virtualised charging solution is perfect for our needs and ensures we have a highly competitive U.K. market proposition that will help us quickly grow market share," said Mark O’Flaherty, director, BT Consumer IT, in a statement.
BT launched BT Mobile in March 2015. By the end of September, the service had attracted more than 200,000 customers, according to BT CEO Gavin Patterson.
BT Mobile is an MVNO hosted on networks operated by EE, a company that BT is in the final stages of acquiring, after the deal was approved last week by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).
Rumour has it that once the deal closes, BT plans to keep both the EE and BT Mobile brands, operating the latter as a low-cost operator.
"BT Mobile brings a great deal of exciting momentum to the mobile space," said Openet CEO Niall Norton on Wednesday. "It therefore requires an agile and cost effective BSS infrastructure that can support its anticipated growth and continue to deliver a differentiated customer experience. Openet is the perfect partner to ensure BT Mobile achieves its ambitions."
