Nokia unveils solution for prepaid services

Remmy Nweke

In determination to continuously keep people of the world connected, Nokia has unveiled new solution called Nokia Cost Control.

The solution, described as innovative is most beneficial to operators that have a significant, untapped potential in lower-income consumer segments among which shared phones are prevalent.

Sources at Nokia Finland, informed that the solution would avail operators with the software implementation, even as it supports the Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) phones.

Director, New Growth Markets Networks, Nokia, Rauno Granath, said that the new solution is easy to use.

“When making a phone call from a mobile phone, the caller keys in a simple command string to define the cost of the call before connecting. After the money is spent, the call will be cut off. This gives the caller total control over their spending,” the director said.

Explaining further that callers could use the calling time they invested in to its full extent, compared to normal charging by the minute.

“The Nokia Cost Control solution is designed to support consumers in multiple ways, giving the control over the expenditure on single calls, addressing fear of overspending, optimizing the use of call time, and setting transparency in the use of shared phones. Phone sharing lowers the cash barrier to communication, and takes various forms from sharing between friends, roommates or family to small businesses that allow consumers to make calls or send SMS messages for a fee,” Granath explained.

Stressing for instance that in developing countries, many of which could be found in Africa, especially in urban areas, selling airtime and usage of mobile phones is very popular business.

Therefore, Nokia Cost Control makes these transactions transparent with no fear of
Overspending, just as the solution has been designed to meet the needs of the consumers and the operators especially in new growth markets.

Pointing out that this new solution could be implemented with the Nokia Unified Charging Suite (UCS), a solution for convergent charging.

It would be recalled that Nokia Cost Control is the newest addition to Nokia Connect GSM solution aside from comprehensive portfolio of network features, products and services to assist operators in new growth markets in providing mobile services to new subscriber segments.

Equally, the Nokia Cost Control complements other innovations, such as Nokia Prepaid Tracker and Nokia Connect eRefill, further enhancing the prepaid services that mobile operators can provide to their customers.

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