26 November 2019 – Trustonic has been named winner of the Next Gen: Telecoms Fraud Prevention category at the annual Cyber Defense Global Awards. The award celebrates a unique telecoms product or service, with Trustonic’s Asset Lifecycle Protection Service (ALPS) selected for the multiple use cases it delivers to help mobile operators combat smartphone fraud and theft across their device portfolios and grow subscribers through new subsidized and financing packages.
“In the nine months since we launched ALPS at Mobile World Congress ’19, the platform is being used by some of the world’s top mobile operators to recoup millions of dollars in lost revenue,” comments Ben Cade, CEO at Trustonic.
“We developed ALPS in collaboration with some of the largest mobile carriers in North America to help combat device fraud, theft and trafficking, and to enable innovating new offerings to consumers. We’re now signing deals with operators worldwide who want to regain control of their device investments and this award further demonstrates the value of ALPS to the mobile ecosytem. Together with our customers, Trustonic is working to protect the entire device lifecycle for carriers, distributors, retailers and consumers alike, making significant steps towards eliminating fraud and trafficking and enabling more subscribers to get the device they want.”
ALPS helps operators to solve a range of challenges by enabling secure remote device lock and unlock and protection throughout the device lifecycle. Existing manual unlock codes are easy to overcome, expensive to administer and offer a poor experience to subscribers. The ALPS platform automates the process through hardware-backed security installed during manufacture, before the device enters the supply chain, and provides an improved end-user experience and reduced CARE costs, while enabling protection for use cases such as:
- Customer device unlock – When the customer completes their contract and requests to unlock their device, ALPS enables the customer to self-serve with a simple, user-friendly and secure application installed at production.
- Supply chain security – Protecting devices by locking them at the moment they are produced makes them worthless if stolen. ALPS safeguards every stage of the supply chain and every participant involved, with the device being unlocked automatically during activation.
- Protecting subsidized and financed devices – ALPS prevents the use and resale of devices if installment payments are not made. Driven by the operator’s business rules, once a subsidized plan is paid in full the subscriber can request unlock.
- Activated but not used (ABNU) – ALPS helps identify devices purchased and activated, but sold out of market after activation and not seen again on the original carrier network. This is often indicative of identity fraud. ABNU protection monitors device network attaches to analyze if usage is in line with carrier expectation.
- Protecting leased devices – ALPS reduces the incentive for fraudulent resale of leased devices before their lease terms are complete. Additionally, when a lease agreement ends, devices can be locked if not returned.
- Companion device protection – ALPS protects companion devices like tablets, wearables and multi-device family bundles that are often used as incentives. If the subscriber stops paying the plan, the main device and all companion devices can be simultaneously locked.
- Warranty, recall & insurance – ALPS enables devices to be locked once a warranty or insurance claim has been made by a subscriber, or when a manufacturer device recall has been mandated, removing the incentive to sell the device rather than return it.
Trustonic’s Asset Lifecycle Protection Service™ (ALPS) is now available globally.
