SMiShing - SMS Phishing

SMiShing is a phishing attack sent via SMS (Short Message Service).It’s the new, text-message version of the lucrative e-mail scam. In this ploy, scammers take advantage of the smart-phone revolution—hoping that a text message to your cell will make it less likely you’ll investigate the source, as you might do while sitting at your desk. Since many banks and businesses do offer text-message notifications, the scam has the air of legitimacy.

SMiShing victims receive SMS messages including texts similar to the following:: "We're confirming you've signed up for our dating service.You will be charged $2/day unless you cancel your order by accessing the website: www.??????.com". If the URL is clicked, it will download a Trojan horse that could allow a Web-enabled phone to be controlled by hackers.

Sometimes you get a text message stating a problem with your bank or PayPal account. You're told to call a toll-free number, which is answered by a bogus interactive voice-response system that tries to fool you into providing your account number and password.

Prevent it

· Do not trust unsolicited telephone messages.

· Never click on URL’s in text messages unless it is verified to be legitimate

· Real banks might send you notices via text message (if you’ve signed up for the service), but they never ask for account information. If you’re unsure, call the bank directly.

You can read more about SMiShing in the following links:

http://blogs.globalcrossing.com/?q=content/smishing-another-crimeware-threats-mobile-phone-users-security

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMiShing

SDP – A Collaborated Service Marketplace

Dynamics in the telecom industry has introduced a new challenge to the telecom operators - to migrate the existing circuit switched network infrastructure to IP based networks, in order to enable new services which are framed on the IP technology. The convergence of the voice, data and video networks results in packaging the network capacity and services into various offerings that an operator can bundle with attractive discounts and campaigns. As a result of this convergence a bright cloud of competition formed in the market and the operators faced declining profitability, especially in the voice market. Apart from the competition from rival companies, the telecom operators are facing threats from companies like Apple and Google because of their increasing smart phone customer base stealing revenue from the operators.

Profitability in terms of lower OPEx and higher ARPU can only be achieved by introducing and adapting new services based on the trends and situations existing in the market. The customer base, which is the great asset of a telecom operator, can be increased or retained if the new services are added at regular intervals. The pace of changes in the telecom industry demands the operators to reduce the time to market and for fast integration of the new services. This entails choosing a service delivery platform which is a great asset to the telecom operators.

A service delivery platform is a place where the telecom network operator, service and content providers, developers and consumers participate and establish an ecosystem for the rapid deployment, provisioning, management and billing of the services. It separate the service layer from the core network infrastructure, enabling operators to roll out new services quickly without making changes at the network level. SDP follows the principles of SOA for internal and external system integration as well as service and its business process management.

The service and content providers can participate in this ecosystem to promote, sell, monitor and safely receive payments through the operator channels. The SDP enables these participants to sign up as partners and explore the network and service capabilities of the operators to design value added services. SDP enables them to login to the partner’s area to define and publish the services, to manage the SLAs for the services, to measure the performance and uptake of the services and to enable settlement procedures.

The customers are benefited by a well thought out SDP implementation because it can easily guide customers to the service or offering that they search for. The customers can subscribe to and consume services offered on different networks or devices. Since the BSS, OSS and CRM systems are bounded to the SDP, it provides easy order management and helps the customer to understand the offerings, promotions, discounts and their bills.

The developer community participates mainly to integrate services, create and maintain the business processes, implement the logic for the management and the sales of the services. Since SDP has a set of technology enablers, developers has a minimal work to configure and integrate the applications to the enablers. The developers can also contribute by creating applications that can be used for creating value added services.

In a nutshell, SDP is a common platform implemented by an operator to integrate existing systems and network assets for easy management and selling network capabilities in the form of services to the customers.

Related Links

http://www.ericsson.com/ericsson/corpinfo/publications/review/2007_01/files/4_sdp_web.pdf

http://www.ericsson.com/res/thecompany/docs/publications/ericsson_review/2008/4_Drutt.pdf

In-flight Mobile Connectivity

A common announcement which we hear on board is “Switch off your mobile phones”. There are some security threats in using the mobile phones in flight. Of late airline industry and technology providers have been discussing on the plans to allow mobile services in the flight. As a result of these discussions two companies were established to provide this service.

The cell phones in flight use dedicated air-to-ground frequencies that were used previously for seatback telephone services (Airfone and Air One services) offered in the flight. Since these frequencies are strictly dedicated for air-to-ground communications and are separate from those used for wireless communication on ground, the risk of interference with the wireless network is eliminated.

An aircraft providing this service has an antenna and a mini GSM network. While making a call, the GSM devices connect to this onboard antenna which sends the voice and data through the connected satellite uplink to the communication infrastructure furnished on the ground, which routes the voice and data to the public networks. Passengers are billed by their network operator for calls and SMS messages - just as if they are roaming in another country.

The aircraft needs to be equipped with four main components:

• A 'picocell' which provides the radio interface to mobile phones in the cabin.
• An Onboard Control Equipment which ensures that onboard mobile phones operate in compliance with aviation certification and telecommunications regulatory requirements.
• A server to manage communications centrally, establishing calls with the ground segment over the air-to-ground link, and interfacing with aircraft systems.
• An air-to-ground modem to allocate air-to-ground resources according to the demands of the server.

