Telgoo5’s stage is advanced and coordinated; ready to deal with a lot of interest. Despite the fact that we have a lot of fulfilled customers, we ensure that every one of them can pick a tweaked arrangement that fits them superbly. We comprehend that each business has various needs and will go along with us at different phases of their advancement. Thusly, we treat every single business as a novel accomplice that we are focused on serving. This dedication from us keeps your business allowed to do the significant work of pulling in new clients, constructing your image, and making your business as well as can be expected be. Consider Telgoo5 a strong stage that enables you to concentrate on the urgent work developing your business.
connectivity
MVNE’s are the center of your business; pick Telgoo5 which is related with the greatest MVNO’s and best aggregators.
When a customer receives a bill that he did not expect, it is called a bill shock. Too many bill shocks and you, as an operator, risk losing your customers. The situation is particularly grim for MVNO when it comes to bill shock. As they already have a smaller number of subscribers when compared with MNOs, a loss of customers can be back breaking for their business. After analysis, it has been proven that a faltering OCS is mostly the cause of bill shocks.
Transform Your Fortunes with a Better OCS
Your OCS directly dictates how well you are able to monetize your services and bill the subscribers. Therefore, you should always pay special attention to your billing software and especially the OCS. Below are some essential functions that you should look for in your OCS system.
Convergence – The constant increase in the number of services offered by mobile operators has created a need for convergence in billing. Customers simply abhor the prospect of receiving too many bills from the same vendor. An OCS that serves as a single point of charging of all services eliminates the need for creation of different bills. By using a quality online charging system, you can send your customers fully bifurcated bills with complete itemization. This creates more transparency in the billing process and fosters customer trust in your services.
Adherence to 3GPP – Before selecting an OCS and telecom billing software, you should ensure that it adheres to the technical specifications prescribed by 3GPP. Only when your OCS is 3GPP compliant, you can expect real-time charging with no errors in billing. Flawless billing is the key to preventing revenue leakage.
Scalability and flexibility – If your OCS cannot be scaled to meet the future requirements then it is worthless for you. Hence, you should invest in an OCS system that can perform billing and charging for an increasing customer base and expanding catalog of services. Your OCS should be flexible enough to charge present and future technologies for it to be of any real value to your business.
Security of customer information – OCS has an ABMF function that stores vital customer information. This information needs to be protected from hackers. Hence, security of OCS should always be your primary concern before making a purchase. Telgoo5 is a cutting-edge OCS and it is fortified with latest security measures to prevent hack attacks.
Innovative discounts – Discounts play a key role in evoking customer trust in your services. Always select an OCS that helps you quickly launch services and also apply innovative discounts. Discounts can be used for enforcing new business strategies. For example, if one of your services is not utilized by your customers as per your expectations, then you should provide the option of cross-product discounts and offer that service at a reduced price when bundled with any other popular service.
Conclusion
OCS plays a key role in managing the billing and charging functions of a telecom organization. To ensure that all billing tasks are handled efficiently and accurately, you should partner with experienced telecom billing vendors that can offer you a reliable OCS.
As companies change their focus and become
more customer-centric, the importance of innovative telecom solutions has
increased. Especially when it comes to accuracy in billing, there is no middle
ground and you cannot survive without owning/leasing a robust and reliable telecom billing software. In today’s
telecom operations, the most critical element of is OCS. After many revisions
since its inception, OCS has improved dramatically and has become critical for
modern-day charging and rating applications.
What is an OCS?
OCS System
Online charging system better known as OCS is a vital part of telecom billing architecture. It forms the real-time beating heart of any BSS. Every customer exchange – whether it is event-based or session-based – is accounted for by the OCS. It also features an Account Balance Management Function (ABMF) that stores and updates vital subscriber information. It is a great advancement in the telecom industry that fixes the many anomalies/limitations of erstwhile IN and offline billing systems.
The Risks of
a Flawed OCS
An OCS is the most critical component of any
telecom operation. Whether you are an MVNO or a major network operator, you
should understand that your whole brand image depends on this vital resource.
As every user interaction is captured by OCS, it is crucial for all your
billing tasks. In case your OCS is flawed, it may lead to the creation of
error-ridden invoices that will be sent to your customers. If this happens,
then your customers will most likely switch their operator, which will spell
doom for your business. Therefore, you should put all your efforts in finding
an accurate OCS solution that can be trusted.
