Telecom Billing

Topics Covered
• Billing Overview
• Key entities of Billing
• Invoice Processing
• Bill Payments
• Collections
• Journals ( general Ledger)
• Billing System Implementation
• Billing Life Cycle
• Localization Issues in U.S.A
• Technology and Industry Trends
• Billing System Architecture
• Billing Case Study
 Billing Definition

Collection or usage records

Rating & Calculation of Charges

Invoicing
 Billing Overview
CRM Order
Customer Service Order
Customer Acquisition Processing
Applicatio
nForm
Customer,
Products & Billing
Services
Information
• Usage Guiding &
Processing
• Bill Processing (Rating,
Taxing)
• Bill Formatting
• Payments
Invoice • Dunning
• Financials

Formatted Mediation
Files

Provisioning /
Switch Activation
Raw
CDR
Files
 Billing Process
Billing Process
• Usage Collection
• Chargeable Account Identification
• Rating
• Other Charges calculation
• Discount application
• Payments and Balance calculation
• Balance Outstanding
• Formatting
• Print File Generation
 Bill Basics and Trends

Bill Contents Bill View Media

• Account Information
• Paper - Print
• Subscription Information
• Net - HTML
• Charges
• Discounts • PC - PDF
• Payments • Handset - ASCII
• Balance Outstanding • Kiosk -
• Personalized Messages
• Usage Details
• Spend patterns & Analysis
 Tariff Models
- Charging subscriber a fixed rental
- Providing free units - Charging subscriber for connection to SP
- Charging the rest in metered units - Charging for metered usage
- Measured in units of time
Fixed Price
Charging Metered
- Specific to packet switched networks Charging
- Captures and counts the number of packets
- Measured in units of packets

Packet Market based

Charging reservation
Tariff Models Charging

- Public auction of bandwidth or network

resources
- Identify the amount of network capacity that a
subscriber receives - Network subscribers place monetary bids
that influence QoS
- Agree on a usage profile (QoS)
Expected
- Charge a price for the agreed level of service
capacity
Charging
 Pricing Models
Billing systems should be capable of pricing plans
• Per minute (voice, videoconferencing)
• Per megabyte (wireless LAN access, disk storage)
• Per message (SMS)
• Per view (video-on-demand)
• Per transaction (ring tones, music downloads, commission on purchase)
• Per ticker symbol (WAP stock quotes)
• Per click (click-through advertising)
• Per response (location based advertising)
• Per seat (software rental)
• Per page (fax)
• Per mile (direction-finding services)
• Per bullet (games)
• Per goal (sport update video clip)
 Sample Charging Models
Service Charging model Variable
Messaging services Per message received Time of day
Weekday/Weekend
E-mail services Per e-mail and/or Per Mb Plain text/HTML/encrypted
Internet access Flat Fee Peak time charging
Per minute/per hour Free after hours
Free hours per month
Localised content delivery Per event Time of day
(traffic information,weather etc) Information granularity
Non Localised content delivery Per event Market open/closed
(stock quotes) Local/overseas market
Real time/delayed
Multimedia content (music,video Per file Image/sound quality
clips ) to the handset Per MB
Personal multimedia (video Per MB Image/sound quality
postcards, video phone) Latency
Location based advertising Per advertisement Time of
services Per customer response Promotional days/periods
Per geographical area/zone Weekday/Weekend
City/country zones
Location based charging Zone based rates Time of Day
(subscribers pay less in using the Exclude some services Weekday/Weekend
services in a home/office zone ) City/Country
Pay-by-mobile services Flat fee per transaction Transaction size
% commisiion Merchant size
Fee for currency exchange Location
Cross product discounts Sponsorship
 Key Entities of Billing

Customer- The company or the individual who has

contracted with the organization.

Account- A single entity that can receive a bill

Account

Subscription / Service- Implies that a customer has

“subscribed” to a particular service from the available Subscription
service types.
 Key Entities of Billing

Product- A specific service that results in a charge.

Product

Contract- A special offering created for a customer with

some products and services as bundle. Contract

Product Package- Bundles together products and contracts

into single entities
• To an account (all subscriptions)
• To a particular subscription
 Account

Billable entity that receives invoices has a balance and a

unique ID.

Information includes :
• Customer name / address
• Payment method Account
• Billing history
Subscription or Service
 Subscription
Subscriptions define
points of service within a network generally pieces of physical equipment or subscription
identification

Eg: Telephone line - Telephone Number

Mobile Phone - Cell Number
ISP - User Id
Cable Services - Cable Access Point
Subscription
Network delivery point (for a particular account)
u Has unique ID
u Used in guiding usage records
u An account may have multiple services
u Service types are important
• Rating
• Product provisioning and usage validation
• Bill formatting
Products
 Product
• Products include services, features, and other items to which
customers can subscribe
• Products can be associated with an account as a whole or with
particular service instances
• Have a related recurring charge
• May have other related charges
Examples:
• Local telephone service
• Call waiting
• Voice mail
• Call Forward
• Video conferencing service
• Internet connection
 Product

• Billed in arrears or advance

Eg. Basic Connection – Rs. 1650 Advance in BSNL - Super
$ 100 Advance in Qwest

• Products may be rated differently based on distance, corridor,

country, origin/Destination etc.

• Products can also be rated as

• A la carte products
• Products provisioned through a package
Charges
 Charges
Increase Recurring
Customer Balance Non-recurring
Usage

Decrease Adjustments
Credits
Customer Balance
Discounts

Product • Charges are linked

Optional
differently for the 3 basic
charge types :
Recurring – Recurring Charges
Charges – Usage Charges
Usage NRC
Charges Rates – Non Recurring Charges.
 Recurring Charges
• Cyclical or Period based charges

• Charges that are accrued by an account for every bill period till the
termination of the account

• Calculated by the invoice processor based on the frequency of billing of

the account or the product

• May be charged in advance or in arrears

Eg. $3.5 per month for Three Way Conference call – Qwest Local
Rs 500.00 per two months - BSNL
 Charge Prorating
• Cyclical or Period based charges
As an example, the figure depicts a timeline for an account billed quarterly for two products both billed in
advance, and with the same bill period (the dashed vertical lines indicate cutoff dates). Product 1 starts
on February 15, and product 2 starts prior to December 1 and terminates May 1.

