Service providers plan to expand prepaid offerings

Amdocs, provider of customer experience systems, released the findings of a global research report that showed that 73 percent of service providers plan to expand their prepaid offerings to include services that are traditionally offered only to postpaid customers. 

The research, conducted by analyst firm Ovum, also found that nearly half of the service providers polled said they needed to make moderate to large changes to their business and operational support systems (B/OSS) in order to answer the technical challenges involved in expanding prepaid services.

The research was based on qualitative interviews of senior executives from 19 service providers in Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific, collectively serving hundreds of millions of subscribers. Interviews were conducted between August and November 2010. "Greater availability of high-end devices such as smart phones, along with services like messaging, mobile broadband and applications, are increasing customer expectations from prepaid wireless services. Ovum forecasts prepaid will grow from 75 percent of total connections worldwide in 2010 to 77 percent by 2015," said Sara Kaufman, analyst at Ovum.