Course 2090: Telecom Billing Fundamentals

This course is the guide to telecommunications billing. The outline encompasses the entire end-to-end billing processes, with major focus on the interfaces with OSSs, BSS, network management, finance, marketing, pricing and customer support.

• Overview of the modern telecommunications industry
• Industry trends in software, hardware and services
• Challenges facing new entrants
• How the perception of the billing system is changing
• Examples & illustrations of various types of call completion and how usage data is captured

INTRODUCTION

• The service order process
• Mediation and message processing
• Rating and pricing
• Billing and collection - invoicing the customer
• Other uses for billing data
• Industry issues
• Mobile billing issues
• Customer care
• Billing mediation

Boundaries and interfaces

• Defining the major areas of Billing Support Systems (BSS)
• The end-to-end generic billing process flow
• Interfacing and co-dependent critical systems  OSS, finance...
• Key billing system information at the service provider, customer and account levels
• How the levels are linked to support billing processes.

The service order process

• Acquiring customers and gathering their information:
• Validation & accuracy checks
• Establishing services & billing accuracy
  • Credit checking options
  • Information security issues
  • Taxation
  • Data structures

Mediation and message processing

• Defining the range of measured network events:
• Voice Call; Page/Short Message Service; Data streams, etc.
• Explaining the key information required for each measured option
• Co-ordinating network changes with billing
• Audit procedures that ensure successful network changes

Rating and pricing

• Typical pricing concepts & data elements of billing:
• Access-rental; usage; enhanced services; miscellaneous charges, etc
• Local toll and wireless boundaries
• A review of rating logic
• Packaged services
• Pre-paid services
• Regulatory and competitive issues

Billing and collection invoicing the customer

• Typical invoice formats and their content
• The bill as an effective marketing and collection tool
• The effects of inaccurate invoicing
• The problems, methods and costs of invoice distribution
• Overview of collection systems & collection agency considerations
• Leading approaches for Internet invoicing and payment processing

Other uses for billing data

• Employing customer profile and call detail information for financial & marketing reports, subscriber analysis and network analysis
• Restrictions on the use of subscriber information

Industry issues

• Long term issues:
  •  
    • Auditing quality
    • Invoicing and subscriber perceptions of service providers
    • Quality of Service agreements
    • Migration
• Emerging issues:
  •  
    • Number portability
    • Billing convergence
    • Service competition
    • Changing the billing system: key migration steps and pitfalls
    • what to consider in the buy, build or outsource decision

Mobile and IP billing issues

• IP billing issues
• Roaming administration and settlement
• Global roaming
• Churn management
• Major account consolidation
• GSM billing
• CDMA billing
• GPRS billing  
• SMS/MMS billing
• UMTS billing
• CDMA2000 billing

The end to end IP billing process

• IP revenue models
• Advertising
• Convergence
• IP mediation
• The new IP interfaces
• IPDR - Internet Protocol Detail Record: the organization, standards and specification
• Extraction and presentation of content
• Event record completion, repair and enhancement
• Quality and Grade of Service
• Recording
• Monitoring
• Billing
• Compensation
• Interoperability between circuit switched and IP networks
• Rating
• By flat rate and usage
• By content
• By volume
• By access point name (APN)
• By location
• By revenue share
• Always on billing

Customer care

• What do Customer Service Representatives do?
• How do they do it?
• What tools do they use?
• What to consider for large companies?
• Emerging trends in customer care
• Effects of billing on day to day customer care
• Managing the effects of changing rate plans 

Billing and Customer care Solutions (Products and Vendors)

Future of Billing