Stay Covered on Every Front with an Evolving AI-Powered Billing Software

The billing requirements faced by telecom operators keep on rising with each passing day. There is so much to do and so little time to waste. With 5G and IoT added to the catalog of services, the challenge is only going to become tougher, unless you have a billing software and B/OSS solution that fulfills new requirements.

Stay One-Step Ahead with AI-Integration

Considering the rapid changes in billing and delivery processes, a telecom operator needs to stay proactive with his subscription plans, business operations and order management. It is impossible to pre-plan and deliver services via a monolithic platform that is reactive in nature.

At Telgoo5, you get access to an AI-powered platform that anticipates your needs before they become an urgent requirement. As a result, you can create custom flows to manage customers’ demands. The ability to make sense of the vast amount of data ingested by the billing systems and BSS solution that you have employed plays a key role in driving your telecom operation towards success.

Evolve as Per Evolving OSS BSS Architecture

OSS BSS architecture constantly evolves as per the technical specifications conceptualized by 3GPP. On top of that, a telecom operator needs to stay vigilant of the changes recommended by regulatory bodies e.g., FCC in the USA.

Taking this burden on as an everyday responsibility can take your focus away from strategic tasks. What if you can manage all these responsibilities with a platform that adapts as per these changes? Telgoo5 does exactly that. It allows you to stay free and focus on what you do best. Responsibilities like staying compliant, upgrading/customizing software etc., are managed well by Telgoo5.

Powered by a Real-Time Online Charging System

Regardless of the scale of your telecom operation and subscriber base, Telgoo5 provides you real-time charging platform with its revolutionary Online Charging System (OCS). It is a convergent charging platform that is capable of managing millions and millions of transactions every day. The OCS can charge both event-based and session-based transactions. It enforces credit limits accurately and provides timely reminders to your customers when they are about to exceed their allotted quota. Telgoo5 is intuitive, easy-to-use and comes with 24x7 tech support.

With Telgoo5 as your partner, you get access to APIs, CRM and a dependable point of sale for selling your telecom offerings. We are integrated with all the major carriers and can immediately provide you high-speed and secure connectivity. It is a holistic telecom services platform that lets you stay covered on all fronts, ready to meet the challenges of the future.

Improve Telecom Billing Across the Board with Revolutionary Billing Software

Telecom billing is one of the most important assets of a telecom operator. In order to win its customer over, a telecom operator requires a billing system that offers true revenue assurance. The evolution in telecom billing domain is happening fast, and what is new today might get old very quickly tomorrow. So, a billing software solution should be designed to meet future requirements for it to be considered a worthwhile asset for a telecom business.

What is a Revolutionary Telecom Billing Software?

The telecom support market is flooded with several telecom billing offerings. But when it comes to MVNOs, the choices are exorbitantly price and not always a perfect match. A revolutionary software solution like Telgoo5 offers all the essential and advanced functionalities without burning a hole in your pocket. It is revolutionary in every aspect:

Convergent billing

Get the ability to print consolidated invoices that reflect every service charge for every service used by your subscribers. Modern-day customers desire convenience and convergent billing is essential for that. Now, you can print the same invoice for prepaid, postpaid and broadband services without running separate systems.

Faster monetization

Telgoo5 ensures the quickest monetization of telecom service offerings. Have a plan? Quickly launch Telgoo5 and create custom packages for your customers to meet their most pressing demands. For example, in Covid-19 situation you can offer special low-cost offerings to bring in a new segment of customers who cannot afford expensive high-speed data services. The faster you launch your plans, the better are your chances to acquire new customers. Telgoo5 ensures that you are always one-step ahead of the competition.

Analytics

Make sense of the vast amount of data generated by billing systems. The revolutionary Telgoo5 analytics allow for greater understanding of customer behavior. Complete reporting of every detail along with analytics allow you to stay proactive and address customer requirements quickly.

Greater revenue assurance

Telgoo5 is a very accurate software solution as it uses a state-of-the-art Online Charging System. Rapid charging of services ensures the most accurate billing, which is important for fostering transparency and trust amongst customers.

Support for future technologies

Telgoo5 is geared up to meet the requirements of evolving technologies. As a next-gen billing and B/OSS solution, it can easily scale to meet the requirements posed by IoT and 5G. Telgoo5 platform integrates a world-class CRM along with several intuitive APIs. It allows your customer service and support department to excel and meet the requirements of customers quickly.