Vital OCS
Features You Should Be Concerned About
An OCS system has many attributes that determine its efficacy in any business model. While different telecom operators may have their own preferences about these features, there are some important attributes that are critical for all telecom billing operations:
Security
against hackers – The threat of hackers looms large over any business that is
done on the Internet. As an OCS is connected to the web at all times, you need
to pay special attention to the security measures employed by the OCS provider.
Without proper security, you risk losing all the goodwill generated over many
years in a matter of seconds.
Scalability – The
subscribers of an operator keep on changing with time. Without a scalable OCS,
you are unable to keep up with the varying demand. Hence, scalability of the
OCS should be kept as a top priority.
Provision
for future technologies – An OCS should not only address the present-day requirements but
it should also be ready to meet the future needs. It should be able to fulfill
the requirements of highly-promising technologies like 5G and IoT. Without any
provision for future technologies, you might have to constantly change your OCS
system, which is definitely bad for business.
The commercial success of the Online Charging System (OCS) deployed by telcos is a testament to the ever-evolving telecom billing technology. Not so long ago, it was hard to fathom how telcos will be able to accommodate so many new offerings (like 2G, 3G,4G, VAS, OTT etc.) as part of their service. But with consistent development, we are at a juncture where we see convergent billing and real-time charging making things simpler than ever before for both customers and the operators. But the work of telcos has not ended yet. With 5G and even 6G beckoning; and IoT becoming the next big thing in the market, the time to evolve has only just started.
The Age-Old Formula of Success
efore we go any further and analyze what the future holds for the telecom industry, it is best to first look at the basic formula that has worked so well for telcos. It has always being the ability to adapt one’s billing according to the services that need to be offered, which has driven MNOs (Mobile Network Operators) to success. In other words, it is how fast and how well you can adapt to the ever-changing telecom charging system architecture that dictates your success over competitors. Therefore, it has become imperative that you keep yourself armed with a competent OCS System, which can adjust to the future requirements. Flexibility, versatility, multi-tenancy and convergence are the key ingredients for a worthwhile telecom billing system.
The Evolution of Billing Systems
In the latter part of the 20th century, telcos realized that their offline charging system was causing revenue leakage as it was not able to provide charging information before a service was delivered. This was causing problems, especially in prepaid billing. To fix this problem, an IN-based system was conceptualized that was able to authenticate users and check their account balances before delivering services. It worked well but it had some restrictions in terms of creating flexible plans. After that, OCS was conceptualized, which could not only charge customers in real time but also allowed telcos to launch attractive bundles of services with great flexibility. In 2010, we saw our first glimpse of convergent billing. The convergent billing system allowed for the integration of several service charges onto a single customer invoice, which provided more transparency in telecom billing.
What The Future Holds for the Telecom Industry?
As AI (Artificial Intelligence) becomes the new trans-formative technology, we are more than likely to see a shift towards data sciences dictating the telecom operations of the future. The vast amount of data crunching would require you to have access to state-of-the-art quantum computers and probably an OCS version 2 for getting the job done. Also, we are expected to see the erstwhile OSS/BSS model (which assigns computer systems for pre-designated tasks and is highly inefficient) become obsolete and phased out. Instead, we will have technologies like NFV (Network Function Virtualization) and SDN (Software Defined Network) that will drive a new OSS/BSS model with better utilization of resources.
The modern-day telecom industry is going through transitions faster than ever before. Addressing the demands of finicky customers, fighting off the competition at every step of the way and countering the threat of OTT platforms is proving too much to handle for even seasoned telecom operators. This is the main reason why they are trying to maximize their outreach in every way possible. As a result of their efforts, new platforms for telecom service delivery have being created in the form of: MNO, MVNO, MVNA, and MVNE.
Why MVNOs Have Become so Popular?
While an MNO
(Mobile Network Operator) builds his operation from the scratch and make
investments in creating network infrastructure, radio frequency spectrum, HLR,
VLR, BSC, MSC, OSS etc., an MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator) receives
frequency spectrum and network resources at a cheaper rate from MNOs (Mobile Network Operators). This allows it
to sell its telecom services at a lower rate and attract new customers.
An MVNO does
not have its own network but uses a network from a carrier or MNO. An MVNO can
be a full MVNO with its own HLR. Such MVNOs only use an MNO’s radio base
stations for providing 3G, 4G or 5G services. On the other hand, a light MVNO
mainly focuses on relations with
customers along with marketing and billing. It does not have its own HLR.
