Billions of Dollars Lost Through Mobile Data Revenue Leakage.

SEATTLE -- Pioneering study by iGillottResearch outlines impact to industry; $5.6 billion loss worldwide in 2005

The premium mobile content industry is incurring billions of dollars in lost revenue through insecure transaction processing, a problem that could reach more than $18 billion by 2009, according to a study authored by market strategy consultancy iGillottResearch, Inc. The study, entitled "Mobile Content Revenue Leakage: There's a Hole in the Bucket," examines the mobile content market worldwide and finds that network operators will lose a staggering 18.3 percent of their total revenues in 2005, or more than $5.6 billion. By 2009, iGillottResearch estimates that revenue leakage could grow as high as 22.9 percent, or more than $18 billion.

The study asserts that premium mobile content revenue is lost due to a lack of maturity in the business systems at each stage of the purchasing and delivery process, ranging from the point of purchase to billing, collection and customer care. Ensuring transaction integrity throughout the life of the mobile content transaction through enforcement of financial policies was highlighted in the study as a key capability lacking in many existing operator business systems. Additionally, because they are unable to view all billing, rating, purchasing and customer care activity, network operators cannot ensure that revenue is accurately collected against subscriber purchases.

A complete revenue assurance solution incorporates four key components, according to the study: real-time business rules enforcement, which minimizes revenue leakage and subscriber fraud; transaction integrity, which provides audits and transparency of the business processes entering and exiting the system; financial integrity, which ensures secure management of financial transactions including refund and chargebacks of transactions; and business intelligence and reporting, which provides easy-to-access, centralized data about a network operator's premium services business performance.

"The mobile industry is scrambling to meet the demand for innovative new content applications and services, but billions are being lost through revenue leakage," said Iain Gillott, founder and president of iGillottResearch, Inc. "The wireless industry will have to address this issue to maintain their growth and financial performance, just as they had to plug the holes in the wireless voice service value chain."

"The magnitude of the economic flows derived from mobile premium data have passed the tipping point and become material in terms of the financial reporting required of publicly-held companies," said Chase Franklin, CEO of Qpass. "The industry will increasingly be compelled to apply rigorous financial management to these revenue streams and pay close attention to the multi-billion dollar problem of premium services revenue leakage. This is a complicated issue and one that needs to be elevated in the awareness of all participants in the premium mobile services ecosystem."

To more information about the study, go to www.qpass.com/revenue_leakage.

About Qpass

Qpass is the fastest path to profit in digital media commerce. Ringtones, mobile games and wallpaper images are only the forefront of a growing wave of digital media products and services for consumers, expanding in tandem with new services for the mobile enterprise. Qpass software and services are the critical infrastructure required to operate premium services businesses profitably, with the agility required to fully capture new opportunities, and with the sound business controls and processes required to scale operations efficiently. As the most broadly deployed foundation for mobile and fixed-network commerce, Qpass serves 150 million mobile subscribers and over 60 million web portal, WiFi and VOIP users worldwide. Qpass processes tens of millions of premium services transactions per month and has processed more than 300 million transactions since inception, representing over US$720 million in gross retail consumer sales. Qpass customers include Cingular Wireless, T-Mobile International, Vodafone, Sprint Nextel, ALLTEL, US Cellular, One and Skype. Qpass is privately held and has headquarters in Seattle, Washington with European offices in London and Vienna. For more information, visit www.qpass.com.

About iGillottResearch

iGillottResearch is a market strategy consultancy focused on the wireless and mobile communications industry and collaborative applications. In addition, we have developed an exclusive methodology to measure the ROI (return on investment) of various applications in the enterprise, including collaborative applications, as well as wireless and mobile solutions.

In addition to providing detailed knowledge on how the wireless and mobile industry works, we also understand wireless and mobile technologies. We research and analyze the impact new wireless and mobile technologies will have on the industry, on vendors' competitive positioning, and on our clients' strategic business plans. We also research how wireless and mobile technologies, services, and applications can improve the competitive positioning of the enterprise and corporation. And we provide expert advice, analysis, and recommendations to help executive management make informed decisions to the benefit of their organizations.