What factors impact the Evolution of the Telecom Billing systems

The Billing system is the backbone of a Telco business. So to understand the evolution of the billing system, we better have a look at the way Telco business has evolved.

I feel there are 4 main factors which have been deciding the course of the way Telcos conduct their business.

1. Technological advancements

Thanks to the rapid development in the Telecom networks and Mobile handsets, we have covered the journey from basic mobile telephony services to the current advanced services like IPTV very fast. The new technology gave Telco new opportunities to serve customers, new revenue streams. The billing systems have evolved to be in sync with these developments and make sure Telcos can make revenue from the new services.

2. Market and Competition

People from India can very well relate to this point. Telcos are always under pressure to innovate, to come up with intelligent products and services, to offer lucrative bundles of communication services to tap the underserved market segment, and also to beat the competition or at least be in sync with the competitors.

The Telecom operators are currently trying to tap the rural market segment of India and so have come up with Prepaid recharge coupons of as low as 5 INR and tariff as low as 1 paise/second.

3. Customer base

The ever going down mobile service tariffs and mobile handset prices have made it possible for almost everybody to own a mobile phone. The increase in mobile customer base means more CDRs for processing and so the Billing system has evolved to process this rocketing mobile traffic.

In the earlier days, if there was a single rating processed, currently the billing systems have like 20+ parallel instances of rating process running all time.

4. Regulatory guidelines (Local and Global)

One of the triggers which played an important role in the growth of the telecom sector in India is TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority India). They made sure there is enough competition in the market. They passed various regulatory guidelines that bought the mobile service tariffs.

Tariff of STD calls has gone down from whooping 40 INR/minute to 1 INR/minute in less than a decade.

The regulatory authorities both national and Global keep on passing guidelines to answer security concerns, to let new services prosper, to keep the market open, to ensure end-user delight. Billing System has to be able to cater to these requirements. For example, billing customers for calls older than 30 days is not valid under the guidelines of many local regulators.