Get a Modernized Approach to an Online Charging Solution

The operator’s business model increasingly changes from communications-centric to service-centric as the network tends towards convergence and the telecom services expand quickly. The operators are under pressure to develop a new online charging solution that supports a variety of charging modes (such as content-based charging and volume-based charging) and offers real-time control of charged services while still earning attractive revenues from the never-ending bounty of offerings.

The enormous revenue loss brought on by service overdraft cannot be stopped by the conventional offline charging system, which only gathers charge information after a service is given.

Benefits of OCS

All network elements (NEs), such as service control points (SCP), short message service centres (SMSC), and multimedia message service centres (MMSC), will be isolated from the OCS’s unified online charging functions (OCS). It offers the following benefits:

• Encourage the growth of prepaid services.

Prepaid services are well-liked by mobile consumers since they offer a low-risk alternative. The growth of prepaid services will surely be aided by the online pricing system, which offers prepaid consumers access to more services.

• Allow for efficient risk reduction.

In comparison to fixed services, mobile services are more susceptible to revenue leakage. As high-value, high-risk, and high-credit-limit services grow in popularity, it is essential to ensure that operators get compensated for the services they provide. Real-time traffic monitoring is made possible by the realtime charging solutions, which assist operators in efficiently reducing the potential for revenue leakage.

• A successful method of attracting clients

Prepaid customers can use the services that are currently available for postpaid subscribers since billing is separate from service control. The OCS helps carriers expand their markets by enabling prepaid subscribers to have large credit limits and access to risky but alluring services (like international roaming).

• A platform for integrated billing that reduces CAPEX and OPEX

The conventional IN SCP that is integrated with a billing engine must be upgraded when new tariff packages or service bundles are introduced. The OCS, which serves as the foundation of the convergent billing platform, only needs a little initial investment, allowing operators to significantly lower both capital expenditure (CAPEX) and operating expenditure (OPEX).

• Boost the loyalty of your customers.

With its customizable service bundling and pricing options, the new generation of billing solutions is a wonderful marketing tool that may help operators entice clients and increase customer loyalty.

• Give chances for network structure optimisation.

Prepaid solutions need significant expenditures since their network structures are not well-optimized. Furthermore, it is unable to speed up service delivery and address market issues. Additionally, it lacks stability; for instance, in the IN mode, if the SCP malfunctions, the call will not connect. By moving to the hot billing mode when they exchange information such as customer and service profiles, the ocs online charging system may avoid such an issue.

• Meet the trend in industrial development.

The OCS solution complies with 3GPP requirements. It depicts the telecom network’s inescapable tendency, necessitating a decision on the part of operators.

• Python programme.

The OCS-based convergent billing system can analyse and process 500,000 command lines per second with the IBM P550 (4x1.65CPU) cluster thanks to memory database technology, the basic operating system that supports the task distribution function, and the telecom-level information communication system (ICS).

Operators can’t provide prepaid consumers with the same services that postpaid users do since the existing prepaid solution isn’t flexible enough to handle various business models and payment schemes. Operators must switch from legacy systems to online charging solution to provide improved charging capabilities for both the sophisticated services of today and the future to fully realise the potential of the vast prepaid market.