SMS Revenue Assurance & A2P Traffic Audit

What is SMS revenue assurance?

SMS revenue assurance is the work of making sure a mobile operator is paid for all the commercial SMS traffic it delivers. It compares traffic actually entering the network with the operator's A2P agreements, interconnect settlements and billing records, then identifies and quantifies the gaps: grey-routed A2P traffic, misclassified messages, unbilled partner volumes and reconciliation errors.

Where A2P revenue leaks

Grey routesA2P messages arriving over P2P interconnects, billed at P2P rates or not at all.
SIM box terminationCommercial traffic injected through local SIMs at retail prices.
MisclassificationA2P traffic from agreed partners counted as P2P in billing.
Settlement gapsDifferences between delivered volumes and partner invoices.
Channel shiftVerification traffic moved to FlashCall on voice trunks.
Firewall exceptionsRules that let traffic through on assumptions no one has rechecked.

Traffic audit method

Scope. Agree the period, data sources, interconnects and agreements in scope, and how data is protected.
Classify traffic. Separate P2P, A2P under agreement, and suspected A2P on other paths, using sender ID, origin and content signals.
Collect evidence. Where useful, run honeypot tests to confirm which routes deliver into the network.
Reconcile. Compare delivered volumes with billing records and partner settlements.
Quantify and recommend. Report the size of each leak, its cause and the fix: a firewall rule, a contract change or a billing correction.

CDR and interconnect reconciliation

Reconciliation matches message records on both sides of each interconnect: what the operator's network delivered, what the partner says it sent, and what was invoiced. Differences are traced to their cause rather than written off as noise.

Reporting for management and regulators

Results come as a written report: leakage by type and partner, the evidence behind each finding, and prioritised actions. Where regulators require operators to report on A2P traffic or fraud, the report is structured to support that.

Engagement models

A one-off audit to measure the current position, or a recurring review that tracks whether fixes are holding. Both work with or without our SMS firewall; with it, the data is richer and fixes are faster.

Frequently asked questions

What data do you need for an audit?

Typically SMS CDRs or SMSC logs for a defined period, A2P agreements and rate cards, and interconnect settlement statements. Where an SMS firewall is in place, its logs make the picture much clearer. Data handling is agreed in writing before the audit starts.

How is an audit different from an SMS firewall?

A firewall acts on traffic in real time. An audit looks back over a period, measures what was lost and why, and checks that blocked traffic actually returned through paid routes.

Can you audit FlashCall traffic too?

Yes. Flash calls move verification traffic from billed SMS to voice trunks, so they belong in the same revenue picture. See FlashCall monetization.