Whether full
or light, to become MVNO you need
good marketing skills and a unique idea that differentiates you from other
players in the market. You can either specialize in mobile data and become a data MVNO or earn your stripes in
providing voice call services. But whatever you do, make sure that you are
excellent in the niche that you have chosen. Good customer relations and the
ability to attract new customers are essential for any MVNO to succeed.
The Importance of MVNE/MVNA Partnership for Overcoming Challenges
As MVNOs are
considerably smaller than a full-fledged MNO (Mobile Network Operator), they
need support from MVNEs (Mobile Virtual Network Enablers) to get their job
done. A capable MVNE with a comprehensive MVNO
software solution like Telgoo5 can provide the following benefits to an
MVNO:
Better billing – Billing is probably the toughest task for an MVNO to undertake
all by itself. Any mistake or inefficiency in billing tasks can have a major
bearing on MVNO subscribers. But when you partner with an MVNE like Vcare, you
get access to a cutting-edge MVNO
billing software solution. With a convergent billing solution by your side,
you can create itemized bills with details of all types of services used by
your subscribers.
Profitable deals with MNOs – Partnership with a competent MVNE/MVNA can
help you get better-priced deals with an MNO. This will allow you to deliver
the services at a lower rate to your MVNO
subscribers while still making a profit.
Avoid red tape – Running a successful MVNO operation requires you to get into contracts
with different carriers and vendors. By partnering with a competent MVNE like
Vcare (who already has fully-licensed platforms and contracts with vendors),
you are able to bypass the process of signing new deals, thereby saving
considerable time and effort.
If your MNVO wants to have any chance of success, you need to have an excellent OCS to charge your customers accurately and regularly.
One of the biggest hurdles that MNVO’s face is the fact that they are constantly having to prove their worth. People are still used to working with bigger telecom companies and might be suspicious of an MNVO. Those of us who operate in the space understand that MNVOs are the wave of the future, but some of your customers are still skeptical. That’s why it’s so important to make sure that your billing is on point. Otherwise, you’ll look like an amateur and run the risk of losing customers!
Keep Your Customers Loyal with These 4 Tips
1. Ensure consistency in billing: Any inaccuracy or delay in billing can cause your customers to lose faith in you. By ensuring consistency in billing, you can enhance customer trust in your services.
2. Keep customer information safe: The information provided by customer is critical as it has their personal credentials. Invest in an OCS and billing solution that has safety measures in place to protect customer info.
3. Offer Cross-product discounts: By offering innovative discounts like cross-product discounts, you can keep your customers interested in your subscription. Cross-product discounts can also be useful in promoting a new product that customers are not accustomed to.
4. Allow for customer self-service: With millenials seeking more control over their subscriptions, it is best to invest in a billing solution that allows customers to create their own customized plans.
MVNO, MVNA, and MVNE are fairly new entities in the telecom world with each having their own role in imparting telecom services. These new entities were created to address the demands of customers whose requirements were not fulfilled by MNO (Mobile Network Operator).
The establishment of MVNO addresses the requirements of specific customer bases and at the same time allows MNOs to make revenue from subscribers who are not using their services directly.
1. MVNO – An MVNO is a player in the telecom market who does not have its own radio access network. It either buys access to the network services at a bulk wholesale price or gets into a direct reseller agreement with an MNO. After procuring the services, the MVNO sells them to its own subscriber base. As an MVNO has obtained the services at a reduced price, it has the luxury of selling them at a price that is lower than the market price.
By packaging his services innovatively, an MVNO is able to attract certain specific customer bases, which were unreachable for its partnering MNO. For example, it has been seen that the economical services offered by MVNOs are extremely popular amongst people in lower income groups (who cannot afford pricier MNO services).
MVNOs are divided into three categories based on the resources available to them:
a) Skinny MVNOs: Have their own content applications, SMSC, voice mail, Prepaid and VAS.
b) Thin MVNOs: Apart from the above mentioned services, they also have EIR, share or own HLR, AUC and IN.
c)Thick MVNOs: Apart from the above mentioned services, they have VLR and MSC.
2. MVNE: Mobile Virtual Network Enabler (MVNE) as the name suggests is responsible for enabling a network, so that an MVNO can provide its own services.
