Real-time Charging Key to Monetizing Digital Services
April 14, 2014 - Aleks
For decades, billing was relegated to the back office, run on mainframes and mini computers, and used only for postpaid accounts requiring a monthly or quarterly billing cycle. Time, speed and sometimes accuracy were not considered critical traits in the Business Support Systems (BSS) infrastructure of a monopolistic public telephone network.
Deregulation, advances in technology, multi-play service offerings and mobile prepaid accounts caused upheaval in that billing world. Convergent billing systems soon appeared, providing the flexibility to manage multiple services, multiple bill runs, and more complex account structures at much lower purchase and operating costs.
Read the full article by Tony Poulos at TM Forum Perspectives
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