Make your Wireless MVNO an Instant Success with Better Billing Software

A lot of times, Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs) struggle in implementing their strategies because of their lacking billing software. A wireless MVNO, which is a new entrant, does not really understands the value of online billing software until it is too late. You see, nowadays, the number of telecom services that need to be delivered are large. And you cannot send different invoices for all types of services that you are providing to the customers. It is important that you consolidate billing charges by using the best billing software that is powered by a real-time Online Charging System.

Convergence in Billing: An Essential Requirement

To get the best out of current billing software, you need convergence as an essential feature. A real-time OCS can charge every service at the same spot, which allows it to generate fully convergent invoices for prepaid, postpaid, broadband and IoT service users. Convergence also expedites service plan creation, so you are able to monetize your services right after conceptualizing them.

Diameter Billing: Proper Authentication for Every Transaction

To ensure every charge is authenticated, you need next-gen diameter billing software. It is vital for revenue assurance and keeping customers happy.

Futureproof and Backward Compatible Solutions

The number and type of services will increase with passing time. There will be need for amendment in the existing software. However, customization of billing software is a costly affair. It is better to use the services of a vendor that offers APIs for adding new functionalities. Also, if you are using different software now and want to move to a new one, backward compatibility is very important. Telgoo5 offers one of the best online billing software that integrates well with an existing billing system.

Security of Customer Account Information

As the threat of hackers increases, it is vital that you have secure and well-protected billing platform. The account balance management function should be protected, so that hackers could not steal the database that holds customer account information. Telgoo5 billing system is extremely secure and ideal for current scenario.

Ability to Provide Attractive Discounts

Discounts pull subscribers in your direction. The billing software system should be flexible enough to offer attractive and imaginative discounts. For example, cross-product discounts can be very effective in creating a market for a lesser-known service.

Telgoo5 offers all the cutting-edge technologies via its revolutionary telecom billing system. Access it an attractive price to reimagine your wireless MVNO.

The Need to Go Cloud-Native with Online Billing Software for 5G Deployment

As true 5G launch beckons, the need for cloud-native solutions are only going to increase. Although bigger operators have their in-house backend management for data, it is the smaller players that rely on vendors, which is why; they are best served by cloud-native platforms. A quality online billing software that is based on the cloud and operates via SaaS model is the perfect fit for MVNOs.

No Longer Feasible to Upgrade Software via Ad Hoc Virtualized Platforms

For 4G networks, telcos relied heavily on virtualized networks, but the process was not always truly cloud-based. Completely cloud-native environment ensures better integration of services and consistent delivery to the subscribers. A cloud-native model is required for reducing the operational costs over the long term. As 5G is here to stay for a long time, the operational expense can be minimized considerably with a switch to the cloud.

The Increasing Value of Data Management for Analysis Purpose

It would be very much required that companies manage data in-house or have a stable partnership that can be trusted for continuous insight generation via analysis. The value of analytics is only going to increase as the amount of data generated by telecom software systems rises.

Focus on Convergent Billing

Convergent billing is the new norm these days. Utilizing traditional billing systems like IN and OFCS will add to the complexity, which is why; a centralized architecture executed via an OCS (Online Charging System) is a must.

An OCS based on the cloud provides the following advantages:

Faster monetization of services

OCS allows for monetization of all telecom services at a single point. This means that an OCS-powered billing solution can be used for monetizing call minutes, mobile data, broadband, streaming services etc. Quicker monetization means that you are able to reach the market quicker and win the race against competition.

Correct implementation of credit limits

An OCS enforces credit limits accurately ensuring that no subscriber exceeds the credit limit. As a customer receives timely notifications, he understands when he has to stop using the telecom services. There is complete transparency between the subscriber and the telecom operator, which ultimately fosters subscribers’ trust.

Telgoo5 offers the best billing software, which comes with B/OSS functionality as well. Our software ensures complete revenue assurance, provides a point of sale for MVNOs and allows for completely convergent billing. Telgoo5 is a next-gen platform that is ideal for both present-day and future services.

Prepaid And Postpaid Plans: Which Is Right For Your Business?

In the telecom industry, astute decision-making concerning your service offerings can be a key element behind sustained success. If you have already planned how to differentiate yourself as an MVNO and have all the important strategies in place for consistent growth in a competitive market, you still have to figure out a very important point – do you choose prepaid or postpaid plans for your business?

