China Telecom Shanghai, Full-service Convergent Billing Solution Studies

After 3G mobile licenses were let out, there has been tripartite balance of forces among China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom. Facing the fierce market competition, China Telecom should give full play to the advantages of full-service integrated operator so that it can provide rich integrated services and flexible preferential strategies of tariffs for all users. Meanwhile, in order to avoid the risk of high arrears, it would better charge all users by online charging way.After the main billing systems and the main billing solutions of telecom operators at home and abroad were compared, the existing billing solution of China Telecom was studied. When undertaking the China Unicom's CDMA network, China Telecom Corporation Limited Shanghai Branch followed the "Smooth Transition, Smooth Upgrade" principle, and ultimately formed the total billing solution with Online Charging System+Hot Billing+ Billing. In order to carry out the different marketing activities for the different users, and to make the minimum changes to the systems of original China Telecom and original China Unicom, this program subdivides the billing model according to user types. For its amazing number of the systems and the bottlenecks between system interaction, this program is not conducive to the development of integrated services. It is hard to meet the market demand and make China Telecom be in inferior position in the future market competition.In such circumstances, two suitable billing program for the market trends of convergent billing of all-network and full-service are proposed: Program 1, Online Charging System+Hot Billing+Billing+Account Balance Management; Program 2, Online Charging System+Billing. Through research and analysis, there are advantages and disadvantages of these two programs in system functions, constructions, system operations and maintenances and etc, but do not differ much. After the risks of billing systems and surrounding network systems when constructing, and the risks of data migration, as well as the from-near-to-far planning objectives of China Telecom Corporation Limited Shanghai Branch IT support systems and the smooth-transition principle be considered, three steps to achieve China Telecom Corporation Limited Shanghai Branch's next-generation full-service billing framework are proposed:Step 1, Online Charging System+Hot Billing+Billing+Account Balance Management, same as Program 1. Step2, Online Charging System+Billing+Account Balance Management, which means the billing systems are unified, the accounting functions of Billing are reduced, and the functions of Account Balance Management are reserved. Step 3, Online Charging System+Billing, same as Program 2. Of course, because the advantages of Step 3 are not obvious, taking into account the risks of system transformation and data migration, the construction cost, the development of the planning objectives of IT support systems and other factors be considered, Step 3 could be cancel.Facing the revolution of full-service operation and the competitive pressures in the field of 3G business, many operators have realized the importance and urgency of convergent billing, and have proposed their own solution. At this time, China Telecom Corporation Limited Shanghai Branch put forward the next-generation full-service billing solution program and takes the three-step developing idea to balance the business need and the capacity of construction, operation and security, and to gain an advantageous position in fierce market competition. Of course, this program is not static. As the business grows, the standardization and network of billing system will need to be considered in future.At present, China Telecom Corporation Limited Shanghai Branch has make the modification plan of billing domain in the 2010-2013 roll plan of IT support systems, has launched the project of converged billing solutions program, and will achieve the capabilities of full-service quasi-real-time billing, construction of Accounting Balance Management and the strategy of producibility and networking of billing systems in 3 years. And convergent billing of all-network and full-service will be progressively carried out in future.