Billing World Standards Watch Standards for ATM Billing: 1997?

What billing standards are being developed for the next generation switched digital network marketplace? Not many, according to forum members involved in setting such standards.

The Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) Forum has one or two billing-related issues before it. However, the Frame Relay Forum, the Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Line Forum and the Switched Multi-megabit Data Service Forum have none. "We talk about technology development, not how to bill for it," says Betsy MacKrell, Frame Relay Forum acting executive director.

Even the billing-related process worked out by the ATM Forum on paper represents "only a very small part of what you need to do the billing," admits George Dobrowski, chairman, ATM Forum Technical Committee. The ATM forum's billing-related work focuses on standardizing switched virtual circuit (SVC) connections, so ATM service can be measured and differentiated for billing based on type and quality of ATM usage. SVC allows the user to set up the ATM connection using signaling equipment on the customer's premise, similar to a dial-up voice connection.

"The Forum's SVC specification is what most of the carriers and operators say they are basing their implementation of ATM service and deployment on in 1997," says Dobrowski. However, SVC services are not broadly available now, but offered by only a very few carriers, he says: Sprint was the first at the ATM Forum to announce plans to offer the service. Other carriers are keeping their marketing plans and launch dates for SVC offerings tightly under wraps. Currently, most of the 14 carriers that offer ATM service offer only the permanent virtual circuit (PVC) connection and only in targeted high tech areas, he says. The PVC version of ATM is a digital cross-connect- system-based service providing non-switched, private lines. "The reason most of the ATM services offered right now by the carriers are PVC-based is because even though we've developed the measurement and information element needed for those measurements so that you can do billing based on the type of service and the different connection types possible with ATM, the network management systems, billing systems and automatic message accounting systems have not yet been modified and adapted," says Dobrowski. Until these changes are made to carriers' internal systems, carriers will continue to set up contractual agreements with individual customers for ATM service, he says. With PVC, carriers are limited to billing mostly at a flat rate for ATM: "I think carriers are in the process of [updating their billing systems to handle SVC], I just don't know their completion dates," he says.

Once carriers modify their systems to recognize the new data, different rates for different types of connections will be possible. "Carriers can then negotiate different rates based on volume or lack of volume," says Dobrowski. "Once you have the measurement capabilities, you have a lot of flexibility on how you structure your rates and charges."

Unlike forums addressing switched voice services, enhanced services forums don't seem to have the incentive or urgency to standardize billing for switched digital network services. For one thing, the number of customers is far fewer than for switched voice. Whereas, in many switched voice forums, the main objectives include developing guidelines for billing, say forum members. The market for ATM still comprises only a small, albeit powerful, set of users, which includes gigabit network players; Fortune 500 companies; government; local, long distance and cellular carriers; and cable TV companies testing video on demand. To what extent billing systems will be standardized to bill for SVC service depends on the future demand of the marketplace.

Currently the cost to make these internal changes is "great, more than most carriers would like," says Dobrowski. But if Dobrowski's vision of the future comes true, and the thousands of ATM users today turn into millions of ATM users in the 21st century, the resultant revenue stream will make the efforts and resources required for standardizing the billing process for ATM carriers well worth it.