How to ensure you do not lose money with convergence

Good billing practices are critical for the success of any business, and billing is set to gain an even more important role in telecoms, as the onset of convergence makes services and service provisioning more complex. As service complexity increases, so transactions have to be simplified and usage has to be billed appropriately. Future applications involving multitasking and multi-networks will also require a single bill if businesses and consumers are to embrace them.

Among the hype associated with FMC, 3G, IMS, UMA, WiMAX, VoWLAN and so on, these services will only succeed if the necessary billing mechanisms are in place to support them. With the move towards multimedia and convergence, having a robust billing platform - as well as a cohesive billing strategy - in place is absolutely critical if operators want to generate revenues.

While billing vendors have begun to focus on these issues, we believe they must place greater thought into the unique challenges convergence will present, articulating their strategies now in order to satisfy operator demands going forward.

Among others, this report focuses on:

• Billing issues related to convergence: both fixed/mobile (FMC) and multi-network (cellular/WiFi/WiMAX)
  
• Issues associated with the move to HSDPA and beyond
  
• Issues with respect to 3G, m-payments and multimedia content
  
• Issues with current and future business models
  
• Issues with mobile prepaid/postpaid integrated billing
  
• Issues of revenue leakage and revenue assurance
  
• FMC billing forecasts up to 2010

This report answers questions, including:

• What billing challenges does the move towards convergence bring and how do they affect operators and vendors?
  
• What do (FMC) operators look for in a billing platform?
  
• What are the key trends in billing and what is driving the market?
  
• What progress have vendors made towards developing a billing system that caters for all elements of convergence?
  
• What are the technical and business issues faced by NGN billing?
  
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of today’s billing models?
  
• How big is the problem of revenue leakage and how can it be minimised?
  
• Who are the key players in the billing world and what are their products and strategies?
  
• What role does billing play in ensuring customer satisfaction and how can good billing practices stimulate data usage?
  
• How is the market likely to develop in the future? What opportunities exist in this market?

This 100+ page report looks at billing mechanisms and architecture in mobile networks, with a particular focus on convergence and next-generation networks (NGN). This is one of the first reports to look specifically at billing from the perspective of convergence. Stay ahead of the competition by purchasing it now.

Why you should buy this report:

• Operators: This report provides you with a cost-benefit analysis of deploying a new billing platform and comprehensively details the issues associated with NGN billing, outlining why it is essential to have a robust billing system in place. You will also learn about the various NGN billing solutions out on the market and how you can effectively prepare for upcoming converged services.
  
• Vendors: This report details what operators look for in a billing solution and what challenges they will have to face as the market moves forward. You will get independent analysis of how the market is evolving and what issues still need to be addressed. In addition, you will gain a comparative assessment of your competitors’ products and strategies.