Billing calculates the following cycles’ worth of recurring charges for the following dates:
• January 1 — one cycle’s worth of product 2 (in advance)
• March 1 — one cycle’s worth of product 2 (in advance), roughly half of a cycle’s worth of product
1 (in arrears), and one cycle’s worth of product 1 (in advance)
• June 1 — one cycle’s worth of product 1 (in advance).
 Non Recurring Charges

• Used for one time fees.

Eg. Installation Charges.

• Service calls not covered under other agreements

• May be part of contracts & include penalty fees

• May be applied at account or service level

 Usage Charges
• Event based Charge for each call made

• Usage records (CDRs) are generated on the network

CDR = Call Detail Record or Message

• The rate for each CDR is determined by Billing system

CDR is guided to the correct amount

CDR is validated against the service / product combination

Billing system looks up the rate for the CDR and a charge for
the usage is stored.

• The Invoice Processor does the final calculation of usage charges by

applying discounts if any.
 Re-routing Charges

2 3 B
Account Level
Product

RC

Usage
A

Subscription Level NRC

Product
Contracts
 Contracts

Ö Recurring Charges
Ö Activation NRC
Ö Discount Plans
Ö Unit Credit Plans
Ö Termination NRC
Ö Duration

Time Based Promotion

 Contracts
• Contract with a minimum guaranteed charge.
Eg. A contract has a minimum guaranteed usage of $200 per month, i.e. If the
customer generates $110 of usage charges in a month the charges appearing
on the invoice will be:
– usage $110
– recurring $90 (= $200 - $110 )
– total $200

• Contract with a discount amount carries over from one

bill period to another.

Eg. A customer accrues $100 in charges in January, $90 in February, and $50 in March. A $200
cycle-independent rebate would result in the following monthly charges:
– $0 for January, leaving $100
– $0 for February, leaving $190
– $40 for March, leaving $0 (=$240 - $200)
 Contracts

• Contract with a minimum obligatory terms of service.

Eg. A 24 month minimum service contract for $25 per month. If the customer
cancels after 19 months the customer is charged $125 for the 5 remaining
months automatically.

• Contract with a commitment for a fixed expense that is reduced

each month.

Eg. A $400 commitments contract with a monthly charge of $50 is canceled after
three months. The customer is charged $250 in a penalty charge (=$400 -
$150 already paid).
 Relation among Entities of Billing

Account
Contract
Product

Sub Sub
account account

Subscription Subscription Subscription Subscription Subscription

Subscription

Contract Contract
Product Product
Discounts and Unit Credits
Discount Discounts and Unit Credits

• Definition
A business rule that lowers the amount of charges that meet certain
criteria
Eg.
BPL Mobile offers 15%discount on its MOTS bill for all its subscribers
who dine at pizza hut for a specified amount

Discounts can be classified as:

• Fixed amount
• Percentage
• Volume
a) Bulk
b)Incremental
Discounts and Unit Credits

Fixed amount
A Fixed amount is discounted from your monthly bill.
Eg. Rs.10/- discount on bill exceeding Rs.500/-

Percentage
A Fixed percentage is discounted from your monthly billing
amount.
Eg. a 10%discount on your bill amount exceeding Rs.500/-
 Discounts and Unit Credits
•Volume discount based on minutes of usage

Volume(in minutes) Discount

0-100 10%

100-500 12%

500 and above 15%

 Discounts and Unit Credits
•Volume discount based on amount

Volume(in Rupees) Discount

100-500 10%

500-800 12%

800 and above 15%

 Discounts
Two kinds of volume discounts

•Incremental (Tiered)
•Bulk (Tapered)

If total charges are over

Rs.50, 10% discount
10% off applies to all the usage
charges over
Rs.50
$50 $50
5% off first If total
Rs.50 charges are
worth of under Rs.50,
charges 5% discount
applies

Incremental Bulk
 Discounts Thresholds
If you spend Rs.100 you receive
these discounts
RC
Rs.7.50
Rs.10.00
Rs.100 Rs.100
If > Rs.50 = 10% If > Rs.50 = 10%
10 %
$5.00 $10.00

10 %
Rs.50 Rs.50
If <= Rs.50 = 5% If <= Rs.50 = 5%
Rs.2.50 Rs.2.50
5% 5%

Incremental Bulk
 Discounts
• Linked to accounts or services through discount plans

> Service level - only charges for that service qualify for the discount
> Account level - any charge billed to that account can qualify

• Can also be linked through contracts

• Their assignment level determines which charges they affect

Account Discount
Plan

Service Discount
Plan
Individual
Discounts
Product
 Discount Calculation

How Billing System calculates discounts:

• Sum value of discountable charges

• Calculate discount amount

• Back-allocate discount among qualifying charges

• Bill calculator process does the discounting at billing time

 Cross Product Discounts
• Discounts apply directly to eligible charges
• Recurring / Non recurring / Usage

• Cross Product Discounts –

Service Provider gives discounts on a type of charge based on the other types
that may be applied across the products
Eg.
Usage charges exceeds $100.00 – 10% discount in rental charges

• Loyalty Points –
Based on the charges incurred, Customer will be given discount thru External
means.
Eg.
Points will be rewarded if the average Usage for 6 consecutive Bill Cycles
exceeds a certain Value. These points will be accumulated and the Customer
may be given discount in retail outlets.
 Gross and Net Discounts

• Gross discounts always apply to the original charge, no matter

what other discounts apply.

• Net discounts apply to the remaining charge after previous

discounts have been applied.
 Discount Order

• If multiple discounts apply to a charge and some or all of them

are net,the order in which they apply affects the final charge.

• Rebates/credits directly provisioned through plans always

apply before those provisioned through contracts.

• Subscription-level plans apply before account-level plans, and

subscription-level contracts apply before account-level
contracts.

