By Tara Savage, Senior Marketing Manager, BT Global Services

Vesta Corporation, the first company to successfully build and deploy non-retail electronic payment solutions for the telecommunications industry, conducted a survey that turned up some disturbing news about the mobile industry’s lack of PCI DSS compliance. Not only did the survey reveal that more than 25 percent of mobile network operators (MNOs) are not PCI DSS compliant, but a whopping 35 percent didn’t even realize that  financial penalties could be levied for non-compliance by the card associations.

The survey, in which 16 top-tier MNOs in the U.S. and Europe participated, also revealed that:

• The average cost of initial PCI DSS compliance was approximately $700,000 USD
• The average annual cost of maintaining PCI compliance was over $1,390,000 USD
• Respondents believed the greatest risk of non-compliance is the loss of customer confidence in the MNO

Today, fewer than 40 percent of all payments are made by cash or check, so the security of electronic payment methods is imperative. Vesta says that PCI DSS compliance is even more important for MNOs than it is for other affected industries because of the complexity of the transactions.  To help MNOs navigate the murky waters of PCI DSS compliance Vesta has written a  white paper focusing on best practices based on the survey results.