Billing Q & A with Jim O’Neill

Q—I work for a CLEC that is expanding in the Midwest. The long distance companies that serve some of our markets are not sending us valid Customer Account Record Exchange (CARE) records. The result is that our customers are not being connected to the long distance carrier of their choice. Are there any guidelines that address these issues or possible actions we can take to eliminate this problem?



A—Well, when a long distance company has solicited a customer to change to their service and fails to give you useful information, they have sort of shot themselves in the foot. What you need to do is join and, if possible, get active in the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS).

The CARE record format and content is supported by ATIS within the Ordering and Billing Forum’s (OBF) Subscription Committee. By attending the committee meetings and conference calls, you can pick up valuable information on how to deal with your trading partners and perhaps even get them to take corrective action.

If that is not possible, you can purchase various committee documents and guidelines right from the ATIS Web site. For example, the Subscription Committee has issued various documents for CARE exchange qualification, testing, operation, etc. I think the one you would find most useful is the CARE Guidelines Document, # ATIS/OBF – CARE – 013. The description of this document reads:

“The Customer Account Record Exchange/Industry Support Interface (CARE/ISI) document describes industry recommendations for a standardized exchange of customer account information between and/or among telecommunications service providers. It identifies data elements related to Equal Access Subscription, which can be shared and provides a consistent definition and data format for the exchange of common data elements.”

If you do plan to participate, you should be aware that there is a registration fee associated with the general session meetings and an annual funding fee assessed to participating companies.

OBF participating companies fund the administrative support (committee administrators, technical writers, Web site maintenance, etc.) for the OBF.

The OBF has a policy of allowing new participants to attend one general session before requiring funding. This allows your company to decide if participation is worthwhile.

The funding fee is calculated on your company’s yearly revenues.

You can find more information and ordering details by going to www.atis.org.