• HQ discounts apply after all other discounts.

 Unit Credits

• Like discounts, but used to distribute free usage

> 5 hours per month free

• Linked to accounts or services through unit credit plans

• Can be included in contracts

• Two methods of allocation for account level unit credits:

>Credits allocated and distributed once across all services

>Each service instance will receive the credits

 Unit Credit Plans
u Unit credit plans group individual unit credits
u The plans are attached to accounts or services
u Can be included in contracts
u Can vary based on account attributes
u Number of free ratable units
u Applied every bill cycle

Account Discount Plan

Unit Credit Plan

Service
Instance
Discount Plan

Product
Unit Credit Plan
Packages
 Product Packages

1 Package

“Bundle” Concept
2 Account
u products and
contracts
u provides
limitations,
durations, &
rating key

Result
3
 Product Packages

• Cluster a range of products and special offers.

• Each package comprises one or more components.

• Components may be required parts of the package or optional.

• Package components consist of a collection of products

and contracts.
Product Packages

u Packages are
provisioned to accounts
u Package components
are provisioned to
accounts or services
u Components are
products or contracts
 Package Tariff plans-Example
BSNL

Calling Plan - General Super

-> (Monthly)
Rent / Plan Rs 250 Rs 1650.00
Charges
Free Calls 50 1800

Call 51 to 300 – Rs 1.00 Rs 1.00

Charges/Unit 301 and above – Rs 1.20
Charges per Rs 30.00 Free
Detailed Bill
Service Tax 8% 8%
 Package Tariff plans-Example

AT&T Wireless
Calling plan Monthly fee State to State rate

AT&T Unlimited $19.95 0 c to AT&T Subscribers 7 c

plan to all others

AT&T One rate 7 c $4.95 7 c all the time

plus plan
AT&T One rate None 10 c all the time
10 c plan
AT&T 5 c night plan None 5c (7pm to 7am)
10c other times
* AT&T 5c None 5c Saturday through
weekends plan Sunday
9c all other times
 Package Tariff plans-Example
Broadband - VSNL
VoIP – calling plan General
(TCS)
Equipment cost (Cisco Rs. 9180.00
adapter)
Implementation charge Rs. 12000.00
(NRC)
Deposit Rs. 12000.00
Monthly Rental Rs. 1800.00

Usage Charges per Rs. 5.5 per minute

Call
Service Tax 8%
Discount 12.5%
 Example of Customer Account
Implementation
Billing System view

Acct

Access line SI Internet Access SI

“2 free hours”

Billing System view

Billing System view Acct

Acct Product Contract Product Contract

Marketing Sub Sub
Sales
Dept account account
Access line SI
Grouped-bill invoice Dept
A family has 1 access line and 1 internet
access and wishes to have one invoice Access line #1 Access line #2
SI SI
to pay. “2 free hours” “Gold offer”
E.g. : «2 free hours»+ « Internet Access»

Product Contract

Single-bill invoice
A customer has one offer : «Unit Credit with Product Contract Product Contract
2 free hours on Week-end»
Grouped-bill invoice
A family has 1 access line and 1 internet access
and wishes to have one invoice to pay.
E.g. : «2 free hours»+ « Internet Access»
Modules of Billing
Modules in Billing
u Usage/Message Processing

u Invoice/Bill Processing

u Payments Processing

u Collections (Dunning)

u Financials (Journals)

u Process Administration
Modules in Billing
 Usage Processing

u Responsible for extracting usage event information from external

usage files

u Calculating charges for each usage event and associating those

events and charges with the appropriate customers.

u Usage guiding
u Identifies the services and/or accounts to which usage events
should be charged.
 Usage Processing cont...

u Usage rating
u Calculates usage charges based on database-resident
product and rate information.

u Error correction
u Allows usage events to be reviewed and corrected if
processing errors occur.

u Routes usage records for external clients

(for eg roaming outbound records ) to external clearing houses
 Usage Formats
Call Detail Record: Used to record details like
Eg. Originating number and Terminating number
Start time of the call End time

Usage records are of different formats depending on

u Type of communication – eg. Wireless, Wireline etc.
u Geography
u Technology – GSM, GPRS etc.

Some of the record formats are ….

AMA – Automated Messaged Accounting, Wireline, USA
EMI – Exchange Message Information, Wireline, Intercarrier, USA
TAP – GSM Roaming
IPDR – Internet CDR format
CIBER – GPRS (USA) Roaming format
 Usage Guiding
Guiding: Matches calls to customer calling plans. Based on the
• Start number
• End number
• Duration
• Time of call

Split Usage - single event can be split into two secondary usage events
Eg. A landline to Mobile call detail record has a Landline part and Mobile part

Free & Unbilled Usage – Not used for Billing

Not used for particular subscription – unbilled records
Not used for all subscriptions – Free records
 Usage Rating
Usage rating is done based on
u Distance
u < 250 km
u > 250 km and < 500 km
u > 500 km

u Origin / Destination
u Within Chennai
u Chennai to Kanchipuram
u Chennai to Hyderabad

u Country (International)
u Asia Pacific Plan
u North America Plan
u European etc.
 Usage Rating

Usage rating is done based on

u Time Period
u Peak / Off Peak
u Day / Evening / Night / Weekend

u Day, Month, Year

u Republic Day, Independence Day and Gandhi Jayanthi
u Holi, Diwali, Christmas

u Wireless to Wireline
u BSNL to AirTel
u AirTel to AirTel
u AirTel to iDEA etc.
 Roaming
Definition: A call originated or terminated from a subscriber not belonging
to that geography’s mobile service providers.
Two types of Roaming
u Local Roaming Usage
u Foreign Roaming Usage
Eg. An iDEA cell customer from AP is travelling in Chennai with the
roaming partner AIRCELL.
All incoming calls – Foreign roaming
All outgoing calls – Local Roaming
Exchange of Roaming Usage is done via Clearing Houses
Roaming Usage is based on the following categories:
• Usage events initiated by your subscribers while in another
area,forwarded to you by a roaming partner
• Usage events initiated by a different carrier’s subscribers while in
your local area and passed to you by the local switch.
 Roaming
Switch 1
User A (Hutch) Usage event 100(local) Hutch
Tap In Usage Event 201
User B (AirTel)
Usage
event

