The U.K. is a difficult market – or is it?

Dynamic Mobile Billing is a tier-one mobile aggregator in the UK, South Africa and Kenya and for over twenty years we have been enabling carrier billing for merchants. During this time, we have seen many changes and adaptions to the UK market in response to consumer feedback. In the past three years, we have seen further tightening of the rules and the introduction of Code 15. This has resulted in customer complaints being at an all-time low and it looks likely it will stay that way. 

In October, our team went to Marbella, Spain for the annual World Telemedia event. A recurring theme, as it usually is, was that the U.K. market was difficult. This was often built on assumptions made from misunderstood and misinterpreted information, leading to this presumption of the UK market being difficult.

As such many Telemedia operators have discounted the U.K. market, while in fact, it is one of the more attractive European markets.

The regulation is now stable and robust which means the available payment flows are attractive to merchants.

A new regulatory code came into place in April 2022. This code had been worked on for many years and was intended to give greater transparency and responsibility throughout the value chain. 

The Code has achieved its objective. Each party in the chain has the responsibility to try and ensure and check that the party they contract with is operating compliantly. This means having clear and documented policies. This includes thorough DD on the contracted party to identify Directors (ultimately responsible for Compliance under the Code), people responsible for Compliance management and the DD that is checked and how risks are managed with in-service testing of – consent to charge, promotion and operation of the service.

As such customer complaints have now collapsed. There is a new willingness from the Mobile Networks to such new initiatives and ideas to grow the markets. Critically, the flows available are very attractive and convert well.

Subscription services require a two-click pin flow. This is available as pin MT or pin on-screen. Most merchants utilise pin on-screen as this seems to convert better. We are currently reviewing the roll-out of WebOTP for those wishing to utilise pin MT flow.

Of the four UK operators, three offer header enrichment and thus these operators see higher conversion levels. 

Since the introduction of Code 15, we have seen extremely strong growth in terms of revenues but also in terms of the pipeline of customers that will go live in early 2023. These will be good quality services in the market, consumers are much more receptive and merchants can confidently invest and expect good returns.

It seems our message that the UK market is an attractive one is getting through as we saw significant interest in the UK during our recent trip to Barcelona.

We at DMB welcome merchants that wish to invest and innovate in the UK market as well as offering UK mobile operators services valued by their subscriber base.