VEON 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 mobile network shutdown was estimated to be $23.6 million per 10 million population per day, according to Deloitte.

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 (MWC 2022) as part of the GSMA Foundry showcase.

VEON is planning to deploy the Always-on Network Service in Pakistan through its Jazz mobile operator. 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.

Kaan Terzioglu, CEO of VEON, said: “With our Always-on Network, we provide our subscribers with uninterrupted access to their finances. 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 customized 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.