Usage event 101

101(Roaming) Clearing House

Switch 2
Usage
User C (AirTel) Usage event 200 AirTel event
(Local) 201
User D (Hutch)
Tap In Usage Event 101

Usage event 201

(Roaming)
u Carriers A&B are roaming partners • All calls picked up by switch 2 are routed to carrier B
u Users A&D are subscribers to carrier A • Usage events 100&200 are local usage events
u Users B&C are subscribers to carrier B • Usage events 101&201 are roaming usage events
u All calls picked up by switch 1 are routed to carrier A
 Invoice Processing
Bill processing tasks include

u Calculate customer balances based on charges and credits

u Arrange charges and credits on formatted customer bills

u Dispatch customer bills

 Billing the customer

Bill Invoice Preparation (BIP)

Applying Charges
Applying Discounts
Applying Usage Credits
Bill Invoice Formatting (BIF)
Applying Taxes
Creating of virtual image Formatting Invoices
Creating Screen
Image & Formatting
Bill Invoice Dispatch(BID)
Image
Dispatching Invoices
Creating Tape, CD etc.
Sending invoice to
printer, Web etc.
Invoice Processing
 Bill Frequency, Periods and Cycles

Account A
Billing Frequency-Monthly
Billing Period-Jan1-Jan31

Account B Account C
Billing Frequency-Quarterly Billing Frequency-Half Yearly
Billing Period-Jan1-Mar31 Billing Period-Jan1-Jun30

Bill Cycle-Combination of Billing Frequency and Billing Period

Payments
 Payment Processing
• Lock Box Payments

• Credit Card Payments

• Electronic Fund Transfer Payments (EFT) / Direct Debit

• Manual Payments

• External Clearing Houses

 Mode of Payments
Manual Payments
Using the customer care interface GUI screens, CSRs can be
able to manually add,modify and transfer payments with
payment interface.

Lock Box Payments

• Tracking of customer payments received from bank lock boxes
and matching them to the correct customer account.
• Payments are reviewed and corrected using Lock box
Investigation process.

Electronic Funds Transfer

An EFT payments module interacts with a bank or direct debit
clearing house to collect customer payments directly from the
customers account.
 Mode of Payments cont…
• Credit Card Payments
• Normal
A Credit Card Payment module is responsible for creating
transaction files and processing acknowledgement files that are
exchanged with clearing houses for those credit card companies.

• Real Time
A Real time credit card server establishes connections to credit
card clearing houses, to validate and authorize payments
scheduled through a customers credit card.

• Internet Gateways
A module takes care of payments done through web for a
particular invoice by the customer just after watching it in internet.
 Modes of Payment cont…
• External Clearing Houses
• EFT and CPM is responsible for exchange files with multiple
external clearinghouses.
• A separate send file is created for each bank and files from
multiple banks can be received and processed.
 Payments Types
• Pre-Payment
• Posted against current balance or suspense account
• Pre-payments always adjust balances on the subsequent
invoices

• Part-Payment
• Part Payments could be entered in either of the payment modes
• Posted against an open invoice
• Partially cancels the invoice balance
• Remaining invoice balance is subject to late fees

• Over-Payment
• Posted against an open invoice
• Cancels out the selected invoice’s balance
• Remaining amount of over payment is stored as a credit balance
on current balance or suspense account
COLLECTIONS
 Collections Processing

• Processes accounts with past due balances

• Scenarios assigned
• Accounts are then managed
 How Are Scenarios Assigned?
• Balance due (range) – Depending on the balance range
Eg. < $100.00 – Scenario 1
>$100.00 and < $500.00 – Scenario 2

• Customer Classification
• Corporate Customer and Preeminent Customers
• Retail and small customers

• Credit Rating – Depending on Credit history – The rating is given by third

parties and also a threshold limit is set for a customer. This will be used by
Unbilled Usage Monitoring Report and alerts if it exceeds the threshold limit

• Write Off- When a customer does not pay for received services, it is usually
disconnected. The Service Provider attempts to recover the money that
the customer owes. In some cases, however, the money is never
recovered and is written off as bad debt. A bad debt is recorded in the
database as a write-off transaction.
 Collections Scenarios
• Scenario is a set of events
• Events can be
– Send letters
– Make phone calls
– Bar Outgoing calls
– Bar Incoming Calls
– Temporary Disconnection
– Account suspension
• Events are either automated (letters) or manual (phone
calls)
• Every Account will have a scenario and an event schedule.
Collections Scenario Definitions
• For each scenario
– Selected events occur in a certain order
– Certain # of days apart
– Scheduled dates for each account are assigned based on date
customer entered collections
– Eg. Scenarios….
Scenario 1 (Pre eminent Customer) Scenario 2 (Retail)

1) Reminder Letter 1) First Phone Call

2) soft letter two weeks later 2) Reminder Letter (if no answer)

3) First Phone call after one week of no 3) Outgoing Call Barring

response

4) Long Distance call barring 4) Temporary Disconnection

5) Outgoing Call Barring 5) Account Suspension

6) Temporary Disconnection 6) Write Off

7) Account Suspension

8) Service Re-connection
Working With Account in Collections
• Activities during collections
– Pending
– Completed
– Reschedule an event
– Collections actions will generate Notes
– Can also review Balances, Adjustment History for
disputes
– Change scenario
• Re-schedule event dates
• Suspend events (dispute over charges)
• Other actions: suspend/terminate accounts
• Must disconnect before write-off
Working With Account in Collections

• Once the payment is done …… Back up (Cure) process

starts

• Cancellation of events that are in queue

• Reactivation of Network related events

• Normal Bill processing with a history of treatment

Journals - General Ledger
 What Is Journals?

