The Billing story of BSNL: Challenges ahead.

Subrata Chatterjee, DGM-IT IT Project Circle, BSNL

Manual Billing
In the early days of DOT, the Commercial/ Billing/ Accounting activities were conducted manually. Billing was simple. There was a flat rate per call. Just send an Invoice and collect payment;

Computerization of Billing
By and by, Billing activities got computerized. The Calcutta Telephones computerized their billing operations in 1964; In the 1980s, an early version of the TBL package was being used in many places; The Trichur package, a character based application with a Billing server and dumb terminals came up in the early nineties, as billing operations grew more complex.

Trichur Billing package

But the Trichur package never required much Networking, as all other activities like Commercial and Accounting were manually conducted.

Growing Complexities
Many repetitive activities like feeding Commercial data into Trichur system at the end of the day or transporting /mailing the same to the Trichur system made life very inconvenient; Gradually the Commercial/TRA activities grew more complex: Many CSCs were established to collect payments, accept New Phone Connections(NPC), requests, issue duplicate bills, generate Demand Notes, etc. Expansion of Network became inevitable; The need for a GUI-based, WAN supported-Integrated application was felt to meet the complex operations.

Advent of Dotsoft
In early 1998, Dotsoft, an in-house package was deployed at Guntur in AP. Dotsoft is an integrated telecom database system comprising commercial, billing, accounting, fault repair service and directory enquiry services. All requests on the CSCs flow to the Commercial or TRA sections as the case may be.

Multi-SSA Dotsoft
SSA-2 SSA-1

SSA-3 SSA-n

DB

Nodal SSA

Diagram showing central database at Nodal SSA to which all SSAs are connected and are partitioned by Virtual Private Database (VPD). A Central Server, central man-power resources and a highly reduced number of Oracle licenses, resulted into higher economy.

SATARA
Telephone Bhawan

2 Mb leased line to the 8 Area Offices

NASHIK

PARBHANI

LEGEND
Category A Router Category B Router Category C Router Category D router

2MB Leased Line to Nashik

E1/
PCM

BSNL PCM (Leased Line) Network

R2 Dialup Network
PCM
ISDN Network

ISDN Network

Dial Up

Server 24 Port Switch 12 Port Switch G.703 to V.35 Converter 8 Port HUB Dial Up Modem User Terminal 2Mb LL Link Dial Up link ISDN BRI ISDN PRI E1/R2 UTP Uplink LAN Extender Existing 32 port RAS MM Fiber Link

PR I

PC

RLU -1 to 9

RLU -1 to 4

RAIGAD
Burrabazar Exchange
Dialup Network
Dial Up

Exchange Extl. Building AOTR & COs Bldg

LATUR

PCM

2MB Leased Lin e to

Nashik

ISDN Network

PC PC RLU 1 to 4

RLU 1 to 5

ISDN Network

Dialup Network
Dial Up

External Cos Building

RLU 1 to 5

RATNAGIRI

PC PC RLU 1 to 15

DHULE

NANDED
AM (N) /COs Office

PCM

ISDN Network
PCM

ISDN Network

Dial Up

PCM

ISDN Network

SMP

PC

CND

RLU -1 to 5
RLU -1 to 5

CND Comml

PC PC RLU -1 to 17

RLU -1 to 5

Convergent Billing within Dotsoft

Convergent Billing i.e. Single bill process for WLL Customers, ISDN Customers, Plan opted Customers, Normal Customers, Corporate Customers, Group (i.e. Monthly/ Bi-Monthly) Customers; But Billing essentially remains MCU based. Only OMR/CMR information is extracted manually from the PSTN switches and uploaded into the billing system in a suitable text format;

Leased Circuit Billing

Leased Circuit Billing is done manually across BSNL.

IOBAS : Interconnect Billing

This is a CDR based billing system; Rating is done by IUC-IV tables; Problems remain with 100% CDR collection; Other issues like, Trunk Group changes intimation on time, Supplementary bills, Dispute settlement, etc. Leased Circuit Billing
Leased Circuit Billing is done manually across BSNL.

ILDO Billing
Utilizing the infrastructure of IOBAS, ILDO Billing was started in Dec 06 One single invoice for BSNL covering all ILDO switches WTR is the Bill Issuing Authority Limited tender floated among the ASPs of IOBAS for finalizing the Primary ASP Primary ASP coordinates with other ASPs and generates the I/C Invoice and the O/G Statement M/s. Tech Mahindra is the Primary ASP

ILDO Billing
Presently Telecom Italia Sparkle (TIS) is the only one Foreign Carrier (FC) using Bharat - Lanka Cable System; The I/C invoice and the O/G statement for TIS is being issued by IOBAS within time; About 20 Million O/G Minutes per month and about 78,175 I/C Minutes were billed for Feb07; US $ 1.322 Million is the O/G amount for Feb07; US $ 3,815 is the I/C Bill for Feb07;

Data-one (Broadband) billing

An usage based billing system, designed in-house, for BSNLs broadband services; 7,65,512 customers billed for the month of Feb07. Ave. rev Rs. 629/- per user; Total monthly billing 48.21 cr. (Feb07) Excluding Modem Rental amount; About 70,000 customers in Unlimited Plans. Max. no. of customers are in TN (1.5 Lakh), Karnataka (1.25 Lakh), MH (90,000);

Games on Demand (GoD) Billing

Started in Jan 2007 in association with M/s. India Games as a franchisee. 244 customers are billed/to be billed for the month of Feb07. Patches for DoTSOFT and Trichur released for billing the customers. Patches for the other billing softwares used by the SSAs to be developed/ implemented by the SSAs Revenue share at the level of Circle.

