THE TELECOM BILLING MARKET: RETAIL BILLING, INTERCONNECT BILLING & REAL-TIME CHARGING SYSTEMS - (OSS/BSS KNOWLEDGEBASE)

Table of Contents

A.EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

B.DEFINITIONS OF MAJOR BILLING FUNCTIONS

• Pricing Management
• Customer Management
• Partner Management
• RatingService Authorization
• Discounting and Promotions
• Billing Cycle Management
• Financial Management
• Payments and Collections
• Revenue Assurance

C.BILLING MARKET DRIVERS

• The Strategic Importance of Billing
• Why Billing is on the Rebound
• System Consolidation
• Fixed Mobile convergence
• Wireless Subscriber Controls over Access & Budget
• Dual Use Handsets
• The Threat of Real-Time Market Share Grab
• Lower Cost of Ownership
• More Services, not Lowered Fees

D.REAL-TIME & CONVERGENT CHARGING

• Traditional Pre-Paid Platforms
• The Evolution of Prepaid and PostPaid Operators
• Why True Real-Time Capability is Vital
• The Convergence of Prepaid and Postpaid
• Hybrid Customers and Privacy of the Bill

E.THE MERCHANDISING & DIRECT MARKETING ROLE OF BILLING

• Thinking Like a Retailer: Amazon Style
• Friends, Family, Affinity Plans
• The Role of Subscriber Profile in Contextual Marketing
• One-Click Decisions in the Wireless Store
• Impulse Buying & Real-Time Offers

F.THE MOBILE VIRTUAL NETWORK OPERATOR OPPORTUNITY

• Capitalizing on Individual Customer Hot Buttons
• Content Takes the Lead
• Inside Mobile ESPN, the Sports MVNO
• Tapping New Markets that Large Telcos Can't Reach
• Wholesale Carrier Attitudes towards MVNOs
• How Fast and How Far Will it Grow?
• The Business MVNO

G.INTERCONNECT BILLING SYSTEMS

• Wholesale/Interconnect Billing Systems
• Architecture of a Wholesale Billing System
• Wholesale Billing Challenges

H.SERVICES BUNDLING

• A Consolidated Billing System for Bundling
• Why Bill Bundling is Attractive
• The Back-End Process of Bundling
• The Organizational Challenge of Bundled Billing
• Bundling for Large Corporate Customers

I.THE BILLING TECHNOLOGY PLATFORM

• Making the Underlying Infrastructure Invisible
• Robust Product Catalog
• Single View of Post and Prepaid Accounts
• Pricing & Value Chain Management
• Value Driven Policies in Billing
• Advanced Platform for Service Creation
• How Network Evolution to IMS Will Affect Billing/Charging
• Portability of Platform Across Multiple Network Types

J.THE BILLING DELIVERY METHOD

• The Custom vsProduct Solution Debate
• Billing Service Bureaus & ASPs
• The Build vsBuy vs Outsource Decision
• Outsourcing to Service Bureaus
• MVNOs & Service Bureaus: Protecting the Brand
• Can Vendors Make Money Serving MVNOs?

K.SERVING THE TIER 3 CARRIER MARKET

• Why New Operators are Progressive in Billing
• Need for a Single Pre-Integrated Solution
• Serving the Engineering Needs of Small Telecoms

L.INDUSTRY MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS

M.MARKET THREATS

N.MARKET OPPORTUNITIES

O.CARRIER RECOMMENDATIONS

P.VENDOR RECOMMENDATIONS

Q.MARKET SEGMENTATION & FORECAST ANALYSIS

• How Dittberner Develops its Market Segmentations
• Market Growth Forecast
• Overall Revenues
• Corporate Revenue, Telecom Industry Revenue, OSS/BSS RevenueBusiness type
• OEM software, Telecoms software, Consulting/SI services
• Channels of Distribution
• Direct, Indirect
• Service Provider Type
• Circuit wireline, Broadband, Wireless, Cable/DBS, Virtual Network Operator/Non-Facilities Operator, OtherSize of Carrier
• Tier 1 ($10 billrevenue), Tier 2 ($250 millto $10 bill.), Tier 3 ($250 million)
• Geographic Region
• North America, EMEA, Asia Pacific, Latin America
• Software Delivery Method
• Software License, ProfServices, Service bureau/Hosted
• Revenue Management
• Billing, off-line/batch, Interconnect billing, Charging, on-line/realtime, Mediation

R.CASE STUDIES

• Telkomsel's Move to a Consolidated Prepaid & Post Paid System
• Vodafone Australia Convergent Billing
• BoostMobile Prepaid
• BT Billing Consolidation
• ALLTEL Billing Migration
• Virgin Mobile UK Product Catalog

S.VENDOR PROFILES & SWOT ANALYSIS

More than 2 dozens software vendors and network equipment providers have established themselves in the telecom billing and charging marketplace

In this section, Dittberner provides in-depth coverage on 26 of those companies, analyzing each of them in 5 to 7 page profiles delivering:

• Historical expertise and background
• Significant investors
• SWOT Analysis: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats
• Significant customers
• Major partnerships
• An explanation of key products

Dittberner's profiles deliver a highly compressed snapshot of vendors in a market place and each profile is organized in the same format so you know immediately where to go to find what you need

The profiles also include a "Dittberner analysis" section, a candid assessment of where the vendor stands against its competitors and the suitability of its products or services for the needs of the market

A detailed estimate of each vendor's 2005 billing/charging market numbers is alsosuppliedA list of vendors profiled follows:

A list of vendors profiled follows:

• Amdocs
• Argent Networks
• BCGI
• CBOSS
• Cerillion
• Comarch
• Comptel
• Convergys
• Comverse
• CSG Systems
• Formula Telecom Solutions
• HighDeal
• I-conX
• Intec Systems
• LHS
• ORGA
• Martin Group
• Metratech
• Portal Software (Oracle)
• Redknee
• Siemens Communications
• STROM Telecom
• Telcordia
• Subex Azure
• Ushacomm
• Visage Mobile