When it comes to offering telephony plans to your customers, you can choose between prepaid and postpaid plans. There are important pros and cons to consider on each side. If you work with a seasoned billing and charging service provider like Telgoo5, you can keep your options open and adopt a service strategy that maximized revenue, retention, and customer loyalty for your business.

Prepaid vs Postpaid

With prepaid plans, customers purchase a set amount of data and phone services from you with an upfront payment. This can then be used for the duration of the plan or until the service limits are exhausted. Prepaid plans are meant for quick and easy adoption.

The benefits of offering prepaid plans include:

• Undisputed revenue in the form of upfront payments

• Seamless onboarding of customers with no credit checks required

• The ability to offer flexible, customizable plans from the very outset

• Preventing overuse

• Preventing revenue loss though defaulting or late-paying customers

Postpaid plans involve a more long-term relationship with customers who pay monthly or yearly fees for their usage plans. The main difference is the fact that payment takes place after the service has been used. This style of service is more in tune with the needs of customers who need unlimited plans and are more likely to use your service heavily.

You can consider offering postpaid plans for the following advantages:

• Consistent revenue and relationship-building with long-term customers

• Catering to customers with large-scale service needs that limited prepaid plans cannot cover

• The opportunity to automatically incentivize heavier use of services with unlimited plans

• The ability to recover revenue by charging customers for overuse

• The opportunity to upsell new service offerings to loyal customers

With careful consideration, it can become evident that both prepaid and postpaid solutions have their perks and you cannot ignore either if you are looking for massive adoption and business growth.

Planning Your Service Offerings

Depending on the target audience you want to cater to, you can either lean heavily towards one of the options or choose to create a balanced service offering that leverages every opportunity. While offering customer prepaid plans can allow for a quick recovery of your investments, offering postpaid services can set your business up for long-term growth.

It’s crucial to have the right billing solutions partner in your corner if you want to make the best use of these opportunities. Working with a company like Telgoo5 offers you a seamless, integrated solution where you can use one centralized platform for charging, rating, and billing.

You can use Telgoo5’s service to create and offer different tariffs and bundle plans, integrate online payments, deals, and discounts, provide value-added services, and still retain the ability to manage both prepaid and postpaid billing requirements from one comprehensive solution. This can also be a great opportunity to avoid having to pass up on either strategy as you grow and evolve your business.

Telgoo5: The MVNE You Never Knew Your MVNO / MNO Needed

With 15 years in the industry, (v)WeCare is very well aware of the ever-changing landscape the telecommunications industry is facing today. That’s a decade-and-a-half of providing BSS, online charging, MVNE, Diameter and other expert technical and sales support, and as you’ll see, much more.

We’ve partnered with countless telecom organizations to transform their MVNO/MVNE by optimizing operations, expanding their reach, and growing their subscriber base overall. Furthermore, (v)WeCare has empowered companies just like yours to globally launch their MVNO/MVNE in a matter of weeks instead of months, and we even provide dedicated account managers as well as 24/7 NOC Support.

However, these partnerships actually evolved into a bit of symbiotic relationship as well. As our clients learned from us, we learned a lot more about their operation’s deeper needs.

That’s where Telgoo5 comes in. An end-to-end billing support system (BSS) and Online charging system (OCS) that is tailored to fit the specific needs of telecom companies.

The Telgoo5 Difference

There’s no denying that the ever-changing environment of the telecommunications industry can make proper management more than a bit of a challenge. With Telgoo5, that becomes a whole lot easier.

Imagine having the ability to provision and activate features on the fly, monitor service performance, track customer usage, bill for content, ensure revenue capture, and so much more. And we really, really mean so much more.

With Telgoo5’s BSS, you get a subscriber management system that is efficient, quick, responsive, and provides subscribers with excellent customer service. You also gain the ability to setup custom sales chain based on your business needs with sales chain management that supports 3 levels and has the ability to be customized for more.

Furthermore, with Telgoo5 and the BSS features, you have access to the following:

• A config and admin panel that facilitates effective user management and enables you to define permissions, create plans, and gain greater control overall.

• Reporting and analytics that provide in-depth subscriber data, giving you further insight and helping you manage and monitor your sales more easily and efficiently.

• Expanded abilities to manage inventory status, reassignment, and reconciliation, spawning more efficient management and distribution of inventory units.