• Transfer financial data such as charges, payments, taxes,

write-offs, into the general ledger system

• Roll detailed financial transactions into the categories

required by General Ledger system

• Creates input file for the general ledger system

 Overview of Journals process

Customer

Journal Journal Journal

feed file
Transaction type
groups and associated
journal codes Journal takes the inputs Journal feed file input to
and produces a journal external system
feed file
External system
 T Bar Account

•An account can be represented on paper in a T shape

•Account has number,name and two columns for entering the
credits and the debits
 Journals

• These are two main accounting methods:

– Cash-based
– Accrual
• Each transaction is distinguished by
– billed/unbilled
– earned/unearned
• Each transaction will have a unique identifier and a date
• Transactions may be distinguished by other categories as well,
such as type of product
 Accrual based Accounting

•Cash based accounting –misleading??

•Accrual based accounting-Deals with amounts that have been
earned but not yet invoiced and vice the versa
•Truer picture of the financial situation
•Most companies publicly owned or partially owned by other
companies
•Wrongly reporting their worth can be considered a fraud.
•Accrual accounting extremely crucial for accurate and timely
reporting of revenue
 Types of Accruals
• Accruals are either unbilled, partially unearned, or both
– EBUB--Earned but unbilled
• NRCs
• Adjustments
• Usage
– BBUE--Billed but unearned
• Portion of RC billed advance, at EOP
– Estimated for unrated usage events
• All of these accruals must be reversed in the next journal cycle
– Journal creates the reversal at the same time as it creates
the accrual, but applies the next period date to it
 Journal Transactions

Billed and Earned transactions may include the following

charge types
-Adjustments
-Recurring charges
-Aggregated charges
-Discounts
-Non Recurring charges
-Aggregated taxes
-Unit Credits
-Payments
Journalizing Recurring Charges

•Recurring charges billed in advance are fully unearned

•At the end of Journal period charge is prorated between

earned and unearned portions

•The unearned portion generates a bill but unearned

accrual (BBUE) for the part of the charge covering
services not yet rendered
Journalizing Usage Charges

•All usage records successfully guided and rated by

message processing modules during the current journal
period is selected for booking.

•Billed amounts –booked as usage earned revenue.

•Unbilled Amounts-booked as Earned but Unbilled

accruals (EBUB)
 Basic Journals Booking Flow

• Journaling is a cyclical activity structured by journal periods

• Each journal period, all NEW transactions are reported as

– Standard or
– Accruals / Accrual Reversals

• In addition, accrual transactions from last journal period are

reversed and re-created as standard journal transactions
 Journal Periods and Bill Cycles

• Here is an example of how journal periods might fall in relation

to bill cycles
– One monthly bill cycle on the 1st
– One monthly journal period on the 15th

Bill Date Bill Date

Jan 1 JNL Feb 1 JNL
EOP EOP
Jan 15 Feb 15
 Adjustment Definitions

• Journals do not book each Adjustment individually

• Each Adjustment has 3 definitions
– Pre-bill/Post-bill: whether the charge being adjusted has
appeared on a bill
– Billed/Unbilled: whether the adjustment itself has appeared
on a bill
– Fraud/Non-Fraud
• Adjustments are also booked to reflect the charge being
adjusted
– For example, usage Adjustments are booked by jurisdiction
Billing System Implementation
Billing System Implementation
 Billing System Implementation

Phase Deliverables
Project Start up Detailed Project Plan
Requirements Analysis User Requirements Specifications
Document
Gap Analysis/Strategy Document
Configuration Configuration Document
Customisation Document
Interface Document
Testing System Test Specifications Doc.
System Test Cases & Data
E2E Test Specifications Document
E2E Test Cases & Data
Acceptance Criterion Document
User Accepted Product

Go Live User Training Documents

User Guide
Billing Life Cycle - An example
Billing Life Cycle

u Account
u Services
u Products
u Usage Processing
u TIP Format
u EMI Format
u Bill Processing
u Unformatted Bill
u Bill Formatting
u Final Bill of BSNL
u Final Bill of Qwest
 Billing Life Cycle

• Account - Example
• Product used – Kenan /OM
• Service Provider - BSNL (Chandighar)
• Customer’s Name - Gurudev Singh
• Service is GSM with the mobile no as 9417005005
• Package - PLAN 325 - Basic
• Call Waiting
• Call Forward
• Call Hold
• CLIP
• SMS along with STD and National Roaming
Billing Life Cycle

Account No

Telephone No

Package

Products
 Billing Life Cycle

• Usage Format - Example

• Header - Date
• The records
• Trailer - Date
 Billing Life Cycle

• Usage Format - CDR from BSNL Chandighar

HDR2003070413513204730001940CSGDataMediation
MOC030704131400000000008a8059414088177 01542425768
404591210030630 14 000000000123103 0000120030704124141000015000015
0 1001542425768 9414088177 10919414099995
490541914855260 04f4950012000b 04f4950012000b GGNGRO
40459 ANR
MTC030704131400000000108a80801412633279 9414074473 404591210022058
14 000000010123131 0000120030704124116000040000040 0
109414074473 9414074473 10919414099995
490544205100600 04f495000a0021 04f495000a002a JAIPRI
40459 ANR
MOC030704131400000193908c6ba9414018600 9414016672 404591220002855
14 000019390123101 0000120030704124517000013000013 0
109414016672 9414018600 10919414099995
350195891064220 04f495000f0017 04f495000f0017 0GRI2
40459 ANR
TRA2003070413513204730001940CSGDataMediation
 Billing Life Cycle

• BSNL Bill – XYZ, Chennai

• Group Account with 450 lines
• Average bill per month – 3,000,000
• A discount of 10% is in our contract for this huge bill
• The tariff plan varies depending on the each phone bill
Sample Bill - BSNL

Group Bill

Bill Number

Tariff plan

Usage Units

Net Charges

Tariff plans
available
 Sample Bill - BSNL

Date and time of

call

STD/ISD
Number called
to

Units charged
 Billing Life Cycle

• Usage Processing
• TIP Format
• EMI Format
•Bill Processing
• Unformatted Bill
• Bill Formatting
•Final Bill of Qwest
 Sample Bill - Qwest

