Redknee Solutions has sold its Turnkey Converged Billing Solution to Botswana Telecommunications Corporation (BTC), which is a government-owned communications service provider in Africa. In addition to its fixed-line and Internet operations, BTC recently acquired a GSM licence to launch prepaid and postpaid wireless services branded as Be Mobile. Redknee's Turnkey Converged Billing (TCB) solution will manage all of BTC's retail wireless billing needs.
Michael R Carroll, acting CEO for BTC, comments: "We needed a flexible billing platform capable of handling real-time charging for both prepaid and postpaid subscribers for a variety of services. It was also important that the solution have the potential to deliver support for all transactions across multiple access technologies, including GSM, WiMAX and fixed-line. Redknee's TCB Solution met our tight time-frame for deployment..." and offered the right combination of a proven, cost effective and efficient architecture, while providing an evolutionary path to address future needs, including new multi-media and mobile-payment services.
Botswana is experiencing tremendous growth in both the wireless and Internet arenas. According to the Botswana Telecommunications Authority, Botswana's regulatory body, wireless subscribers have gone from 0 in 1998 to 961,000 today, with an average annual growth rate of 200%. With current fixed-line penetration at just 10% and wireless penetration at 16%, there is ample room for growth to continue.
BTC will receive the complete Redknee TCB portfolio, including real-time converged rating, subscriber management, invoicing, billing and settlement, and real-time analytics. These advanced functionalities will enable BTC to serve a broader base of customers with a uniform set of subscriber-centric services, such as real-time loyalty promotions.
"Redknee is increasing its investment and presence in the African market, and is looking forward to a long partnership with BTC" stated Lucas Skoczkowski, CEO at Redknee. "We are pleased to have been selected by BTC and will fully support them over the coming years as their subscriber base continues to grow and as their services continue to evolve."
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More info: www.redknee.com
