Deregulation of the telecoms market has given tier 2 networks, service providers and aggregators, access to the billing and delivery capabilities of the telecoms network. The ubiquitous nature of telephony also provides the industry with unique access to almost every individual in practically any domestic or international market.

Since most services are marketed and sold “remotely” – where there is no established billing relationship between the merchant/promoter and the customer – the role of the network is of vital importance. Specifically, it is the ability to assign higher rates (consumer price) to value added service and content propositions and then collect payment from these consumer (based on their phone number / caller ID) – this is central to the telemedia industry’s commercial model.

This type of activity also creates added “value” to the networks themselves as it tends to represent a high margin business activity. This is one key reason why, the VAS industry is so vitally important (to operators) as margins on transiting peer-to-peer calls and text are continually being driven down.

However this is not a relationship without its problems and huge pressures build up between the highly “corporate” networks and their more “entrepreneurial” partners/customers! So in this section; expect to read about general misbehaviour, legal responses, regulatory dictates, industry complaints and compliance issues – all in the name of consumer protection.