OnAir, a joint venture of SITA and Airbus, and AeroMobile, a joint venture of ARINC and Telenor, are the two market leaders providing this technology in many of the airlines. The GSM and GPRS network technologies and Inmarsat SwiftBroadband satellite link being used enables passengers to use their mobile devices and laptops for calls, text messages, emailing and Internet browsing, as they do on the ground.

Related News

    Personal Electronic Device Use Increases

    Emirates works with Boeing to get connectivity linefit to widebodies

    Hang-Up Act in 2008

Mobile Number Portability

Mobile Number Portability (MNP) gives more power to the consumers in the cellular world by enabling them to retain the number even after changing its service provider. Telecom operators are now in a race to improvise their customer services, improve QoS and mold consumer focused MNP retention packages to reduce churning out. This is the highest stage of consumerism in mobile communication industry and it will create opportunities and threat for telecom companies.

MNP is a very simple process from the customer perspective but it triggers a bit complicated process and a string of actions in the operators end. The subscriber, recipient/new service provider, donor/current service provider and MNP operator are the stakeholders in mobile number portability. There are two service models to porting a number; the donor lead porting and the recipient lead porting. Most of the countries who have initiated the MNP service adopted the latter since it is a subscriber friendly procedure. As a customer one should identify the right reason for changing the service provider, since you have to be with the new provider for at least 90 days before availing the MNP service.

MNP Procedures in India

India, the largest telecom market with many operators and less service rates has chosen the recipient lead approach in MNP. In this procedure the customer who decides to avail the MNP service has to approach the new service provider and obtain the customer acquisition form (CAF) and the porting form. Before submitting the form the customer has to obtain the Unique Porting Code (UPC) from the donor. To obtain this number send SMS to 1900 with text ‘PORT’ followed by space followed by your 10 digit mobile number that you want to port. This auto generated 8 digit code has a validity of 15 days. Fill this code in the porting form and submit both the forms along with the required documents and an undertaking that you will clear all the dues with the donor.

The recipient will send this porting request to the concerned MNPO for the backend porting process within 24 hours. MNPO verifies this request from the recipient and forward it find the request is invalid or the number fails to meet the porting criteria then it reject the request and inform the recipient the same. The donor who receives the successful requests from the MNPO will do the further investigation and sends the confirmation or rejection message to the MNPO. If the donor fails to communicate it within 4 days then the MNPO communicate the deactivation and reactivation of the number to the recipient and the donor and it will be communicated to the user by recipient.

The new service provider will intimate you the date and time of porting on your mobile phone. The complete change over will take place on the 7th working day and there will be a downtime of 2 hours on that day. After the date and time specified on the intimation message, the user can start using the new SIM card provided by the new service provider.

MNP Post implementation analysis in India

Customers are the big gainers in this initiative since they have the option now to switch over to the suitable mobile service provider without compromising the number. Reports show that over 38 lakh customers opted for the mobile number portability. But are they successfully closed? The recent reports unveiled the fact that the customers who have applied to switch to a new network complain they are facing issues and most of issues are due to the existing provider is not allowing the subscriber to switch over.MNP war has revealed the true colors of the telecom companies.

Telecom companies have introduced the customer focused retention packages and welcome packages to increase their customer base. Each company includes more free Local calls, STD calls, SMS and lower the call rates in their offers.

The Gainers and Losers according to the press release PDF from COAI, dated 18th March 2011 is given below

Operators	Total Subscribes in millions	Subscribers Ported in	% Subs ported in	Subs ported out	% Subs Ported in	Net additions	% Net additions
Vodafone	127.36	488,250	0.38	295,489	0.23	192,761	0.15
Idea	84.29	391,191	0.46	240,402	0.29	150,789	0.18
Bharti Airtel	155.80	530,615	0.34	382,400	0.25	148,215	0.10
Aircel	51.83	162,664	0.31	117,822	0.23	44,842	0.09
Uninor	20.31	31,019	0.15	24,689	0.12	6,330	0.03
Videocon	6.01	5,404	0.09	11,633	0.19	- 6,229	-0.10
MTNL	5.43	3,793	0.07	14,851	0.27	-11,052	-0.20
TTSL	86.05	197,404	0.23	236,793	0.28	-39,389	-0.05
BSNL	88.82	107,724	0.12	257,817	0.29	-150,093	-0.17
Reliance	128.87	44,753	0.03	351,170	0.27	-306,417	-0.24

Reference:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_number_portability
http://www.ciol.com/Technology/Networking/Interviews/Indias-MNP-model-will-be-a-success-Syniverse/12210131433/0/

Long Term Evolution

Long Term Evolution a.k.a LTE, is one of the emerging technologies in 4G mobile communication which is being globally adopted by most of the telecom equipment vendors and operators. This technology promises the broadband speed 10 times faster than the current 3G network is supporting. The LTE network offers 5-12 mbps downlink speed and 2-5 mbps uplink speed which will decrease the latency in real time applications, online gaming, connected to a virtual clinic and telematics.

