Libya's Almadar Aljadid, Vox Solutions ink SMS and voice gateway deal

Libyan operator Almadar Aljadid has signed an exclusive agreement with Vox Solutions for the direct termination of international application-to-person (A2P) short message service (SMS) traffic and A2P voice traffic.

The collaboration will enable Vox to exclusively handle the direct termination of international A2P SMS and A2P voice traffic including OTP voice and flash calls – a method of identity verification – to Almadar Aljadid's network through its Vox-360 platform.

According to Vox, its platform can identify, predict and mitigate fraud across a single omnichannel system, particularly in markets such as voice calls where margins are crucial.

It said its Vox-360 platform tackles the increasing issue of unsolicited traffic and grey routes, which not only escalate enterprise costs but also diminish revenues for mobile operators.

"The demand for secure and top-tier enterprise solutions is critical, and our strategic partnership with Vox Solutions demonstrates our commitment to combating fraud risks while maintaining the highest standards of security, quality and customer experience," said Almadar Aljadid's CEO, Rabie Belkire.

The deal enables Vox to exclusively handle the direct termination of international A2P SMS and A2P voice traffic to Almadar Aljadid's network. (Source: Image by wirestock on Freepik)

Vox claims its platform is the only one that can mitigate flash calls, which means Almadar Aljadid will be protected from both messaging bypass and flash calls used for fraudulent activities.

"We are thrilled to be the exclusive A2P SMS partner for another leading communication service provider. This is an important milestone in becoming the A2P voice and messaging partner of choice in the MENA region," explained Vox Solutions CEO Ehsan Ahmadi.

African businesses curbing spam messages

This is the second deal that Vox Solutions signs with an African mobile operator in recent times.

Just last month, Orange's Burkinabé unit selected it as the international A2P SMS and voice gateway for traffic into its network.

The deal follows Ghana's National Communication Authority (NCA) this week announcing plans to institute guidelines for the transmission of network promotional messages and asking for public comment on new measures to tackle spam messaging.

These recent partnerships and decisions are in line with what 1Route Group Chief Commercial Officer Jeffrey V. Ross told Connecting Africa in an interview about curbing mobile fraud.

"Globally, telecom fraud is around a US$27 billion problem each year. In Africa, we continue to see SIM box, SIM swap and CLI spoofing fraud types. These various types of fraud cost Africa roughly around US$1.59 billion every year," he explained.

Libya's mobile ecosystem

It will be interesting to see how the Vox Solutions deal will impact Almadar Aljadid's mobile subscribers.

Market intelligent statistics from Omdia, a sister company of Connecting Africa, show that Libya has two mobile operators, Libyana and Almadar Aljadid.

Libyana was the largest telco with an estimated 5 million mobile users at the second quarter of 2024.

Almadar Aljadid had almost 3.5 million mobile users around the same period.

— Matshepo Sehloho, Associate Editor, Connecting Africa