Billing Q&A with Jim O'Neill

Q-Last month, we focused on the primary functions of mediation platforms in a voice environment. (See "Billing Q&A," October 2001). This month we describe some additional functions of mediation and consider some of its probable future requirements.

A-Managing External Usage Data-Some mediation platforms have the task of validating external usage from other companies, which typically includes roamer records exchanged between mobile operators. In a fixed-line environment the records would include those sent to a biller for collect calls, use of travel or credit cards, third-number charges to be billed to one of the local customers, or calls being billed on behalf of long-distance, dial-around, or operator service companies. These categories of calls are passed between operators in industry standard formats (CIBER or TAP for mobile operators or EMI for North American fixed-line operators).

Secondary Mediation Functions-During the past decade, mediation platforms have taken on more and more functions. As billing systems became more complex-consider all the rate plans that did not exist 10 years ago-it also became evident that moving all usage management functions off the main system would be far more efficient. Another reason was that as competition was introduced in more markets, profit margins began to decline. This led to a greater focus on ensuring that all usage found its way to a customer's bill, a process known as revenue assurance.

So, over time many mediation platforms have been used to generate multiple destination records from a single CDR. Some link to fraud systems to feed them usage data, while others generate wholesale records that are used to bill interconnect partners (an increasingly complex process in itself). Others also provide interfaces to manage prepaid accounts that have to be recharged when a low balance is detected. In this scenario, usage is passed from the switch through mediation to access and update the customer's account after each call or at frequent intervals. When the billing system detects a low balance, it issues a preauthorized debit to the customer's credit card or bank account.

Some companies use their mediation platform to create separate usage record files to support resellers. By identifying their usage early in the collection process, the operators can route these records to the resellers almost seamlessly, while retaining a separate file to bill them for wholesale usage. Because many believe that resellers or service providers will grow in the future, this ability is an important consideration.

One additional destination record that is of particular use to revenue assurance units is an archive of all usage data passed from the switch, whether billable or not. This database can be used to analyze the percent distribution of complete to incomplete calls by actual call type. Those experienced in this area know that the day to day percentages normally do not vary by any significant amount. Should any abrupt shift of complete to incomplete calls occur, it would point to either a severe network problem (which may have been detected by network surveillance software) or worse, a change in the switch software that is causing calls that were actually completed to be recorded as incomplete. Sadly, such software problems occur all too often. Revenue assurance units can generate not only reports that display the percentages, but others that display billable usage volumes by day of the week and hour of the day. These reports are useful for detecting network problems, failures to extract all usage that has been recorded on the switch, and shifts in usage trends, which is valuable information for marketing departments as well.

All manner of reports can be produced from these usage archives. For example, some mobile companies use them to examine usage location patterns by identifying individual cell sites to determine where customers are calling from. This allows them to set up calling zones with predictable results.

Mediation Management-It should be clear by now that mediation has an ever-increasing role in the billing arena. However, it is also an increasingly complex application to manage, as networks are constantly changing configuration. Whether it's the addition or rearrangement of trunk groups or cell sites, or the activation of additional features (also called enhanced services) in the network, every change must be understood and adjusted for by mediation before being executed in the network. These tasks get more complex due to local network requirements, different types of manufacturer equipment, or varying implementation schedules for new software releases from switch manufacturers. Each change must be carefully managed by both network and mediation personnel. The key is close cooperation between these organizations to minimize failures.

Future Requirements-As we move forward, usage billing requirements will become increasingly complex. The industry is already offering many new services via the Internet, including Internet telephony, unified messaging services, virtual private networks, electronic commerce, video conferencing, entertainment, games and gambling.

To date most such services have been billed flat-rate, because there were no standards for recording or identifying usage, or figuring out who was supposed to be billed for it. There were unique polling procedures and multiple sources of information (routers, IP data switches, firewalls, mail servers, etc.). Today, many equipment manufacturers are dealing with these issues and attempting to come up with standardized ways to measure usage in an IP world without confusing customers. Debates continue over whether customers can deal with measurement of bytes or packets, or understand the subtleties of quality of service guarantees and other possible usage measures instead of minutes.

In this new world of billing for content, the fundamental questions that will need to be answered include the following, identified by IPDR.Org:

• Who is the user?

• Who is the provider?

• What service was provided?

• Where was service provided?

• When was it provided?

• Why was it provided?

• Who gets billed?