LTE promises a very low latency and high bandwidth. This will set the mobile networks suitable for accessing real time applications where responsiveness is very critical. With this technology you can think about the things like taking high definition videos and streaming it to others mobile across the country, multiplayer online video games with your friends in remote locations, live camera broadcasting etc...

LTE provides a global ecosystem where everyone can tap into using the laptops, personal computers, smartphones and other consumer electronic equipments. It will allow the business customers to connect to the office systems, teleconferencing, video collaborate, stream database applications and other applications to which we had bandwidth and security constraints earlier.

The first LTE network was launched in December 2009, by TeliaSonera and only a few operators have followed the suit. Why operators are waiting to adopt LTE even though it is the next big evolution in the mobile technology? This could be because of the lessons learned from the early 3G front runners who suffered after implementing the expensive networks but had very few compatible devices in the market.

However, LTE offers the equipment vendors a unique opportunity to create a long term relationship with operators and its associated companies. The early adoption of LTE has the advantages like capture the highest-spending users market, improve the brand equity by projecting as a technology leader, gain better knowledge and experience in the technology than its rivals. In addition to the these advantages the early migration will lower the CAPEX over time through long term partnerships and lower the OPEX by integrating the existing networks into single core network earlier than the rival operators.

Some of the vendors & operators Launched LTE are given below.

      NetCom (TeliaSonera) – Operator (Norway)

     Telia (TeliaSonera) – Operator (Sweden)

     Vodafone – Operator (Germany)

     Verizon Wireless - Operator (US)

     Ericsson – Network Vendor

     Huawei – Network Vendor

     NSN – Network Vendor

Near Field Communication

When you are walking across the street, the mobile phone starts giving you the sales information in the shops. Is it going to happen in the near future? Yes, it is the power of technology and consumerism. The near field communication technology (NFC) lead us to a new platform where your mobile phones can be used to read the RFID tags from the shops/billboards and give you more information about the sales. To realize the NFC services in mobile phones, an NFC mobile phone should be able to utilize the functionalities of a contactless card and a mobile phone.

NFC is a short-range wireless technology. The equipments enabled with NFC, contain a transmitter and receiver to send and receive data from other NFC enabled equipment. Multiple devices in a small area can communicate with each other using the same frequency.

Google included support for NFC in the Android 2.3 Gingerbread operating system and this functionality is also included in the Nexus S smartphone. The other smartphones enabled with NFC technology are Nokia C7, Nokia Astound, Samsung Galaxy S II, Samsung Wave 578.

Few applications based on NFC are given below (from wiki).

• Mobile ticketing in public transport: an extension of the existing contactless infrastructure, such        as Mobile Phone Boarding Pass.

• Mobile payment: the device acts as a debit/credit payment card.

• Smart poster: the mobile phone is used to read RFID tags on outdoor billboards.

• Bluetooth pairing: in the future, pairing of Bluetooth 2.1 devices with NFC support will be as easy as bringing them close together and accepting the pairing. The process of activating Bluetooth on both sides, searching, waiting, pairing and authorization will be replaced by simply bringing the mobile phones close to each other.

Related Links


http://www.nearfieldcommunicationsworld.com/2011/03/15/36451/nfc-business-models-white-paper-sets-out-the-key-issues-involved-in-introducing-mobile-wallet-services/

The Other Side...

This story happened back in 2010. My friend John had just got an onsite assignment. He was to travel to the US in a week’s time. He was so busy and excited that he forgot to deactivate his postpaid mobile connection. After a couple of months, One day around 2 a.m. John gets a call in his phone. It’s from XYZ Telecom Company’s legal department. A threatening voice from the other side says” If you don’t pay your bill of 2300 rupees we will take legal action against you”. John was angry and confused at the same time. “A bill of 2300 rupees? I had paid my bills online before coming to US. Moreover the company has to give me 1000 rupees, a deposit which I had made while taking the connection”. He then realised he had an outstanding amount of 500 rupees for which they added up late charge fee over and over again till it reached up to a 2000 rupees level . Well John was a fighter. He had no intention of paying the bill till he got his 1000 rupees deposit and an apology for the rude behaviour. After all he was a faithful customer for nearly 5 years.

Fast forwarding the story and coming to March 2011.I met john in a friend’s birthday party. Somehow the XYZ Telecom Company story came up. It was really sad and shocking to see the true colour of these companies. According to John making you pay the bill is a simple 5 step process for them

· They track the numbers to which you have made the most number of calls/recent calls. They call those numbers claiming to be your friend and ask about your whereabouts and personal number

· They call you and threaten to take legal action against you for not paying the bill

· They call your family and friends and portray you as a cheat and sometimes even threaten them.

· You get totally out of context replies for the mails you send fighting for justice

· You surrender and pay the bill

On my way back home I was wondering why don’t they use the ARPU (Average Revenue Per User)? Or can’t they even do a loyalty check before taking such absurd actions? If they treated John well they would have got a loyal customer and promoter for life.

The Harvard business review says ”Loyalty has a lot more to do with how well companies deliver on their basic, even plain-vanilla promises than on how dazzling the service experience might be.” How true!