Even if that was the end of the list of benefits of Telgoo5 it would be rather impressive, but as we said above, there’s much more.

The key features of the BSS side of Telgoo5 are not only impressive, they can actually be critical in helping you meet the demands of today’s industry. Efficient billing is key to the survival of any organization but this can be evermore so true for telecom organizations.

Telgoo5’s Postpaid Billing System has a slew of impressive tools that are destined to transform your operations, including:

• Payment gateway integration.

• Real-time or manual invoice generation.

• Postpaid tariff plans.

• CDR rated bills sent in XML.

• CDR mediation process.

• Call barring services.

• Call exception services.

• And More!

Need a wholesale billing system? Telgoo5’s Online charging system has that covered too with additional key features for MNOs/MVNAs:

• API controls.

• Ability to create ‘n’ number of MVNOs.

• Separate logins for MNOs/MVNAs and MVNOs.

• Built-in online user guides that provide instant assistance whenever needed.

• And once again, much more.

Have a little better understanding for why we said that your MVNO/MNO needs Telgoo5? If you’re ready to move forward with transforming your telecom into an entity ready for both today and tomorrow, give us a call at 206-384-4669.

If you still have questions about Telgoo5, you can visit our website or contact us directly and we’ll reply as quickly as possible.

Put years of experience and expertise to work for you with Telgoo5 augmenting your telecom business.

Billing Support on All Platforms for Customers, Day or Night

In today’s world, everything happens in an instant. You send a message and get a response. You write a tweet and someone likes it immediately. Today’s customers don’t want to wait. When they have a problem, a question, or some issue that needs to be addressed, they’re going to want to deal with in on their terms — and that means they want service when they want it, day or night. That’s why it’s vital to provide customers with 24/7 support that’s efficient, easy, and always available to help with whatever they may need.

Multi-Platform Support

Customers in today’s world are sophisticated, and they love having options. Some customers may want to call and speak to someone over the phone, but others would rather turn to chat support so they can type back and forth. Some customers are more comfortable with email. And still others might want to turn to social media first.

It isn’t practical to hire different companies to provide multi-platform support. And it isn’t good business to provide only one type, or even two types of support to customers. The only logical solution is to use a customer service support company that provides support on all platforms, all the time. This is the only way that all customers can be served and get the level of service they expect, and that’s why (v)WeCare provides complete multi-platform support. The trained support staff is available over the phone, through email, on social media, and in chat in moments, ready to help 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Speed

When the world moves fast, everyone wants to move fast with it. Emails are sent and replied to in minutes. Social media interactions happen in real-time. Money exchanges hands digitally in mere moments. In a world with that kind of speed, customers expect to get their questions answered and their problems addressed quickly. Efficient, speedy customer service is absolutely essential when you want to keep customers happy, and that’s what (v)WeCare works to provide at all times by hiring and training caring, communicative staff members who are based in the U.S.

U.S.-based customer support representatives can address problems three times more quickly than offshore reps. U.S.-based reps can understand customers more quickly and help them find the solutions they need more easily, with simple back-and-forth communication. Reps who are based in the U.S. understand the slang and the particular terms that U.S.-based customers use, which also cuts back on confusion and saves time. With (v)WeCare, customers will have to explain less, so they can get more of the help they need. Speed and efficiency are always provided and always available to customers, whether they’re calling for support on the phone, using chat, or communicating with a rep through email or social media.

What Customers Want

Customers want to be able to reach out in ways that are the most convenient and easy for them. Whether they’re most comfortable with chatting online, talking over the phone, emailing back and forth or using social media, they want support that’s quick and easy to use. They also want to get that support the way they want it, which is why companies need to provide support on every available platform. This is the only way to satisfy every single customer, and this is why (v)WeCare provides every single one of these services. Customers have needs, and (v)WeCare keeps striving to provide solutions for all customers, all the time.

Customers also want (and deserve) to be connected to support immediately and at any time. By giving them that, companies set themselves apart by proving that they’re providing the services customers want most: speed, accuracy and options. Customers may have questions or problems at any time, and that’s exactly why they need support at any time. When they’re awake at 3 am, when they have an issue on a holiday weekend, when they have a problem, customers want to be addressed immediately no matter what time it is. By giving customers 24/7 reliable service, companies make the customers feel like they truly are coming first and their needs are truly being met. Isn’t that how you want your customers to feel?