• Qwest Bill – Alpha Mapple Law Offices, Seattle

• Service charges and Monthly Charges
• Summary and Itemized IntraLATA calls
• Any Calling Plan (Minutes Free Plan)
• Sprint (IXC) – Long Distance Carrier
• lnterLATA charges
• Any Hold amount
Sample Bill - Qwest

Bill Date
Customer Code

Telephone Number

Direct Debit

Amount Due

Balance
 Sample Bill - Qwest

Recurring
Charges

Value
Added
Services
 Sample Bill - Qwest

Directory
assistance

Taxes and
surcharges

Total local charges

 Sample Bill - Qwest

Long distance –
Minutes Free Calling
Plan
Sample Bill - Qwest

100 Min. Free – No

long distance
charges

Total charges
 Sample Bill - Qwest

Long
Distance
Carrier

Total Long
Distance
Charges

Itemized long
distance
Sample Bill - Qwest

Itemized long
distance
 Sample Bill - Qwest

Charges to
Hold Billing
Serv.
Localization Issues - USA
 Localization Issues - USA
• Geography
• Local Access and Transport Areas
• North American Numbering Plan

• Service Providers Categories

• Governing Bodies
• Federal Communications Commission
• Public Utilities Commission

• The Telecommunications act of 1996

 Localization Issues - USA
Local Access and Transport Area
• A geographic area smaller than a state and bigger than a
county (district)
To define telephone boundaries
To differentiate local and inter-exchange calls
To charge customers
• LATAs are artificial structures for the purpose of telephone
billing

• Basic Categorization of Calls are

• Intra LATA & Inter LATA
• Intra state and Inter state
 Localization Issues - USA
North American Numbering Plan
• Telephone Number is Ten digit number (0 – 9)
• NXX-NNX-XXXX

• 123-456-7890
• First three digits – Area Code
• Second three digits – Exchange Code
• Last four digits – Line number
• Area Code Exhaustion – Fax, Cellular, Direct Inward Dialing
(DID) phones

• Area Code Subdivision and Overlays –

 Localization Issues - USA
Service Provider Categories
Different Categories of Carriers
• Local Exchange Carrier (LECs) – Can originate and
terminate calls from subscribers – within a LATA
• Incumbent Local Exchange Carriers -- Regional Bell
Operating Companies – (ILECs)
Eg. Bell Atlantic (merged to Verizon), Bell South
• Competitive Local Exchange Carriers (CLECs)
Eg. Alcatel, Century
• Inter Exchange Carrier (IXCs) Transport calls between
exchanges (InterLata)
Eg. AT&T, MCI-Worldcom , Sprint etc.
 Localization Issues - USA
Federal Communications Commission
• Independent United States government agency,
• Directly responsible to Congress
• Several Bureaus
• Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau
Educates and informs consumers about telecom goods and
services and engages
• Enforcement Bureau
Enforces the Communications Act (Rules, Regulations etc.)
• Wireless Telecommunications
oversees cellular and PCS phones, pagers and two-way
radios
 Localization Issues - USA
Federal Communications Commission
•Wireline Competition Bureau
responsible for rules and policies concerning
telephone companies that provide interstate, intrastate
telecom services to the public through the use of wire-
based transmission facilities (corded/cordless
telephones).
• International Bureau
Represents the Commission in satellite and
international matters
• Media Bureau
Regulates AM, FM radio and television
broadcast stations
 Localization Issues - USA
Public Utilities Commissions
• State governing body to regulate the rates and services of all
public utilities

• Accountable to the General Assembly and is subject to

legislative oversight by the Joint Legislative Utility Review
Committee

• Regulates electric, telephone (including payphone service

and shared tenant service), natural gas, water, wastewater,
water resale, household goods transportation, busses,
brokers, and ferryboats
 Localization Issues - USA
North American Numbering Plan
• Reserved Area Codes
• 500 – Number Series – Personal Communications
Services
• 555 – Special purpose office code
Eg. 555-1212 – Nationwide directory
• 800 – Called Party pays
• 900 – Calling Party is charged (not same as normal call)
 Localization Issues - USA
The Telecommunications act of 1996

CLECs may interconnect with ILECs to originate and

terminate calls
A 14 points ruling to be implemented by ILECs and CLECs
Eg. Interconnection of networks between CLECs and
ILECs
Resale of ILEC retail services with a discount
Wireless Local Loop
Number Portability etc.
 Billing Errors

Frequency Billing Error

1 Bad or missing AR data

2 Incorrect Rates

3 Incomplete Billing

4 Incorrect invoice
calculation
5 Incomplete payment
information
 Billing Errors…contd

Frequency Billing Error

6 Incorrect Dunning or
Regulatory messages
7 Non Billable calls on the
invoice
8 Approved Invoices are
not what is printed
9 Incorrect Marketing
messages
10 Invalid Testing
 Billing Concerns

• Poor Product or process performance

• Improper Project management methodology
• Adhoc approach towards performance measurement
• PDP’s to improve employee capabilities not carried out
• “Billing is an afterthought” not as a “primary driver”
Technology & Industry Trends
 Technology and Industry Trends

• 3G wireless Systems – Billing

• Packet Billing
• Convergent Billing
• Market Share of Vendors
• Migration Issues and Pitfalls
 3G Billing systems

• Also known as UMTS

• Will support
• Streaming Video services
• Video Conferencing
• Interactive Online shopping
• Online Banking &stocks trading
• Service providers to replace traditional voice centric systems
with new ones
 Framework of 3G Billing System
New parameters of calculating charge could include:
• Number of packets
• Uploading and downloading of data
• Quality of service
• Location
• Content
 Key Issues

•Be Real time

•Be based on open industry standards
•Be modular
•Accommodate all current and future types
of services
•Support bundling of services
•Service Centric view Customer centric
view
•Minimize “Time to market”
Packet Billing
Packet based Billing System

