Enabling Service Provider to roll out CDMA Services using e-Bill

The customer, a reputed telecom services provider in Bangladesh, was among the first few players to enter the market. The telco has the license to offer basic WLL–CDMA telephone services in the country’s rural sector—in 34 districts out of 64. The client, which is providing these services since 1995, was using eight Telos switches as the backbone infrastructure for its operations.

Owing to an expansion of its services, the telco added new Alvarion switches to its existing hardware. With the new expansion plan in place, the client has three additional Alvarion Call servers catering to 34 Base Stations. This is enabling the service provider to offer its services to 34 districts across Bangladesh.

The requirement

The customer was looking at introducing WLL-CDMA services across the rural landscape in Bangladesh. The aim was to address the communications needs of PCOs operating across the country’s smaller towns and villages.

In order to launch these services, it required a convergent billing and customer care platform that would integrate its existing services with the new network components.

The solution

The customer already had Telos switches in place that were being used for the existing network. The company acquired Alvarion switches to cater to the new VoIP and pre-paid services.

The billing system provided by Infozech, was seamlessly integrated with these components along side an interconnect solution for inter-carrier settlement.

Infozech’s solution provided the following capabilities and features to the customer:

• Provisioning of subscriber data into HLRs (Three)
• Call Center and Customer Care Services
• Trouble ticket logging and notification at different stages
• Dual rating for international calls
• Managing the Tariff Package/structure, Billing Cycles
• Managing Receivables, Payables, Adjustments, Security Deposit
• Credit Control
• District specific promotional messages
• CDR Import and Rating for i-CAS Customers
• Bundled minutes on call type
• Invoicing of carriers from the Interconnect point of view
• Carrier Reconciliation
• Pro-ration on a monthly subscription charge
• Efficient rating and re-rating of invalid CDRs

The benefits

Using the Infozech solution, the telco gained the following benefits:

• Got a 360 degree view from the revenue perspective
  Using eBill, the customer could get a 360 degrees view of the revenue side. From one system, everyone—including the telco and its subscribers—could view the billing.
• Built a bridge between billing, operations and customer service management
  Using the same platform, the telco could also disseminate information to its technical people, which helped them answer queries when customers called in at the Technical Help Desk. eBill helped the customer build a bridge between billing, operations and customer service management.
• Improved its service delivery
  The telco, owning to eBill, perceived a significant improvement in its service delivery, including answering queries, bills generation, sending out notifications for payments, etc. In the case of notifications for payments, the telco was able to inform its subscribers about their bill well in advance. If a customer reached 60 percent of his/her deposit amount, the service provider was able to send out a reminder for the payment of the bill.
• Introduced credit control for subscribers and generated more business
  The telco’s customers, who were primarily PCOs, really benefited from the eBill implementation. On the credit control side, the company was able to make sure that the users didn’t cross the deposit amount. In this way, not only was the telco able to assure revenue collection, it was also able to inform PCOs in advance about their billing status. It kept its subscribers informed about when and how they had to pay before their actual bills were produced. In this way, the telco did not need to shut off their service in case they exhausted their deposit amount or wait for the PCOs to pay up to restart them. By eliminating this time lag, the telco was able to generate more business.
• Gained access to several product and people capabilities
  Infozech offered the telco three different applications on one core-GUI platform. The customer found in the solution a rating platform that had credibility and crucial interconnect carrier consolidation capability. Besides, it was not just the system but also the people behind it that made the big difference for the telco. Infozech’s highly skilled base of technical professionals were able to provide the telco with consultancy in the area of billing, revenue assurance as well as customer care management.
• Accessed top-of-the-line support
  Infozech was very helpful in the solution deployment as well, providing the telco with strong support. The telco was able to get help from Infozech engineers and even Project Managers on an immediate basis, as the actual turnaround time in receiving a reply from the company was very high.
• Gained access to a special rating mechanism
  The telco liked Infozech’s rating mechanism—the variable rating, discounts, discount packages were beneficial for it. With Infozech solution, the telco was able to able to support different types of services, at different prices to different types of customers.
• Gained access to feature-rich, cost competitive solutions
  When the telco compared Infozech’s offering to those offered by competitors, it found them far more feature rich. It found that Infozech was providing the same services and features at comparatively much more competitive price than the other players.