It provides the necessary infrastructural tools to the MVNO along with charging rating and billing for a wide variety of telecom-related services. It helps an MVNO accomplish tasks like provisioning, administration along with offering essential OSS/BSS services.
It also offers capital expenditure deferral to MVNOs and allows them to focus on customer service and brand awareness, loyalty, product enhancement, and marketing. With an MVNE partnership, an MVNO no longer has to keep on worrying about how his backend services are managed. Running an MVNE service is a complex task, which comprises COTS (commercial off-the-shelf applications) along with multitenant business model conversions.
3. MVNA: MVNA (Mobile Virtual Network Aggregator) is a business model that comprises wholesale of an operator’s airtime and routing of traffic over the MVNE’s own switches. While an MVNA has individual contractual relationships with its MVNOs, an MNO has a contractual obligation towards its MVNAs. So, it won’t be wrong to say that an MVNA forms a link between MVNOs and MNOs.
As an MVNA represents many different MVNOs and buys large amount of telecom services from an MNO, it is able to receive telecom services at a considerably reduced price point. Hence, an MVNA partnership allows an MVNO to receive radio access network for far less that it would have been possible during a direct purchase.
Inference of These Telecom Entities in Modern Times
These new partnerships between MNOs, MVNOs, MVNEs and MVNAs are designed to share the burden of serving a wide customer base. These new business models ensure that basic telecom services are enjoyed by maximum number of subscribers. In this age of increased competition, the quality and coverage of telecom network is maximized with the inception of these new entities.
Not so long ago, voice calls and SMS were the staples of the telecom industry. Subscribers were happy as long as they could make high-fidelity voice calls and telecom operators were content with the profits they were making. However, nothing in this world stays stagnant, especially not when technology in the industry is moving at a rapid rate. With the launch of newer technologies and features, the competition between telcos sky-rocketed. As more and more operators got into the mix, the profits started receding. Right now, the race is to launch newer services and better plans. And, to win this race, telecom operators need a telecom charging system that can help them bring their offerings quickly to the market.
Increasing Complexity in Modern-Day Telecom Charging
Telecom charging systems of yesteryears did exactly what they were devised to do. They kept track of calls and SMS along with charging, rating and billing for the services. But, with the launch of newer services like VoIP, IPTV, multi-speed data services e.g. 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G etc., the playing field for telecom operators has changed considerably. Now, the same process of charging, rating and billing has become a lot more complex than it was ever before. Handling large amount of data that comes with modern billing is something that is unachievable for legacy billing systems.
In case, you are still using a legacy charging system, it is time to move onto a cutting-edge system that helps you bring your new plans into the market, quicker than ever before. And, any good telecom operator knows that launching the right product at the right time is the recipe for success. Some major attributes that you should look for before procuring your next telecom charging system are listed below:
1. Backward compatibility – It is hard to make a switch to a new billing system instantly. Hence, you need a telecom charging system that is backward compatible with all your applications, so you can make a move to the new system at your own pace. This prevents you from suffering financial losses while you make the transition to your new telecom charging system.
2. Event/Session-based charging – For an online charging system to be successful in the modern billing tasks, it should be flexible enough to perform both event-based and session-based charging. Event-based charging is required for services like SMS and session-based charging is needed for services like voice calls.
3.Provision for OTT partnerships – One of the biggest reasons why telcos are experiencing diminishing returns is OTT platforms. OTT services like Skype and Whatsapp offer free calls and messaging to users, which eats into the profits earned by telecom operators. However, when you have a telecom charging system that allows you to charge OTT services, you can expand your business by increasing the number of your partnerships.
4.Cloud-based charging system – A cloud-based charging system provides great scalability and flexibility to any telecom business model. It allows for the use of redundancy that prevents the loss of crucial charging information, in case of a disaster. A cloud-based charging system also helps in making a complete switch to the digital platform.
Nowadays, telecom industry is in a state of flux. Every telco is looking to venture into new territories to compensate for the money lost to competition and OTT (Over the top) services. In the past, telecom operators used to thrive on revenue generated via voice calls and SMS. However, in the present times, the range of services that they need to deliver has widened considerably. The legacy systems employed by telcos no longer do justice to the modern innovative telecom services that need to be delivered. Moreover, telcos require most services to be delivered in real time, which is why; a flexible and real time charging system is needed for timely tracking and accurate billing.
