GB987 Hybrid Entity Customer Contracts R14.5.1

This document discusses the concept of a Hybrid subscriber and examines its relevance, importance. In a nutshell, a Hybrid subscriber is a subscriber who has the flexibility to move from Prepaid to Postpaid or vice versa depending his requirements at a particular time. Such a subscriber is free to selectively use the characteristics usually associated with either prepaid or postpaid type of subscribers. 

This document examines the challenges faced by the telecom industry at a high level in terms of falling revenues, unbalanced revenue distribution vis-a-vis number of prepaid and postpaid contract types, challenges faced by subscribers in current prepaid or postpaid contract types leading to potential customer churn. The Hybrid customer combines the benefits of cost control on more granular service levels for both prepaid and postpaid contracts. This document explains how hybrid entity scenarios fit the bill to address these problems, by taking in the best of both postpaid and prepaid world, detailing out the advantages, benefits of Hybrid scenarios to both subscribers and CSPs, current market relevance of this mode and ending on general risks and specific case studies of risk encountered in certain implementations of Hybridity scenarios and recommendations to address them.

This document also attempts to bring out and enlist the various facets of Hybridity including the impact and potential changes that this has on industry standards such as TM Forum Business Process Famework (eTOM) and, to the extent possible, on Application Framework (TAM) and Information Framework (SID) models.

At a high level the idea of Hybridity also centers on providing a seamless end-user experience for CSP subscribers ranging from providing more flexible options to manage their respective accounts to ensuring a continuous serviceability irrespective of mode of payment.