Customer Experience – A Key MVNO Differentiator

Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNO) are on a rise across the globe. According to the GSMA Intelligence report are a total of 1017 MVNOs in the world. Today MVNOs outnumber the total number of mobile network providers across the globe. In 2015 alone 210 MVNOs either shut down their business or merged with some other business. Start, peak, filtering, and stabilization is perhaps the expected business curve for MVNOs. Here to reach the point of stabilization and to sustain once stable MVNOs need to be smart and innovative.

Superior customer retention rate and ability to add new customers is now than ever before directly linked to ‘Experience’, which will help MVNOs stand out and receive higher ARPU. Many studies suggest operators differentiating themselves based on customer experience are likely to stay in business in the long run. According to Telesperience’s recent research into the MVNO market differentiator, better customer service has been cited by almost 67% of MVNOs.

Below are few innovative touchpoints with which MVNOs can differentiate themselves from the competition and delight their customers.

• Loyalty Programme: For a long time, loyalty programs have been used as differentiators by service providers across industries. They are a great way to award loyal customers and inspire loyalty amongst new customers.

• Customization: This is when an MVNO provides its users the flexibility to design their plans which will best suit their requirement.

• Control: Offer control to customers by providing them access to customer care portal and Mobile application through which they can get real-time data about their usage, talk time, subscription plan, etc.

• Localization and Personalization:

  • Target demographic segments by designing an offer for various demographic groups

  • Segmentation: design and develop segment-specific plans for corporates, schools, etc.

  • Design plans for expats, students, etc. with specialized features like unlimited talk time to selected numbers, free message service to their homeland, etc.

This is where a highly sophisticated billing system will play a key role in enabling MVNOs in creating customized plans with configurable product catalogs, visibility of usage to customers, allowing the customer to subscribe for services real-time and empowering them to discontinue services as and when they wish to. Telgoo5’s solutions will allow you to take absolute control of crucial area like billing and will allow you to create new services, bundle promotions and provide real-time data.

Companies using Telgoo5’s billing services have a competitive edge over others as Telgoo5’s billing system allows MVNOs to efficiently manage their billing and revenues. Our billing services will satisfy both the MNO and the customers. Billing services must be able to spot any instances of fraud and revenue leakage. Telgoo5’s Billing Services are apt to do this and will protect the MNO from any revenue loss due to frauds. Telgoo5’s billing system supports prepaid-postpaid integration method of billing. This feature makes the billing system all the more efficient and reliable. More and more MVNOs’ are showing an inclination towards billing systems that are powered by analytics which will empower them to get accurate reports on subscription, revenues, customer retention, and churn. Telgoo5’s billing system is equipped with all these special features, to know more please visit www.telgoo5.com

Is Your Billing On Point

Billing is one of those things that businesses sometimes don’t give a lot of thought to, but smart companies in the telecom industry know that consistent and accurate customer billing is one of the cornerstones of a successful MVNO.

Some MVNOs handle billing in-house, tasking one or two staff members with what should realistically be the job of an entire department. The truth is, your if your billing is not on-point, your customers will suffer and look for other MVNO’s to get their service from. Since telecom billing is notoriously tricky, smart companies trust their billing to expert MNVEs.

Look For Flexibility

The telecom industry is always shifting and changing, which puts MVNOs in a challenging situation when it comes to billing, especially if they are poised to start scaling. As you get more end customers, your billing needs are going to adapt to different business situations. You need an MVNE that can adapt with you and offer real-time solutions to your customer’s needs. Smaller organizations simply don’t have the bandwidth to be able to support the level of growth that most MVNOs will experience, leading to customer frustration and annoyance on the part of the MNO.

At Telgoo5, we understand the importance of flexibility and ability to scale. Our sophisticated infrastructure was built to withstand shifting company demands and rapid scaling. What’s more, we can offer all of our MVNO partners CRM and BSS as well as a real-time view of business performance and trends!. Many of our long-term MVNO partners are US based companies that love working with us because they know that they will be able to scale with us and, we will be there to support their needs in a prompt and outstanding manner!

Look For Added Value

If you have an in-house billing department, or if you contract out to a smaller or less flexible MVNE, you won’t necessarily get bare-bones service, but you also won’t get all of the perks that come alongside working with a company that can address all of your needs on multiple fronts. Distribution and inventory management goes hand-in-hand with billing, and if your chosen MVNE doesn’t have the capacity to handle all three, you’ll have to find another one to attend to these services. Anyone who runs a business knows that dealing with multiple vendors can be costly and time-consuming.

