> Real-time billing (actually, it is fulfillment) is already there for
PrePaid
> on GSM. This is not a specific
> UMTS thing.
The real time capabilities of the prepaid network are "primitive" and are
separated from the batch rating that billing systems perform for postpaid
customer. To actually offer prepaid services you don't need a billing
system, everything is managed by the IN platform. So real time for prepaid
is not a real issue. With UMTS the situation is going to get quite
different. While keeping the batch processes to bill as usual calls,
operators are supposed to bill packets and content in many different ways.
For some of the services that UMTS operators are planning to offer, real
time capabilities are essential. In some cases the customer will require to
know the cost of a "transaction" even before it will eventually happen. Real
time service offering (activation, management/configuration of services)
will be probably a standard feature.
Geneva Technology evaluates in 750 millions billing events /month, the
average number processed today by Mobile operators with a customer base of 5
million. They forecast that this number could easily increase to 10 billions
with the introduction of UMTS. Real time rating will be of vital importance.
Even if part of these events will be aggregated before rating, part of them
will be processed in near real time or in batch mode, the processing
capability of the billing engine must be seriously considered.
So I would say this is a specific UMTS thing.
BEN got a UMTS license, I know is a very sensitive issue but could you share
with us what you are planning for billing UMTS?
Maybe I asked too much :-) so why you don't tell us how do you bill for WAP
or GPRS (do you commercially offer GPRS?)
Any information related to how NTT is planning to bill for FOMA is more than
welcome...
Thanks
Vittorio
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Received on Fri Feb 16 11:34:25 2001