VEON Announces World’s First ‘Always-On’ Network

VEON Ltd. (NASDAQ: VEON) (Euronext Amsterdam: VEON), a global digital operator that provides mobile connectivity and services, today announced the Always-on Network Service that allows digital financial applications to continue even when mobile communication services are suspended.

The Always-on Network Service will enable digital financial services to continue even when mobile voice and messaging services have been suspended due to security concerns. In 2020, these shutdowns occurred in 29 countries and took place 155 times. The financial damage inflicted by a network shutdown was estimated to be $23.6 million per 10 million population per day.

The Always-on Network is an industry-wide initiative, developed in collaboration with the GSMA Foundry, to deliver always-on accessibility for business-critical applications and emergency services in data-restricted geographical areas. VEON will demonstrate the Always-on initiative at the Mobile Word Congress as part of the GSMA Foundry showcase.

VEON is planning to deploy the Always-on Network Service in Pakistan through its Jazz mobile operator, subject to the approval of the relevant authorities. It will enable the continuation of operation of the JazzCash mobile banking service even when the mobile communication services are suspended.  Jazz is the largest mobile operator in the country with almost 73 million customers and its JazzCash financial services are used by over 15 million customers.

“For hundreds of millions of people around the world, mobile financial applications such as JazzCash are essential applications to access their money,” states Kaan Terzioğlu, CEO, VEON. “With our Always-on Network, we provide our subscribers with uninterrupted access to their finances, ensuring that they can continue to make essential payments, even in cases of Internet restrictions. This is very much in line with our digital operator strategy, which is focused on delivering high-quality and seamless services to our customers for the 1,440 minutes of a day.”

The Always-On Network Service is facilitated by 4G ‘network-slicing’ technology that enables core digital services by pushing customised policies through to the service gateway at the edge of the network.  This can enable the IP traffic for specific applications, such as JazzCash, to continue to operate despite the suspension of other network services.