Telgoo5 offers distribution and inventory as value added services to their billing plan, so you won’t need to be hopscotching between different vendors to get your customers the services that they need. With us, you can rest easy that it will all be handled in one secure, professional place!

Support Is Key

It’s hard to over-emphasize the importance of quality customer and tech support. You and your chosen MVNE are a team, and it should feel like a partnership. This is especially true if you’re scaling, taking on new customers or dealing with additional products. Customers depend on detailed, accurate and itemized bills for their telecom service, so you need to know that your MVNE has your back. That’s why you should be in regular contact with your MVNE about billing and other areas of your business.

At Telgoo5 we pride ourselves on taking our relationship with all of our MVNOs very seriously. You have an account manager who is responsible for handling your needs, and weekly calls to handle any concerns that might crop up. Additionally, we have an escalation procedure that is specifically designed to get to the root of any problem as efficiently and effectively as possible. We prioritize consistency and organization because we know that they are the cornerstones of a successful MVNO/MVNE relationship.

Anyone in the telecom industry knows that billing can be the trickiest part of the business. When you’re dealing with multiple customers and a host of different services, getting billing down perfectly poses something of a challenge. That’s why it is imperative to make sure that your billing is on point. The best way that you can do that is linking up with a smart MVNE that has your best interests at heart. Let an MVNE like Telgoo5 take billing off your plate so that you can focus on growing your business!

Why CDR Meditation Is an Essential Part of Telecom Billing?

Telecom billing is probably the most confusing and scrutinized task in the telecom industry. The scrutiny comes from customers who are more often than not dissatisfied with their bills. This leads to confusion amongst the telecom vendors who start looking everywhere for new telecom billing solutions. Mostly, this problem arises because the telecom billing software used by them are subpar and do not meet the high requirements of modern-day businesses.

Why Telecom Billing Solutions Are Important?

All the efforts made by telecom service providers in setting up a network will amount to nothing if telecom billing is not up to standards. This is why, telecom billing solutions become important as they play a crucial role in accounting for those services. Not only is the revenue generated by a telecom provider dependent on billing, customers’ trust is also directly connected with the quality of the billing services. For instance, if a customer starts receiving wrong bills, his trust in the services nosedives from that moment onwards. On the other hand, if the billing services are sound, the customer stays faithful and brings in new customers.

CDRs: The Fundamental Unit of Telecom Billing Process

CDR (Call Data Record) is the fundamental unit of telecom billing process. All interactions between the user and telecom networking elements are captured by CDRs. A CDR has the following attributes:

1. Date and starting time of the call

2. Duration of the call

3. Calling party

4. Called party

5. Type of call e.g. voice, SMS, data etc.

6. Unique record sequence number that is used for identification

The captured CDRs are vitally important for the proper operation of a billing system. However, these CDRs are raw in nature, which means they cannot be interpreted by a billing system.

CDR Meditation System: The Unsung Hero of Telecom Billing Solutions

To ensure the captured CDRs are converted into a format that is understood by the billing system, a CDR meditation system is employed. The meditation system receives the unformatted CDRs, converts them into the necessary format and sends them to the billing system. Besides conversion, it also performs the operation of filtering out calls that do not meet set criterion by the telecom vendor. For example, if a call with duration less than 10 second needs to be filtered out, it is done by CDR meditation system. Moreover, if some extra information needs to be provided that is crucial for billing procedure, the meditation system gathers that information based on certain attributes and then sends it to the billing system via FTP (File Transfer Protocol). FTP is required for transfer of this information as both billing software and meditation modules are installed on different systems.

After the billing system receives the formatted CDR, it is able to interpret the information and rate the services utilized by customers.

Summary

Billing system in telecom is quite complex and requires processing of data at different levels for accomplishment of billing-related tasks. Although the user is not aware of what goes on behind the scenes, the role of systems like meditation system that converts raw CDRs into formatted CDRs is extremely important. All telecom billing solutions require correct formatting of CDR for reliable and accurate completion of billing tasks.

The One Thing You Did Not Know About Telecom Billing Software

Telecom billing is a thankless task. You can be right 99 times out of 100, but if you make a single error, all the good work you have done previously goes down the drain. Just like politics, customers have short memories when it comes to the telecom services they use. Politicians have the advantage of evoking the right emotions at the time of elections but telecom operators do not enjoy such a luxury. They have to be right all the time and then some.