• Packet based IP services

• Employs IPDR

• Pay according to usage

• IP mediation
Packet based Billing System..contd
Convergent Billing
 Convergent Billing

• Traditional Billing systems have been unable to efficiently

handle data in heterogeneous formats
• In order to address the myriad of technical and business
requirements, new billing architectures must be more
sophisticated than was previously thought possible.
• Object oriented approach has proved to be extremely useful
in resolving complex technical and business issues .This
approach has been named as “Convergent billing approach”
Convergent Billing
Convergent Billing
 Telecom Vendors
Vendor Product Europe Worldwid
e
ADC Singl.eView 6 14

Amdocs Ensemble 14 23

Cerillion Cerillion 10 11

Convergys Geneva/ Atyls 18 39

Digiquant IMS 7 13

Intec Intercarrier 15 21

Lucent & CSG Arbor BP 4 29

MaxBill MaxBill 4 6

Portal Software Infranet 14 40

Protek Protek CCB 1 6

Schlumberger Sema SemaVision 7 11

BSCS
Billing Suppliers
Billing Migration Approaches

• Big Bang Approach

Convert all customers at one time

• Phased Migration approach

Converts subsets of records over a period of time

• “Lens” gateway Strategy

Transaction processing mediation between the old and
the new environments
 Pitfalls in Billing Migration

• More Volume
• Subscriber Tolerance
• Subscriber Segmentation and Tariff Plans
• Decrease in Service Level Standards
• Large number of products
• Complexity of products/services
• Rate of business change
Pitfalls in Billing Migration

• Historical data
• Organizational complexity
• Number of external entities
• Data Quality
• Technical complexity
• Operational complexity
 Emerging Issues of Billing

• Number Portability - allows customer to keep existing telephone

numbers when changing
Ø Providers
Ø Geography/ Location
Ø Service
• Advantages
Ø Customer maintain their identity
Ø Saving the cost associated with number changes
Ø Avoid inconvenience
• The existing service plans will be changed
 Emerging Issues of Billing

• Eight regional databases in USA.

Ø NeuStar is the LNP Administrator managing the NPAC (Number Portability
Administration Center)

• Technology used - Local Routing Number

• Number Exhaust Problem
• Billing Issues - expensive changes to billing system
 Billing Trends

Billing Process Changes

• Usage Collection - Single Source to Multiple Source
• Chargeable Account Identification – Prepaid and postpaid convergence
• Rating – On multiple other parameters
• Other Charges calculation
• Discount application
• Payments and Balance calculation
• Balance Outstanding
• Formatting – For different media – Paper, Browser
• Print File Generation
3G – Real time Balance Managements
HLR VLR
BTS BSS/RNC GMSC
BTS MSC
PSTN

(SSP)

Billing
IN-PLATFORM Platform
(SCP)
IN
Platform
SS7
(SSP) (SSP) Network
SGSN GGSN
apn
Public IP
MNOP 2G+/3G Networks
IP Backbone apn apn Corporate IP
SM-SC Networks

GRX

MNOP
“Walled Garden”
MNOP Networks Globally
M-Portal
3G Billing – Charging Flow (Circuit Switched)
Balance Billing
MSC SCP Intermediate Billing Platform Settlement
Manager Gateway
Platform
Initialise

Request
Reservation

Supply
Token

Connect

Call
Terminated

Commit
Reservation

Commit to Database

Commited

CDR (including SCP Status)

CDR (Including BM Status)

CDR (Including
SCP status)

Retail charge
(if BM failed)

Intercarrier Settlements
 Telecom Billing Audit

• Business spending in Telecommunication exceeds USD 900 Billion

• Increase in complaints due to unauthorized charges in billing
• 70% of Bills contain error
• 80% of errors not favoring the customer
• Businesses expect to slash charges from 5% to 35% by initiating Bill Audits
• Questions being asked:

Are the bills rated according to contract/tariff?

Are the proper discounts applied?

Are the taxes computed correctly?

What resources are used to process the billing?

 Impacted by OTR003:2001

Customer Management

Marketing Order Handling Problem Handling

Sales Provisioning Service Assurance

Service
Mediation Billing
Configuration

Enterprise Support System

Supplier/Partner
Management
 Impacted by OTR003:2001
Service Mediation and Billing and Service Supplier/Partner
Configuration Billing Assurance Management

Tariff Publication

Service Usage Charge Duration

Specification Accuracy

Charge – Time of Day

Accuracy
Bill Timeliness
Charge –
Occurrence Count Bill Audit
Accuracy
Bill Correction
Charge – Published
Tariff consistency Root Cause Analysis
Inter-Operator
Recovery Program Accuracy,
Timeliness
And Quality
 Service Configuration
Customer Management
Tariff Publication

Service Usage Marketing Order Handling Problem Handling

Specification

Sales Provisioning Service Assurance

Service
Mediation Billing
Configuration

Enterprise Support System

Supplier/Partner
Management

Process Automation
•Strengthening the Marketing processes • Capture and classification of customer
related to Tariff and SUS complaints

•Monitoring customer complaint trends as • Capture and classification of customer

part of Service Assurance queries
 Mediation and Billing
Customer Management
Charge Duration
Accuracy Marketing Order Handling Problem Handling

Charge – Time of Day

Accuracy Sales Provisioning Service Assurance

Charge – Service
Mediation Billing
Configuration
Occurrence Count
Accuracy
Enterprise Support System
Charge – Published
Tariff consistency Supplier/Partner
Management

Process Automation
• Strengthening the Order Handling- • Variance Diagnostic Framework
Provisioning Flow through • Extract
• Compare
• Focus on precision and accuracy of the • Report
mediation logic
• Measure
• Focus on Service specific instance rating • Charge
capability • Duration

• Occurrence
 Billing and Service Assurance

Customer Management
Bill Timeliness
Marketing Order Handling Problem Handling
Bill Audit

Sales Provisioning Service Assurance

Bill Correction

Service
Root Cause Analysis Mediation Billing
Configuration

Recovery Program
Enterprise Support System

Supplier/Partner
Management

Process Automation
• Strengthening consistency of Bill Cycle • Problem Management System

