Convergent charging and billing (also known as convergent charging, converged charging and convergent billing), is a solution in the

telecommunication Telecommunication, often used in its plural form or abbreviated as telecom, is the transmission of information over a distance using electronic means, typically through cables, radio waves, or other communication technologies. These means of ...

s industry that enables common management of all users and all services for operators.OSS/BSS analyst, May 2006, http://www.comptel.com/content/PDF/OBA052906.pdf?from=4487384376887653 European Communications September 2006, It includes convergence of payment methods like prepaid and postpaid,Ericsson Review Magazine No 1, 2009, Article by Robert Törnkvist and Ralph Schubert, http://www.ericsson.com/ericsson/corpinfo/publications/review/2009_01/files/Charging.pdfLight Reading, June 2007, http://www.lightreading.com/mobile/document.asp?doc_id=125681Vanilla Plus, October 2008, http://www.vanillaplus.com/downloads/expert-opinions4.pdfOvum, Cynthia Leung, Senior Analyst, http://www.ovum.com/go/content/c,73480 as well as access methods and services like

fixed Fixed may refer to: * ''Fixed'' (EP), EP by Nine Inch Nails * ''Fixed'' (film), an upcoming animated film directed by Genndy Tartakovsky * Fixed (typeface), a collection of monospace bitmap fonts that is distributed with the X Window System * Fi ...

telephony,

mobile telephony Mobile telephony is the provision of wireless telephone services to mobile phones, distinguishing it from fixed-location telephony provided via landline phones. Traditionally, telephony specifically refers to voice communication, though th ...

broadband In telecommunications, broadband or high speed is the wide-bandwidth (signal processing), bandwidth data transmission that exploits signals at a wide spread of frequencies or several different simultaneous frequencies, and is used in fast Inter ...

and TV.Vanilla Plus, October 2006, http://www.vanillaplus.com/downloads/expert-opinions4.pdf

Characteristics

Characteristics attributed to a convergent charging & billing system include support for multiple service types such as voice, data,

multimedia Multimedia is a form of communication that uses a combination of different content forms, such as Text (literary theory), writing, Sound, audio, images, animations, or video, into a single presentation. T ...

and content, support for bundling of services and the ability to create a single bill and statement for all communications services including fixed, mobile, broadband and TV. A converged charging system is described as having the ability to control services and manage balances in real-time. This includes, for example, authenticating the

subscriber The subscription business model is a business model in which a customer must pay a recurring price at regular intervals for access to a product or service. The model was pioneered by publishers of books and periodicals in the 17th century. It i ...

and checking the account balance before service delivery to the end user. A converged charging system can also notify users when the account balance threshold set by the operator is reached, or terminate service connectivity when real-time charging indicates that credit has been depleted. This real-time capability can be used to deliver promotions and notifications to service users to stimulate usage.

Rationale

The need for convergent charging & billing has been partly explained by consolidation within the communications industry, the launch of new multimedia services and the increasing emergence of multi-play service offerings on mobile networks.Vanilla Plus, February 2009, http://www.vanillaplus.com/im_files/pages/VPFeb09_13-15_lr.pdf A number of motivations have been suggested to explain why mobile telecoms providers use convergent charging & billing. One is the ability to offer mobile service packages that include both pre- and post-paid services. Another is a sustained drop in Operating Expenditure thanks to reduced billing system complexity, since operators run a single billing platform rather than multiple ones. The telecoms and software consulting firm

Ovum The egg cell or ovum (: ova) is the female reproductive cell, or gamete, in most anisogamous organisms (organisms that reproduce sexually with a larger, female gamete and a smaller, male one). The term is used when the female gamete is not capa ...

has said that convergent charging can greatly reduce revenue leakage. Swedish telecoms supplier

Ericsson (), commonly known as Ericsson (), is a Swedish multinational networking and telecommunications company headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden. Ericsson has been a major contributor to the development of the telecommunications industry and is one ...

has stated that convergent charging & billing can increase marketing flexibility for operators and create revenue growth. Telecommunications software provider Redknee has said that convergent billing allows operators to launch targeted promotions quickly and deliver an improved subscriber experience. Openet reinforces this by saying "Convergent Charging makes it easier for communication service providers to optimize profitability by providing flexibility to deploy any service to any type of subscriber using any payment method with any set of business rules.". Finnish telecoms supplier

Nokia Siemens Networks Nokia Networks (formerly Nokia Solutions and Networks (NSN) and Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN)) is a Finnish multinational corporation, multinational data networking and telecommunications equipment company headquartered in Espoo, Finland, and who ...

is of the belief that the solution also provides the flexibility and cost transparency that prepaid and postpaid subscribers need to take up new services.Nokia Siemens Networks Press Release 2009, http://www.nokiasiemensnetworks.com/news-events/press-room/press-releases/nokia-siemens-networks-bridges-the-gap-between-prepaid-and-pos Convergent charging & billing has been credited with reduction of OPEX.

Challenges

Challenges to the introduction of convergent charging & billing include migration from existing billing systems for an incumbent telecoms operator. IT research and advisory company

Gartner Gartner, Inc. is an American research and advisory firm focusing on business and technology topics. Gartner provides its products and services through research reports, conferences, and consulting. Its clients include large corporations, gover ...

has also highlighted potential migration risks, reservations about

return on investment Return on investment (ROI) or return on costs (ROC) is the ratio between net income (over a period) and investment (costs resulting from an investment of some resources at a point in time). A high ROI means the investment's gains compare favorab ...

and the need for a

business case A business case captures the reasoning for initiating a project or task. Many projects, but not all, are initiated by using a business case. It is often presented in a well-structured written document, but may also come in the form of a short ver ...

for making a change. FTS and Aradial has a patent in the Convergent charging area called the DO TREE (Decision Operation Tree).http://www.aradial.com/convergent-billing-software.html Aradial Tech

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Convergent Charging Telecommunication services Mobile telecommunications Telecommunications infrastructure