Telecom –

 Sending of info from one point to another point by using some electronic medium such as
fibre optic, wire, wireless, satellite.
 Refers to all types of voice, data and video transmission.
 Different telecom services - voice call, mms, sms, video call, internet connection, conference
call.

Telecom Billing Project –

 Different services provided by telecom operator.

 Postpaid type of billing for using services like voice call, mms, sms, video call, internet
connection.
 Billing – As customer if we are using these services then we have to pay the bills for all the
services provided by telecom operator.

Flow –

1. Customer – Who will be using all the services

2. CRM – Customer is created who will use the different services
3. OSS – Part associated with customer activation
4. BSS – Customer billing is done

CRM – Customer Relationship Management/Order Management System

 By using this application customers are created and cust order is captured
 Main Task of CRM - Order Capturing
 Whatever orders customer want to place is captured by CRM & then customer is created
 All the basic info of customer is stored in CRM
 Customer info such as Name, Address (Current & Permanent), Employee ID, etc
 Create the customer and generate Customer ID and save the customer details and data

OSS – Operation Support System

 Activation, deactivation, suspension & termination of services used by customer

 Order from the customer is accepted & processing & implementation is done
 Whatever request comes from CRM i.e. from customer through CRM, OSS will activate that
particular service

For example –

 Voice Call service – OSS will activate this service based on customer request through
CRM
 SMS – If customer wants to deactivate SMS plan then this order is captured

OSS has 2 parts –

 Provisioning System
 Network Inventory System

Provisioning System -

 Takes order/command from CRM.

  Based on the Activation, deactivation, suspension & termination of services which is
requested by customer, its provisioning is done by PS.
 Post implementation of particular request, PS sends response to CRM

Network Inventory System – (NIS)

 All the network identifiers (unique identifiers by which customer is identified such as phone
no, IP address, email address & other details) are stored in NIS.

BSS – Billing Support System

 Considering all the services used by the customer, the bill is generated for the services
through BSS
 Based on the service activated for particular customer, usage used for the particular services
and tax as per the rate/charge sheet (applicable to the services) the bill is generated.

BSS includes –

 Rating Engine
 Billing Engine
 Discount

Rating Engine –

 Decides the charge/rate for the particular service.

 Considers different services used by the customer.
 Ex – Customer made a local call for 1 min. So whatever the charge based on the charge sheet
for 1 min local call by using the rating engine.

Functionality of RE –

 According to received CDRs from the Mediation System, RE assigns the charge.
 Accepts CDR from MS->Validate CDR-> Calculate price of event-> Apply discount if any

Billing Engine –

 Produces raw data to generate the final invoice (which customer gets & has to pay
accordingly).
 Raw data – Customer details, service details (charged according to service plan)
 Bill Cycles – Date on which BE runs & produces the bill. When customer is added into system
its assigns predefined bill cycle.

Discount –

 If customer is eligible for particular discount as per the service plan purchased (if the plan
has some discount)
 Way of giving money off for particular service
 Calculated during Rating/billing process

Billing Cycle –

Network Switches –

 Provides all the services/tasks to customer/end user

  CDR (Call Detail Record)/UDR (User Detail Record) - Generation of usage details or whatever
services used by the customer. Usage done by customer. Ex- local call, international call, SMS,
MMS, Internet data, etc made by customer. Whom call was done, at what time call was
made, etc all these details are kept in CDR
 These details are provided to BSS

Network Elements under Network Switches –

 MSC (Mobile Switching Centre) – Captures all details of voice calls made by customer
 SMSC (Short Message Service Centre) – Captures all SMS (send or received by customer)
related services
 MMSC (Multimedia Message Service Centre) – Captures all multimedia related services used
by customer
 GGSN (Gateway GPRS <General Packet Radio Services> Support Node) – Captures all the
consumed data from the internet

Network Switches are associated with different parts – Modules of Network Switches

 Mediation System
 Data Warehouse
 Payment Gateway
 ERP

Mediation System –

 All CDRs are available.

 Collect the CDR from network elements in different format.
 Ex – MSC generating call related record, SMSC generating SMS related record, MMSC
generating multimedia message record, GGSM generating GPRS service used.
 All these details are captured by MS & then MS by collecting all the CDRs/raw data sent by
network elements converts it into one compatible format & then send it to BSS

Data Warehouse –

 Keeps all the customer related data which is further used to generate the management
report.
 Includes services used by customer, invoice, payment how it was made by customer, any
discount or adjustment done on any service, etc all these detailed records are kept in DW.

Payment Gateway –

 Bill is generated & customer needs to pay the bill.

 So customer will use a different way to pay the bill such CC, DB, UPI, etc.
 Managing all the payment related task is done by PG.

ERP – Enterprise Resource Planning

 BSS interface with ERP & post all financial transactions such as invoice, payment adjustment.
 Keeps all revenue related info.
 Financial details related to particular customer

OMOF –

 Order Management & Order fulfillment.

  Tracks the whole order from its creation till completion.
 Ex – Customer wants a particular. international call plan. Pay and enjoy unlimited call service.
Means activation of this particular plan is done by OMOF.

Event –

 Any service provided by telecom operator that is used by customer. Ex – Using SMS, MMS,
etc services provided by telecom operator.
 Single billable occurrence of product usage captured electronically by a network.
 Depending on particular bill is charged to customer

Types of Event –

 Duplicate Events
 Rejected Events
 Rerating Events
 Partial Events

Duplicate Events –

 If a bill is generated twice.

 If a call is made at 12 PM & at same time the bill shows there is another call to a different
number which is not possible i.e. dialing 2 different nos at same time.
 This is a DE and one of this event is rejected from the bill.

Rejected Events –

 When billing system encounters a problem with particular event.

 Ex – Any issues in rate plan then event is rejected.
 Such as customer doesn’t have an ISD plan activated & still trying to make an ISD call then
the event is rejected as the service is not added in existing plan.

Rerating Events –

 If a plan is changed.
 Ex – Earlier it was 1 min call for 1 Rs & now it became 1 min call for 2 Rs means the rating is
changed.

Partial Events –

 Allows customer to balance & maintain while event is in progress.

 Ex – Customer is downloading particular data & same time billing system is getting
notification for it.
 Ex – Customer uses 50 MB plan, so while uses download continues with notification to billing
section i.e. 10MB..20MB & once it reaches 50MB then quota is finished then service stops.
So as it continues the bill is coming

Types of Billing in Telecom –

 Pre-pay Billing
 Post pay Billing
 Interconnect Billing
 Roaming Charges
 Convergent Billing
Types of Charges in Telecom –

 One time charge – For taking a new connection such as a landline connection/phone
 Rental charges – Product taken on rent then pay monthly rental charges ex - router
 Value added service charge – Took any subscription apart from monthly pack charges
 Usage charge – How many calls done, how many SMSs sent
 Roaming charge – If network is changed then RC applied
 Service Tax – GST
 Documentation Charge – If printer bill is needed via post/courier then DC
 SMS Charge

Types of Reports in Telecom Billing –

 Financial reports – Customer payments related info i.e. any payments due, bill amount, bill
cycle, etc
 Management reports – All customer info i.e. which services used, customer calling pattern,
customer feedback, etc
 Reconciliation reports – Revenue related info
 Network activity reports – Provide info to identify areas of network congestion i.e. to which
network call was made by customer