• Focus on Bill auditing and correction

• Bill Sampling
• Focus on causal analysis
 Impact to Business Model

Charge Duration
Accuracy

Charge – Time of Day

Accuracy Bill Timeliness
in ent
rg Bill Audit ss
Charge – a em c e
g M ag uc
Tariff Publication in Occurrencen Count S
a Bill Correction
er
ion Accuracy
M m
it o Inter-Operator
Service Usageo s st
Root uCause Analysis
P
Specification Charge – Published C Accuracy, M
d Tariff consistency PR
Timeliness
a n
r Recovery Program
B And Quality

OTR003:2001

Service Mediation and Billing and Service Supplier/Partner

Configuration Billing Assurance Management
Billing System Architecture
Qwest - CRIS Billing Architecture
BOSS
Order Entry & Inquiry
Correction CSR
Systems
Cash Error
USOC CSR
Customer Correction
SOLAR Rating Data Base OSCAR RPS/CMR
TBLS

Svc Order Svc Order Account Cash Data Cash

Treatment Cash Entry
Entry Rating Posting Base Posting
Remittance
Processing
Services
Svc Order Cash Bill Journals
Errors Pull
Bill
Svc Order Bill
Bill Pull Calculation Bill Format
EDI

Carrier oscar
Usage Carrier Input/ Legacy
Exit Invoice
Ready
WATS/
LMS Bill
Pull
WATS/LMS Msg
RIB

WATS/
LMS
AMA
(Network) RECS

Usage Toll/Usage Usage

RUP (PP2) Toll Rate VDP
Distribution Masterfile Bill Pull

POINT
(Coin)
IABS CMDS
Interface ICO Usage
Usage CMDS/
Ind. Co.
OMANTEL Billing Architecture
Case Study
 Case Study – Qwest Communications Inc.
Qwest Background – 25 million customers
Customer Need Key Challenge
To reduce cost and improve •Providing support to the system
efficiency of operations of billing from offshore
applications
•Merging different billing systems

Key Tasks Performed

Customer Gain
•Maintenance and Enhancements on
Billing, Network and Retail applications •Billing Process Fine tuning leading
to 50% cost reductions
•Development, Maintenance and
Conversion activities •30% reduction in invoice
generation cycle
•Managed Operations
•Merging two different billing systems
into one
•Production Support from
onsite/offshore

Customer Benefits from TCS Process Improvement Capabilities

Case Study – Cable & Wireless
Cable & Wireless
Customer Need Key Challenge
To reduce cost and •Providing support from one
dependency on the existing centralized location
product vendor (Amdocs)

Key Tasks to be Performed Customer Gain

Participation in the “Go Live” •Engagement in the initial
stage of Amdocs stage
implementation
Tier 1 production support of the
customer care and billing
system including Amdocs
 Case Study – British Telecom (BT) – Project Pelican
BT Background – British Telecom has 21 million customers
Customer Need Key Challenge
•To redesign the existing bill to make it a •Largest Amdocs - FBF (Flexible Bill
“Value added” service that can be a Formatter) implementation in the world
differentiator in customer relationship

Key Tasks Performed Customer Gain

•Customization and integration of •Enhanced customer satisfaction
Amdoc’s FBF
•David Graystone, Manager Billing
•System and integration test, Development, voted “Billing Executive of
configuration management the Year 2001” at Billing and CRM
Conference Paris – first time at BT
•24*7 on call/onsite support
•Helped environment by reducing paper
usage by 750 tones a year

Customer Speaks: “I do indeed see it as an award for everyone who worked on the Pelican
project. Thank you and your people for your application on the program.” – David Graystone,
Manager Billing Development on winning the award
 Case Study – FarEasTone Taiwan
FET Background – 2nd largest GSM Service Provider in Taiwan
- 2.2 million customers
Customer Need Key Challenge
•To develop a new billing system to take •Migration from existing billing system to
care of growing business needs more robust and flexible customer care
and billing system

Key Tasks Performed Customer Gain

•Configuration of Kenan/BP to suit FET’s •Successful system integration of the
business requirements new billing system
•Data migration from CABS to Kenan/BP •Gap analysis leading to process
improvements
•System Integration testing of new billing
system •Significant reduction of trouble tickets
of the existing billing system
•Data Warehousing
•New billing system resulted in no errors
•Production Support
being reported

Customer Speaks: “I'd like to thank the Tata team for their professional work
and healthy attitudes.” - Joe Pabon , VP – IT
Case Study – New World Mobility
NWM Background – 3nd largest Service Provider in Hong Kong

Customer Need Key Challenge

•Need consulting services to analyze problems •Ultra-competitive market provided very
with existing customer care and billing systems little timeline to track and solve
problems

Key Tasks Performed Customer Gain

•Adopted a three phase approach – Assess, •Reduction from 28 to 15 billing cycles
Tune and Enhance
•30-50% increase in CSR Efficiency
•Deployed cross-functional team consisting of
Telecom and Architecture consulting experts •40-60% reduction in invoicing effort and time

•Prioritized and eliminated bottlenecks •Near real time activation for new customers

•Identified and implemented key functionality •20-50% reduction in time to introduce new
enhancements call plans

•Provided roadmap for ongoing maintenance

Customer benefits from TCS’ consulting and implementation capabilities

 Case Study – Tata Teleservices Limited (TTL)
TTL Background – 0.3 million customer, India’s leading private sector operator

Customer Need Key Challenge

A partner who can take over IT •Greenfield venture
outsourcing and enable TTL to focus on •Time to market – 6 months
its core business
•Innovative customizations

Key Tasks Performed Customer Gain

•Business process definition and mapping •Complete IT outsourcing taken care by
•Evaluation of products and vendors TCS allowing TTL to focus on business
objectives
•Systems integration
•Implementation of best of breed
applications
•Data Center and help desk operations

Customer Speaks: “In TCS we have found a partner who understands our
business objectives and has the capability of meeting all our IT requirements
in line with our business requirements.” – CIO, TTL