Vodacom airtime theft case: Main partner Mondia Media suspended

One of Vodacom’s main partners, Mondia Media, has been suspended for airtime theft but continues to do business with the mobile operator.

Mondia Media is a content service provider which offers a “host of products for companies wanting to offer content”.

An industry player recently provided MyBroadband with information that Vodacom partners with Mondia Media for a wide range of WASP services.

As part of this agreement, Vodacom shares personal information of its subscribers with Mondia Media.

Vodacom also transfers personal information of its subscribers to Mondia Media which stores this data on its servers.

What concerned the industry player is that Mondia Media has been accused of fraudulent subscriptions and airtime theft.

He further provided MyBroadband with information that former Vodacom managers were working for Mondia Media.

With the widespread fraud and airtime theft on Vodacom’s network, he questioned why the mobile operator would not see this as a risk.

MyBroadband asked Vodacom about its relationship with Mondia Media, and it confirmed it has two commercial agreements with Mondia Media.

The first agreement is as a technology and platform supplier and the other as a third-party content and Direct Charge to Bill (DCB) service provider.

Vodacom said Mondia Media has been suspended in their capacity as a DCB partner because of airtime theft allegations.

“We are currently conducting an investigation in this regard. We are unable to share any further details on the matter at this stage,” a Vodacom spokesperson told MyBroadband.

Commenting on former Vodacom managers working for Mondia Media, Vodacom said to the best of its knowledge, this is not the case.

However, a simple Google search shows many former Vodacom employees working for Mondia Media.

Mondia Media continues to do business with Vodacom
While Mondia Media has been suspended as a DCB partner, Vodacom continues to do business with the company as a technology and platform supplier.

What is concerning is that Vodacom continues to share the personal information of its subscribers with Mondia Media.

MyBroadband asked Vodacom why it continues to partner with a company accused of airtime theft, and it explained that stopping this relationship is not trivial.

“Immediately suspending the technology and platform supplier services provided by Mondia Media will be disruptive to customers that are reliant on some of our platforms,” Vodacom said.

“We have suspended Mondia Media in their capacity as a DCB partner. We are unable to share any further details on the matter given the ongoing investigation. Once this process runs its course, we will take appropriate measures.”

No comment from Mondia Media
MyBroadband asked Mondia Media about the suspension, but the company did not respond to these questions.

Mondia Media also did not comment on questions as to whether it is subscribing Vodacom customers to content services and billing them without their consent.

Mondia Media billing
The Vodacom accounts below show airtime billing from users who said they have never subscribed to any Mondia Media services.

The last screenshot comes from a machine-to-machine SIM where proactively subscribing to a content service is not possible.

-my broadband

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The post Vodacom airtime theft case: Main partner Mondia Media suspended first appeared on News365.co.za.