The mobile telecom industry is intricate and filled with several players. It might occasionally be challenging to comprehend what they actually accomplish and how they bring worth. MVNOs will be able to build B2B and B2C services and will have access to cheaper rates in the telecom wholesales sector. They can, for instance, develop exclusive deals for IoT. (data only). The MVNO will charge the customer. In actuality, the MVNOs are mostly just a different MNO brand. MVNAs rely on the MNOs they collaborate with. For instance, it’s doubtful that an MNO will want to engage closely with MVNAs if they wish to have direct contracts with each MVNO they enable.
MVNE, or Mobile Virtual Network Enablers is a business entity that provides network infrastructure and business services to MVNOs, or Mobile Virtual Network Operators. This unburdens the MVNO from most business and support functions, while allowing them to offer services to customers with their own brands.
In today’s time, telecom industry is going through one transition after another. 5G launch and IoT’s mass employment has made telecom functions very complex. But they can be streamlined well if you have a convergent charging platform that offers real-time performance.
Important Functions of Convergent Charging and How it Helps
Whether you are MVNO, MVNE or MNO, a convergent charging platform is essential for proper billing and charging. It performs many essential functions such as:
Real-time performance of online charging system ensures quick service monetization, which allows you to bring your services quickly into the market before your competitors.
An OCS is very accurate in terms of calculation of charges, which is very important in terms of revenue assurance. Customers get exactly what they have paid for, which allows you to build trust and reliability within your customer base
Tough competition beckons in 2021 as companies strive to get out of the rut that was 2020. After the hiccups of Covid-19 pandemic, it is the right and possibly the only time, to maximize revenue for both MNOs and MVNOs. One of the most fundamental requirements for showing innovation in telecom service delivery is by improving the billing and charging functions.
Move to Convergent Charging System for Best Results
Convergent Billing
In order to stay progressive and bring in creativity, you simply need to have the right tools for the job. A convergent charging system serves as centralized place to charge every transaction. What it means is that you are not only able to charge every service but also monetize plans with a combination of distinct/disparate services.
An interesting combination of different services is more likely to appeal to the subscribers. You can also offer a wide range of discounting schemes to attract customers to certain packages.
Another thing that an Online Charging System offers is simplicity and intuitiveness. It is way simpler to organize a system that lets you calibrate all services via a single platform. Every player in the market – MNO, MVNE, MVNA and MVNO – can be served better with a fully-functional Online Charging System (OCS). In short, a dynamic OCS is the most pressing requirement of 2021.
Launching a MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator) is a very complex task involving the investment of many millions of dollars. It is seen by many as superb business opportunity, perhaps the route to making a multi-million dollar fortune. However many people fail along the way; some lose hundreds of millions of dollars of investors’ funds.
The starting point to a successful MVNO is a strong consumer proposition. The proposition must be differentiated and have strong appeal to a selected target group of consumers. Often extensive market research is performed to verify the appeal of the proposition.
Next one needs to understand the end to end economics, how much will the consumers be willing to pay, what is the traffic mix, how much will distribution cost and what will the subscriber acquisition cost be. Finally is there a viable business case?
Once these questions have been answered you are ready to approach mobile operators in order to obtain the most valuable asset for an MVNO, a wholesale airtime agreement. If successful you then start the process of building your MVNO platform, sometimes an MVNE (Mobile Virtual Network Enabler) may be used to give a time to market advantage. Vcare are often quoted as saying that one should not start deploying systems until one is certain of a MVNO agreement.
Launching the MVNO comes as a reward for many months of hard work, however the launch process is often not easy, One can reduce the risk of launching a MVNO by using skilled MVNO consultants.
A bill shock
is as bad for you as it is for your subscribers. It happens when a customer
receives a bill that surpasses his expectations, and in not the right way.
While most big operators have the wherewithal to absorb pain of a lost
customer, it is the MVNOs that are worst hit by such an event. The negative
publicity it generates, no matter how small, has the potential to compromise
MVNO’s best laid plans, which generally revolve around creating customer
goodwill. Mostly, it has been seen that such debacles happen when the OCS you
have is not up to the mark.
Enhance your Prospects with a Better MVNE and OCS
Losing out on customers can be debilitating for an MVNO business. Therefore, as an MVNO owner you should focus sincerely on finding the right OCS. The best and the most convenient way to do this, is by partnering with a competent MVNE that has already delivered successfully in the past. An MVNE that is capable of creating tailor-made solutions can help you build an OCS that meets your particular requirements.
There are many things that you should expect from your MVNE, however, the two most important features you should never compromise on are:
Complete convergence
with itemization: Customers of today are extremely choosy when it comes to their
billing. They want all their usage details and service rates to be present in
their invoices. Even more importantly, they want one invoice for all the
services that they are using. For this, a quality OCS is required that can
charge, rate and maintain customer account information at one location. This
allows for complete convergence in billing, which lets you create converged
bills with complete itemization as per your subscribers’ requirements.
Meets 3GPP’s technical specifications – A 3GPP compliant OCS ensures no revenue loss. Hence, it is important that your MVNE can provide you an OCS system that meets every single technical specification laid out by 3GPP.
OFFERING COMPLETE IN NETWORK 