Not so long ago, when telecom billing systems were not as evolved as today, it was even harder to provide accurate bills to the customers. But at that time, the competition in the telecom industry was relatively low. At the sight of a wrong bill, customers used to think twice before crossing over to another provider. Not anymore! In this age of information and evolving telecom market, the playing field is a lot more competitive. Every year we see new entrants who try to lure away customers with flashy schemes and minimum tariff plans. This trend makes life difficult for established players in the market, especially for those who are still using outdated OSS telecom billing software.

“Hello! Have You Heard About Our New and Improved Telecom Billing Software?”

Do you know what most telecom operators do after hearing this line from a sales representative? They disconnect the line. It is not as if all the telecom billing software solutions made by IT companies are good and work well for every business. Not at all! However, complete disdain for something that you automatically think of as an exorbitant expense. Doesn’t make good business sense!

If till now, you have refrained from purchasing OSS telecom billing solutions because you thought they cost too much, you are in for a surprise. Most telecom entrepreneurs, in spite of their vast knowledge, do not know that telecom billing software can be procured as Software as a service (SaaS). If you are still not clear how this can help…read on.

Telecom Billing Software as SaaS

One of the least expensive ways of employing telecom billing software in your business operations is via SaaS model. With SaaS, you do not have to purchase any license or acquire any infrastructure. You can even decide on whether to host the services on your company’s cloud or employ the billing platform already operating in a cloud provided by the vendor.

This approach best suits startups and organizations with a limited budget. Enterprises that wish to integrate the billing software ASAP have to wait for only a day or two before beginning the use of billing software as part of SaaS model.

Can Blockchain Make Telecom Billing System Better?

Ever wondered how many people have invested in bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies? As per a survey performed by Cambridge University, somewhere between 2.9 million and 5.8 million people utilized a cryptocurrency wallet in 2017. This number is staggering, especially when we look at the way governments of different countries are doing their best to stop people from using it.

Many governments deem it illegal, others tell the people that it is unsafe for their hard-earned money and some even go as far as saying that it is downright immoral (some people use cryptocurrency for purchase of drugs and illegal video content). Right or wrong, we are not here to discuss about the virtues of cryptocurrency. We are here to analyze what makes it click. Which is that unseen force behind this phenomenon that people trust? The answer is simple: Blockchain.

Bitcoin is an unregulated and de-centralized currency, which means that there is not one single entity that controls it. The power lies in the hands of people. It is the best form of democracy when it comes to financial transactions. And, it has been made possible by the use of blockchain. For a layman, blockchain is like a ledger that is made available to all users. The data and transactions are completely transparent, which is clearly seen by all the users at all times. It won’t be wrong to think of it as a Google Doc spreadsheet, which can be edited at any time and the changes are there for all to see. Due to transparency in all transactions, people are ready to put their faith in it and hence, cryptocurrency has become so popular.

Use of Blockchain in Other Fields

Although, blockchain hasn’t been used in any other field, its promising start as part of the cryptocurrency operations makes it a wonderful option for other domains. In a field like telecom, where customers are often worried about the telecom billing system employed by their service provider, it won’t be a bad idea to give blockchain a try.

However, an immediate overhaul of the system is not advised and companies should look to integrate it slowly with their telecom billing solutions. Some of the benefits that can be extracted by its implementation in telecom are listed below:

1. Solution to the problem of roaming – Blockchain can help overcome the major hurdle of operators that require them to integrate expensive systems, so they can offer authentication/access settings for starting roaming calls. Blockchain addresses this problem by enabling complex datasets across multiple parties, in real time and with great reliability.

2. Better Connectivity – Use of blockchain along with telecom billing and payment software will make it easier to offer several local hotspots along with Wi-Fi accessibility based on permissions. The transparency that comes with blockchain can go a long way in fostering trust amongst customers with regards to billing for these difficult-to-track services.

3. Telecom providers can become remittance providers – Remittance is the action of transferring money in a different country. By using blockchain, telecom providers will be able to serve their clients better by offering remittance services.

4. Reduction in cost of operation – Last but definitely not the least, the implementation of blockchain will automatically lower the requirement of infrastructure, which will in turn lower the cost of operation.