Online Charging System: The Backbone of a Successful Telecom Billing System
An online charging system is a must-have for any modern telecom billing system. An OCS is essential for telecom operators as it lets them:
Charge on the basis of events e.g. SMS
Charge on the basis of sessions e.g. calls
OCS is a real time charging system that allows the telecom operators to control credit. At the same time, it also allows users to control what they spend. Although an OCS is a vital part of any present-day billing operation, it can only be of true value if it works with the applications of past and is designed with an eye on the future requirements.
Importance of a Future Proof and Backward Compatible OCS
There are many attributes of an OCS that make it stand out. However, the most important aspect of an OCS is how well it works with your legacy solutions. The compatibility of an OCS with your pre-existing equipment and applications allow you to introduce it into your workflow without hampering your current billing tasks. Also, an OCS should be flexible enough to accommodate the requirements of near future like 5G offerings, so you do not have to change your billing systems frequently to meet constantly changing technology.
There are many other features that make an online charging system worthy of your business. Have a look at some of these key features of an OCS:
Analytics – Most traditional OCS solutions available in the market do not support analytics, which is why; telecom companies often struggle to understand customers’ requirements. Hence, they are unable to devise new plans to attract customers towards their services. However, there are many cutting-edge real time charging systems available in the market that come with analytic features. Using such OCS solutions not only helps you in your present tasks, it also helps you forge better business strategies for the future.
Adaptability with complex revenue management – There are so many revenue streams (for a telecom business) nowadays that keeping track of each one of them can be difficult for a telecom operator. Prepaid, postpaid, IPTV, different type of data services and OTT partnerships, there is simply too much to handle for telcos. In this complex situation, a revolutionary online charging system can simplify their work and ensure accurate completion of real time charging and billing tasks.
Although the launch of 5G is a great initiative in the race to match wired broadband speeds, its value for a telecom operator hinges upon several factors. Faster data connection may seem like a real boon for the subscribers, however, it does not automatically translates into profits for telcos. A lot was expected by telcos after the launch of 4G, which supplanted the erstwhile 3G connection. But instead of bringing in new revenue streams, it dug a hole in their pockets as subscribers were lured away by OTT (over the top) platforms like Netflix, Facetime and Skype. Hence, it is imperative for a telecom operator to be proactive in his strategy while tackling 5G. One way of ensuring that you maximize the advantages offered by 5G is by investing in a real time charging system that monetizes all your offerings.
6 Important Features of OCS
OCS (Online Charging System) is a real time charging system that is designed to match the current requirements of telecom billing. It is 3GPP release 11 compliant and works a lot better than the charging systems employed in traditional billing solutions, which lack the desired scalability and flexibility. Some key features of an online charging system and traditional charging systems are listed below:
1. Session based and event based charging for different telecom offerings like voice calls and SMS.
2. Identification of subscriber and service before offering access to a service.
3. Monitoring and tracking service usage and also maintaining records in the database.
4. Updating subscriber balance.
5. Management of important features like blacklisting, prepaid lifecycle, live balance etc.
6. Calculating charges as per CDRs (Call Data Records) and recording them in the system database
Things to Consider before Investing in a Real Time Charging System for 5G
Although OCS has immense benefits and can be a worthy upgrade for your older charging systems, there are certain things that you need to be mindful of before investing in a real time charging system.
1.Past and future compatibility — To ensure that OCS works with legacy and future applications, you should invest in a robust and backward compatible real time charging system. A good upgrade option is an OCS that can be integrated with older IN (intelligent network) along with next-gen IP, 5G, FTTH/HFC, wireless and wire line networks.
2. Postpaid/prepaid convergence — An OCS should allow for complete postpaid/prepaid convergence, so you can offer composite VAS (Value Added Services) along with video and voice services quickly.
3. Convergence between service and network — With so many different data speeds provided by different connectivity platforms e.g. CDMA 2.5G, LTE, WiMAX, Wi-Fi, 3G, IMS, 5G, broadband, it is important that an OCS should show true convergence in rating a variety of applications with different bandwidth requirements.
4. Intuitive graphical user interface (GUI) — To make operations simple, the OCS should have an easy to operate GUI that lets telcos customize their 5G offerings quickly and as per requirement.
5. Support vendor partnerships — A real time charging systemshould allow for the management of different vendor partnerships e.g. partnerships with MVNOs, MVNEs, OTT etc.
OFFERING COMPLETE IN NETWORK 