Billing World Standards Watch Access Billing and Customer Account Systems to Change

Long distance carriers must now pay different fees to LECs for local access using new formulas and calculations, according to FCC mandate and subsequent new guidelines from the Ordering and Billing Forum (OBF).

Now, long distance companies will pay LECs a per minute fee, lower than what they paid previously, plus an additional new flat rate per telephone line. The flat rate amount will depend on the type of local telephone leased by the end-user. For instance, the rate to access a primary residential line differs from the rate to access a secondary line. The rate for access to CENTREX business lines differs from that for access to ISDN lines. How much of these access charges are passed on to the end-user and in what form on the end-user's bill depends on policies within the individual long distance carrier. This necessarily means changes to access billing systems.

Changes to Access Billing Systems

Some guidelines on how to bill for these new access charges were worked out by the OBF's Billing Committee recently. Committee members agreed that a new data element would be added to the access bill format, which in most cases is generated by LEC carrier access billing systems (CABS). This new data element is called a pre-subscribed interexchange carrier charge (PICC). Subsequently, the Billing Committee has expanded its billing guidelines, "Carrier Access Billing System Billing Output Specifications" (CABS BOS) and "Small Exchange Carrier Access Billing Guidelines" (SECABS), to include specifications for the new data element and how it could be rendered on access bills.

The committee decided that the PIC charge will appear in the Other Charges & Credits (OC&C) section of the access bill and will be rendered on individual accounts and not combined with charges for other types of service. In addition, the committee agreed that ideally LECs will send backup detail information to long distance carriers in separate files via a new category of records entitled the "30" series.

Also, representatives to the Billing Committee from long distance companies discussed with LEC representatives what details they would need from the LECs to be included on the access bill along with PICC. Included in their wish list were line-type indicators, dates, rates and historical information needed to verify charges.

Several representatives from long distance carriers seemed satisfied with how the PICC would be handled and rendered on the access bills they receive from LECs. However, several representatives said they would need information at an individual telephone number (TN) level. Presently, many CABS and SECAB bills from LECs provide only summary level, not detailed, information to the long distance carriers. Yet, with the new implementation of the PIC charge, access bills could theoretically show detailed billing information on millions of telephone numbers within a single monthly billing account. The committee agreed that information for up to 10 individual telephone numbers could be included on a single detail record. "This solution will help both the LECs and long distance companies transmit billing records within reasonable timeframes," says one committee administrator.

Changes to Customer Account Systems

Although several long distance companies were satisfied with the committee's solution on how to validate the new charges, many LECs wanted to know for which type of line they were being charged before they receive their access bill. That is, several carriers wanted to know at the time the account is established what local line type their end-user was using. Presently, the wait can be more than 30 days for a long distance carrier to get this line type information, since LECs do not provide CABS billing detail in real time, but generally once per month.

The long distance carriers argued that receiving this line-type information sooner would help them service their customers more effectively and implied that not having this information up front would put them at a competitive disadvantage. However, getting this information to the long distance carriers would mean that many LECs must make changes to a second system, their Customer Account Record Exchange (CARE) system, where many LECs house their pre-subscription information.

To address this long distance carrier request, an issue was introduced in the OBF's Subscription Committee, a sister committee to Billing. Several long distance carriers wanted a PICC data element to be created with line type values for LEC CARE systems. Several members agreed that the information could be provided on various CARE Transaction Codes. During debate on this issue, each long distance company and LEC identified concerns associated with the current implementation of PICC in access billing systems and the potential impacts of implementing PICC support in CARE systems. The long distance companies said that if the PICC indicator is available on a real-time basis, through daily CARE, they will know up front what kind of customer they have and will be able to match the charge with the correct end user.Several LECs, however, in the Subscription Committee countered that the PICC issue is a billing issue, not a subscription issue and that a billing solution already exists. Some LECs representatives said they may not even be able to supply this CARE information within the timeframe requested by the long distance providers. Further complicating the matter, LECs were concerned that in instances when the long distance companies pass access charges on to the end user, it may appear to their customers that the LEC is assessing the charge.

After significant debate, the Subscription Committee agreed to incorporate PICC into a future release of the CARE document and the committee reached consensus to add a PICC line indicator data element. The Subscription Committee proposed values for the PICC data element and added two special notes to the guidelines:

1 The actual billing of the PICC element by the access provider [LEC]/switch provider may be done from a different system in a different time frame and may not be in sync with CARE

2 Some access providers[LEC]/switch providers prefer to provide the information contained in the data element only through the CABS "30" series Billing Detail Record.

This is the first time the committee has added notes to a data element definition referencing an external solution, says an OBF administrator.

This issue, while contentious, was brought into initial closure, indicating the Subscription Committee reached consensus on the resolution, he says. Companies that intend to implement this issue may begin their planning now. At the earliest, the Subscription Committee may finalize this issue at its next full committee meeting in August 1998.

FCC Proposes Ways to Measure Access to Billing

To ensure that LECs are providing nondiscriminatory access to their billing information, the FCC has issued a report entitled FCC Proposes Means for Incumbent Local Phone Companies to Measure, Report on Competitors' Access to Networks.

The document outlines two ways to measure fairness. One is to apply an "Average Time to Provide Usage Records" formula. The other is to apply the "Average Time to Deliver Invoices" formula, according to the report issued on April 17, 1998. The two formulas are outlined below:

1. Average Time to Provide Usage Records

For competing carriers: [·[(Date and Time Usage Records Transmitted) - (Date and Time Records Recorded)]]/Number of usage Records Transmitted in Reporting Period

For incumbent LECs: [·[(Date and Time Usage Records Reformatted to an EMR (or equivalent) format) - (Date and Time Records Recorded)]]/Number of usage Records Transmitted in Reporting Period 2. Average Time to Deliver Invoices

For competing carriers:[·[(Date and Time Invoices Transmitted) - (Date and Time Bill Cycles Closes]]/Number of Invoices Transmitted During Reporting Period

For incumbent LECs: [·[(Date and Time Invoices Produced in Electronic Format) - (Date and Time Bill Cycle Closes)]]/Number of Invoices Produced Electronically During Reporting Period Source: FCC report No. CC 98-10 Common Carrier Action