| The telecom domain is a very exciting area now a | | | | There are many aspects of a proper billing solution |
| days. We now have everything from a simple phone | | | | that need to be considered. A standard billing solution |
| line to mobile cellular phones. Today with so many | | | | will encompass everything from hardware to |
| offerings and bundling options, customers have the | | | | customer support - the complete cycle. |
| freedom to choose what they want and how they | | | | The most basic requirement for a billing solution is the |
| use the services. As an ISP it is important that | | | | hardware, a system that can run billing software. The |
| regardless of the customer usage, every byte that | | | | next, obviously, is the software itself. The software |
| travels through the network is accounted for. This is | | | | has to be good enough to scale to a large number of |
| the importance of Telecom Billing solution. | | | | customers and flexible enough to handle various |
| Billing systems have an important task to play in all | | | | service offerings. The next item is the billing cycles. |
| kinds of services on offer, regardless of how simple or | | | | Most billing solutions allow for a certain number of billing |
| complex it may be. PSTN phone lines have been | | | | cycles where the usage is billed in bulk processing. |
| around for ages, so billing their usage should be straight | | | | ISPs need to finalize how many cycles per month and |
| forward. This is true as long as we do not include | | | | when to have them. |
| things like long distance and international calls. Different | | | | The next aspect of the billing solution is the distribution |
| areas have different rates and they need to be billed | | | | and collection. ISP needs to distribute the bills and |
| properly. Similarly, when a customer moves operators | | | | ensure proper collection of the bills. Bill distribution |
| and wants to retain their phone number, that throws up | | | | means printing bills and mailing them. On the other hand, |
| a new billing challenge. | | | | collection will require a good network that allows users |
| At the other end of spectrum are the mobile phone | | | | to pay the bills conveniently. The use of online billing |
| services. Mobile services with 3G have expanded to | | | | and payment is now making life easy for both the ISP |
| mobile data services too. Now you have plans where | | | | and the customer. |
| customers are billed per kilobyte of mobile bandwidth | | | | Finally, is the customer support on the billing queries. It is |
| being used. Given how frequently customers may | | | | not surprising that most customers get queries on the |
| switch between voice and data services, the billing | | | | billing details as they feel over charged. A good |
| system need to capture this properly and bill the | | | | support base is required, one that can handle all these |
| customers correctly. | | | | queries and settle the issues amicably with the |
| While the importance of telecom billing solutions is clear, | | | | customers. |
| their deployment needs to be looked at in more detail. | | | | |