By Richard Handford, Contributing Writer
A contrast between the latest innovations in billing and more down-to-earth fraud prevention and revenue assurance schemes was central to this year’s Charging & Revenue Management Summit
Billing solutions that underpin converged and content services have shaped the thinking of telecom operators over the last few years. A number of operators highlighted the trend with their individual experiences.
For example, Sabri Ali Yahya, CIO of Etisalat UAE, explained the drivers behind the operator’s decision to deploy a convergent, real-time charging and billing solution when entering the Egyptian market. He also ran through the key lessons from implementing and operating the convergent solution.
Likewise, Ibrahim Al-Dhobaie, CIO of Saudi Telecom, looked at the big picture with an analysis of the challenges and opportunities for revenue management when an operator has partnerships and joint ventures in a number of Middle Eastern and African countries.
But other speakers focused on more basic fears and concerns. Margaret Morosi, head of global services, Deutsche Telekom, speaking in yesterday’s summit keynote, focused on the authentication and authorization aspect of combating fraud.
The next presentation by Kathleen Romano, executive director of Verizon Communications, and John Brooks, vice president of Subex, looked at how to correct a widespread billing failure when the number of customers affected is very large.
Real-time charging also featured in the Customer Experience Summit. Simon Hollins, CIO of BT RealTime Global, outlined how the operator delivered a new MPLS/VPN self-service product in nine months as part of the 21st Century Network program.
Another case study came from U.S. cable operator Cox Communications, which explained the problems in locating where a fault occurs in an access network or device. The operator used TM Forum’s eTOM, TAM and SID solutions and two new capabilities of its own to solve its problem. The presentation was made by Robert O’Shea, director, network operations.
Looking forward, later this morning T-Mobile and Virgin Mobile will explain how they turned around their faltering relationship of a few years ago. T-Mobile UK is host to Virgin Mobile, a leading mobile virtual network operator in the UK market.
To improve their working arrangement, the two companies agreed to a series of improvement measures. These included mutually-agreed principles to which both could sign up. Recognized standards, regular reviews and the commitment of individual employees was also part of the mix, delegates will hear in this presentation made by Jim Burke, executive vice president of service management with T-Mobile and Bryn Jones, director of mobile delivery with Virgin Media, the parent of Virgin Mobile.
More operator feedback will come later today from Telefonica O2 Czech Republic as it explains how it implemented an online and ordering self-care channel. The presentation will explain how the company coped with obstacles such as unifying diverse portals and dealing with product catalog issues. Petr Matejovsky, the operator’s product marketing director, along with Dusan Bystriansky, founder and managing director of the supplier Emeldi, will make the presentation.
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