Fair Isaac Corporation (NYSE:FIC), the leading provider of
analytics and decision management technology, and Optel Informatik, a
German systems supplier for the telecommunications market, today
announced the mobile industry's first Near Real-Time Roaming Data
Exchange (NRTRDE) gateway to help wireless operators worldwide prevent
roaming fraud.
The NRTRDE gateway connects Fair Isaac's RoamEx(R) Roamer Data
Exchanger network to Optel's MEGS-R network, enabling an automatic,
two-way exchange of roaming traffic in near real time. The resulting
combined coverage forms the world's largest NRTRDE network, with more
than 90 mobile operator networks involved.
Roaming fraud accounts for a high proportion of all fraud in
telecommunications. It occurs when a mobile phone subscriber who does
not intend to pay for service roams from the service provider's
network to another operator network and takes advantage of the home
operator's delayed access to the subscriber's call detail records
while roaming. An individual roaming fraud incident can result in a
loss of more than EUR 1 million (US$ 1.3 million) within a matter of a
few days.
As the trade association for the world's leading global mobile
standard with more than two billion subscribers, the GSM Association
has recognized this problem and has decided to pursue NRTRDE adoption
by all GSM operators by October 2008.
By linking their RoamEx and MEGS-R systems, Fair Isaac and Optel
can offer unsurpassed roaming call visibility to operators who
subscribe to either network. Operators connected to either RoamEx or
the MEGS-R system automatically receive call records for their roaming
subscribers from anywhere in the combined network, greatly reducing
their roaming fraud exposure.
"The combination of RoamEx coverage in the Americas with Optel's
EMEA coverage aligns well with our goal to provide customers with
global NRTRDE coverage," said James Stewart, associate partner of
client services, Telecom, for Fair Isaac, who also chairs the Roaming
Subgroup of the GSMA Fraud Forum. "As more operators look to follow
the GSMA's NRTRDE initiative, they will require a NRTRDE solution that
provides them with maximum coverage. A roaming fraud solution is only
as good as the coverage provided, because it can only detect roaming
fraud in operator networks where it has been deployed."
"We are proud to take another milestone in the fight against
roaming fraud," added Markus Dicks, Managing Director of Optel
Informatik. "With this connection of the two largest NRTRDE networks,
we can offer our customers much higher fraud visibility and that is
what counts. This advantage will be available for customers on both
sides of the network, and linking them together boosts the CDR data
exchange volume dramatically."
Fair Isaac's RoamEx solution serves over 70 operators including 95
percent of the Americas market, while Optel's MEGS-R solution serves
major operators, including T-Mobile, in Europe. By linking these two
systems, Optel and Fair Isaac can offer unsurpassed roaming call
visibility to operators who subscribe to either system.
About Optel Informatik
Optel Informatik is a leading provider of fraud management and
revenue assurance solutions. With its current key products MEGS (Fraud
Management) and CashBack (Revenue Assurance) it is helping operators
worldwide to detect any type of fraud, to analyze risky subscribers
and validate an operators billing chain for any type of Revenue Loss.
Optel Near-to-Real-time products as such protect more than 200 million
subscribers, analysing more than 1 billion transactions per day.
Optel's growing NRTRDE network has been live since 2002; it is the key
component in the Optel portfolio of products to fight Roaming Fraud.
Learn more about Optel Informatik on www.optel-informatik.de.
About Fair Isaac
Fair Isaac (NYSE:FIC) makes decisions smarter. The company's
solutions and technologies for Enterprise Decision Management give
businesses the power to automate more processes, and apply more
intelligence to every customer interaction. Through increasing the
precision, consistency and agility of their decisions, Fair Isaac
clients worldwide increase sales, build customer value, cut fraud
losses, manage credit risk, reduce operational costs, meet changing
compliance demands and enter new markets more profitably. Founded in
1956, Fair Isaac powers hundreds of billions of decisions per year in
financial services, insurance, telecommunications, retail, consumer
branded goods, healthcare and the public sector. Fair Isaac also helps
millions of individuals manage their credit health through the
www.myfico.com website. Visit Fair Isaac online at www.fairisaac.com.
Statement Concerning Forward-Looking Information
Except for historical information contained herein, the statements
contained in this press release that relate to Fair Isaac, including
statements regarding its RoamEx roamer data exchanger system, and the
benefits to be derived from this offering, are forward-looking
statements within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the
Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These
forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that
may cause actual results to differ materially, including any
unforeseen technical difficulties related to the implementation, use
and functionality of the offering, the risks that customers will not
perceive material benefits from the offering, failure of the product
to deliver the expected results, the possibility of errors or defects
in the offering, regulatory changes applicable to the use of consumer
credit and other data, and other risks described from time to time in
Fair Isaac's SEC reports, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K for
the year ended September 30, 2006, and quarterly report on Form 10-Q
for the period ended December 31, 2006. Forward-looking statements
should be considered with caution. If any of these risks or
uncertainties materializes or any of these assumptions proves
incorrect, Fair Isaac's results could differ materially from Fair
Isaac's expectations in these statements. Fair Isaac disclaims any
intent or obligation to update these forward-looking statements.
Fair Isaac and RoamEx are trademarks or registered trademarks of
Fair Isaac Corporation, in the United States and/or in other
countries. Other product and company names herein may be the
trademarks of their respective owners.
