Companies to curb connectivity costs through SIM control
Local telecommunications service provider, MTC, earlier this month reached an agreement with Flickswitch International to launch a SIM management service this week Thursday, 02 March.
Flickswitch International provides automation solutions for commercial customers who need to keep track of multiple SIM cards across multiple platforms. Their service enables companies to manage their connectivity usage, ultimately to save on communication and connectivity costs.
Speaking to MTC’s John Ekongo on what the service entails, he told the Economist that SIM control is a self-help online portal aimed at the business market. It allows companies to better manage large numbers of SIM cards, typically deployed in devices such as tracking units, airtime terminals, modems and other connected devices.
“SIM control automatically monitors and top up these SIM cards according to the customer’s settings. This means that SIMs are always recharged. The service ensures that SIMs can not be abused and removes any “bill shock”. It is the next generation of prepaid SIM management,” he said.
According to Ekongo, SIM control has a positive economic impact as it allows companies to manage their connectivity spend, thereby becoming more competitive.
“The partnership brings together Flickswitch’s skills in prepaid spend management with MTC’s leading business connectivity services,” he added.
Further explaining the service, Director for Flickswitch International, Rudi Barnard said in the past, enterprises in Namibia had very little options to effectively manage their mobile connectivity spend over large scale SIM deployments.
“These type of businesses typically make use of technology that requires communication over the mobile networks. The more devices out there, the more risk associated with runaway costs and also additional effort required from operations to ensure these SIMs don’t exceed expected usage,” he said.
Through the MTC Flickswitch partnership, a business can align its mobile communication spend with a range of MTC products, all in real time.
“This means the enterprise administrator can now define how much airtime or data to be loaded on each SIM, across any time period or usage pattern. A good example would be where a telemetry device consumes around 15-20MB per month, to set the business rule to load a MTC Netman 40MB bundle when the data balance falls below 2MB, maximum one time per month. SIM control will therefore ensure that the average data spend per SIM is N$6.90 per month with the enterprise data usage risk capped at N$13.80 per sim per month,” he said.
“We are building from our experience in supporting 110,000 SIMs for more than 600 enterprises, largely in South Africa, and recently in Kenya,”Barnard said.
Barnard hopes that the partnership with MTC will create a suitable mobile eco-system to enable local businesses with large scale communication requirements, to manage and contain their expenses for mobile and network connectivity.
