Utilities & Telecom

PCI compliance for utilities & telecom

Take customer payment data out of PCI scope at scale. A European PCI DSS Level 1 vault for utilities and telecom — tokenized cards for recurring billing, IVR and call-centre payments and self-service portals, with EU data residency.

SAQ A
Typical PCI scope after tokenization
IVR
Automated & agent payments out of scope
Recurring
High-volume monthly billing
100% EU
Card data residency
The challenge

Utilities and telecom bill millions of customers

Web portals, apps, IVR, call centres and recurring billing engines all touch card data across huge customer bases — multiplying scope and the cost of a breach.

Many payment channels

Portal, app, IVR, call centre and field agents each handle cards, multiplying what falls into PCI scope.

High-volume recurring

Monthly bills across millions of accounts need stored cards you can charge without holding the PAN.

IVR & call centre

Automated phone payments and agent MOTO pull telephony systems and staff into scope.

Card lifecycle

On long-running accounts, expired and reissued cards cause failed payments and churn.

Audit burden

Large estates make a full SAQ D programme an expensive, continuous undertaking.

EU data residency

National providers and regulators expect card and personal data to stay in the EU under GDPR.

The solution

Billing systems that never see a card number

Hosted fields & portals

Self-service portal and app card inputs send data straight to the vault and return a token — no PAN on your servers.

IVR & call centre

Automated and agent MOTO flows send the card straight to the vault without displaying or storing it, keeping phone channels out of scope.

High-volume recurring

Charge stored tokens for monthly bills at scale, with network tokens and an account updater to keep success rates high.

EU custody

Card data is stored only in European data centres under PCI DSS Level 1, with GDPR-aligned residency.

FAQ

Utility & telecom payments, answered

01 How does tokenization keep a utility or telecom PCI compliant?

Customer card details are captured in hosted fields, the self-service portal, IVR or by an agent and sent straight to a PCI DSS Level 1 vault, which returns a token. Your billing and CRM systems only ever hold tokens, so cardholder data never touches your environment and most providers qualify for SAQ A.

02 Does it handle high-volume recurring billing?

Yes. Tokens represent stored cards you can charge for monthly bills across millions of accounts, and network tokens plus an account updater keep success rates high as cards expire or reissue.

03 Can we take payments through IVR and the call centre?

Yes. IVR and agent MOTO flows send the card number directly to the vault without displaying or storing it, keeping phone and automated channels out of PCI scope.

04 Is customer card data kept in the EU?

Yes. PCI Proxy stores card data only in European data centres with GDPR-aligned residency — important for national utilities and telecoms handling large customer bases.

Take customer payments out of PCI scope

Tell us about your billing, IVR and call-centre flows, and we'll map a tokenization setup that keeps you on SAQ A at scale.