European mobile network operator launches digital brand in 4 months with Thales

Bouygues Telecom, a leading European mobile network operator (MNO) with over 25 million customers in France, identified an opportunity to create a differentiated offer that attracts new subscribers by enhancing and enriching the customer experience. The company sought to launch a new digital brand that promotes and supports socially responsible values.

The new offer is a hybrid between a prepaid and monthly subscription plan, where customers pay €10 per month, in advance, for 80GB of data and unlimited texts and calls. Importantly, this offer is designed to enable values-driven subscribers to minimize the carbon footprint generated by their mobile connectivity and contribute to good causes.

Launching a digital offer

This innovative brand is not a migration from existing offers; Bouygues Telecom envisioned a completely new service created from scratch. To launch this new offer, the company faced significant challenges, particularly in transforming its legacy Business Support System (BSS) to meet the needs of a fully digital offering. Doing so would have diverted too many resources from the company’s internal IT team.

To develop the new customer offer quickly and efficiently, Bouygues Telecom needed to implement an external, outsourced solution that would minimize the impact on its existing operations.

A mobile-centric approach with Thales Trusted Digital Telco

Bouygues Telecom successfully created its new digital brand by employing Thales Trusted Digital Telco. This solution, which includes the fully digital BSS from Thales' project partner triPica, seamlessly integrates with the MNO’s existing back-end system, allowing day-to-day subscription management for end users.

The entire service is delivered via the Source app, leveraging Thales’ ‘Telco in an App’ approach, which gives users effortless control over how they interact with their mobile plan.

Enhancing the customer experience

Launched in France in 2022, Source by Bouygues Telecom offers an end-to-end digital customer journey, targeting socially and ethically conscious consumers.

This rapid time to market was achieved with a straightforward implementation, resulting in a novel brand offer that attracted new subscribers in addition to the existing customer base.

Thales Trusted Digital Telco is at the heart of an easy, three-step customer journey. Subscribers simply download the app, enroll remotely, and activate their plan. This approach delivers a true anytime, anywhere intuitive experience for end users.

The Thales solution also enables an innovative customer dashboard, central to the Source brand proposition. Reflecting the ethical ethos of Source, users are automatically offered the opportunity at the end of each month to convert unused data into a monetary donation to their chosen charity. Each GB can be exchanged for ‘drops of water,’ a virtual currency donated to the subscriber’s preferred cause.

The Source customer dashboard also reports on data and airtime usage, allowing subscribers to monitor and manage the CO2 they generate through these activities. Tips are provided on how to reduce this impact, giving subscribers a real sense of control over their environmental footprint.

Delivering a fully digital experience

With Thales Trusted Digital Telco, MNOs can extend their digitalization programs further and rapidly launch new digital brands that enrich their offerings and empower their consumers. Overstretched internal resources are no longer a barrier to attracting new subscribers.

Moreover, this ‘Telco in an App’ solution aligns perfectly with the growing desire of consumers to manage every aspect of their mobile experience directly from their smartphones, in line with Telco's digital transformation strategies.