SMS Firewall: The Ultimate Shield Your Business Needs

In the last 10 years, the A2P SMS market has thrived and become a key revenue stream for mobile operators. However, new threats have seen the light leaving operators vulnerable to diminished revenue and damaged reputation. Having said that, an anti-fraud solution is now crucial to guarantee the proper termination of their traffic. In this blog, we’re going to highlight the role of an SMS Firewall and its benefits for Businesses.

What is an SMS firewall?

Are you wondering what an SMS firewall is? In a nutshell, it is a third-party solution integrated into the operator’s network, facilitating the live monitoring of network traffic and empowering operators to effectively block fraudulent activity, thereby reducing financial losses.

How does an SMS Firewall work?

Upon the receipt of an SMS, the SMS firewall initiates a process to detect its origin, destination, and route. It performs an assessment of traffic patterns, identifying anomalies like sudden spikes or repetitive messages, and promptly recognizes and blocks grey routes.

The SMS firewall enforces traffic restrictions based on diverse criteria and triggers, such as identifying malicious sources, phone numbers, and email addresses. This ensures that potentially harmful traffic is obstructed effectively.

The role of an SMS firewall

Firstly, an SMS firewall provides comprehensive protection for your network against unauthorized or deceptive traffic. This includes spam, Smishing, unsolicited marketing, malicious content, and other potential threats. By achieving this, it enhances the user experience, and contributes to stronger brand loyalty, while reducing operational expenses related to call center complaints and similar issues. A firewall also offers real-time analytics and diagnostics, allowing the operator to observe the flow of traffic swiftly and conveniently throughout his network. This capability enables to identify the areas for optimization.

Monetization at stake

A properly implemented, fully featured SMS firewall goes beyond traffic management and contributes to effective monetization. In fact, a robust firewall can help defend existing revenue streams and foster revenue growth. By obstructing grey route traffic, the firewall empowers both MNOs and their partners to generate more revenue through increased legitimate traffic on the network. When grey routes are closed off, both aggregators and MNOs benefit from rerouted traffic onto direct routes.

According to Juniper Research, SMS firewall implementation will reduce operator losses to SMS grey route traffic by 66 percent over the next 4 years, which will translate into savings of over $4.4 billion in lost messaging revenue between 2023 and 2027.

Benefits for Businesses

In addition to protecting and unlocking new revenue streams, an SMS firewall offers many benefits for Businesses. In fact, we can start by praising its flexibility. An SMS firewall boasts impressive adaptability, allowing users to adjust their specifications seamlessly. Additionally, the SMS firewall can seamlessly introduce new policies without necessitating any software updates. On the other hand, an SMS firewall provides enhanced security; right from its initial deployment, it actively prevents a wide range of threats. It also blocks grey routes which in turn provides safety to the user.

Furthermore, by employing an SMS Firewall, businesses can ensure adherence to international regulations and guarantee that solely authentic messages are delivered to their intended audience. Last but not least, with the implementation of an SMS firewall, businesses can effectively uphold a positive reputation by preventing the dissemination of messages that could potentially harm their subscribers.

What does the future hold?

Considering the evolving landscape of business messaging, we emphasize the necessity for operators to advance their messaging firewalls, incorporating them into a broader security framework that safeguards operators across a spectrum of channels beyond just SMS. It’s time to invest in a powerful Firewall before it’s too late!