Multi-play (IPTV) Billing

Started on 15/03/2007 in association with M/s. MKCL and M/s. Divinet as a Joint Franchisee in Pune. Presently IPTV Services and Video on Demand (VoD) are available. Service was free up to 30/04/2007. Developed code for interfacing between operational system (system of Franchisee) and billing system. Scheduled to test run the billing software in the first week of Apr07.

Leased Circuit Billing

Started on 15/03/2007 in association with M/s. MKCL and M/s. Divinet as a Joint Franchisee in Pune. Presently IPTV Services and Video on Demand (VoD) are available. Service was free up to 30/04/2007. Developed code for interfacing between operational system (system of Franchisee) and billing system. Scheduled to test run the billing software in the first week of Apr07.

GSM Billing: Cellone

Cellular services provided Circle wise; Heart of Customer Care for Mobile Services; A truly CDR based billing system;
TIP
Table-driven Input Processor

Billing

Financials
Lock Box Collections

Usage Re-rater

RAP

LBX COM
Communication

MCAP

CAP
Accumulator and Rater

BIP
Bill Preparer

BIF
Bill Formatter

BID
Bill Dispatcher

EFT

COL

JNL
Journals

Guides Usage to Customer DB

Electronic CPM Funds Transfer Credit Card

MPS

TOP TAP3
Output Processor

GSM Billing: Cellone

The Kenan Billing system consists of-: Data Mediation; Order Management; (OM) Billing Platform (BP) Remedy (Fault Tracking System) Inter-Connect Billing; Customer driven network event collected by Mediation; Usage can be rated based on attributes,

GL System / Journals External payments EBPP System ECS(DD) / RBI Credit Cards Invoice Printing Receipt Printing
Kenan/OM Kenan/BP

Architecture of Kenan/BP
Network Elements
ICB

Mediation Provisioning

SIM PPC / Manufacturer

Remedy

B&CCS

Network Elements

WAN routers over E1 lines GUIs of BP, OM and Remedy

CSRs CSRs CSRs CSRs

The next step towards convergence..

CDR based Billing and Customer Care for Land-lines.

Country wide connectivity

DC and SSA Network Deployment Architecture

Local LAN Eth Swt 2950 To CSR Center Remote Rtr/Eth Ext 1841/Dax4021
L A N

Eth Swt 2950

To CSR

Remote Rtr/Eth Ext 1841/Dax4021

PSTN Switch

Exchange Rtr Cisco 2811

Exchange Rtr Cisco 2811

E1
Aggregation/Central Router Cisco 7500

To LEs

E1
PSTN Switch

To LEs Aggregation/Central Router Cisco 7500

To SSAs E1
Dial-up/ISDN
RAS Cisco AS5350
IBM Compatible

Internet

RAS Cisco AS5350 Internet Rtr Internet Rtr Cisco 7609 Cisco 7609

Pedge 1841

Pedge 1841

E1 To SSAs

AAA IBMCompatible Server

Ethernet Swt. II (Cisco 2950)

NIB-2 Network

Pedge 1841
I Eth Swt-I Cisco 6509

E3/STM-3
Firewall
Backbone Rtr Cisco 7609

Pedge 1841

NIDS

E3/STM-3

Backbone Rtr Cisco 7609 NIDS

Eth Swt-I Cisco 6509

Firewall

Data Center Infrastructure

Collection Methodology of CDRs

Eth S W I T C H

Firewall Firewall

NIDS

Data Center
E3/STM-1

Backbone Router

Backbone Router

Mediation System

E3/STM-1

SSA
Edge Rtr Edge Rtr

Edge Rtr

Edge Rtr Edge Rtr Edge Rtr

NIB MPLS VPN Network

E1

E1 Aggregation Router E1

Call Received

Aggregation Router E1 LE Router

LE Router

CDR Generated PSTN Swt.

Call Made

Call Completed

Local Exchange

PSTN Swt.

CES MTE CDOT

CDR Data Flow from LE to DC

X.25 X.25 over IP

PSTN Exchange Aggregation Central

PSTN Exchange Aggregation MPLS Cloud MPLS-VPN

NOC (DC) Remote Exchange CDR Collector

NOC (DR)

X.25 over IP

CDR Collector X.25

CDR Data Flow from LE to DC

PSTN Switch Exchange Router (Cisco 2811) PSTN Switch

X.25

Exchange Router (Cisco 2811)

Exchange Router (Cisco 2811)

Exchange Router (Cisco 2811)

PSTN Switch

Exchange Router (Cisco 2811)

PSTN Switch

Exchange Router (Cisco 2811)

CDR Collectors

Ser ia li n l k

Exchange Router (Cisco 2811)

Se ri a l lin k

X.25 over TCP/IP

E1 lin k

PE Router (Cisco 7613) PE Router (Cisco 7613)

PSTN Switch

Aggregation Router (Cisco 7507)

NIB-2 MPLS VPN Network

PE Router (Cisco 7613)

IP over MPLSVPN X.25 over TCP/IP

PSTN Switch

PE Router (Cisco 7613)

in k E1 l

PE Router (Cisco 7613)

Backbone Router (Cisco 7609) GigE Backbone Router (Cisco 7609) E3 / STM1 link

Data Center LAN

PE Router (Cisco 7613)

PE Router (Cisco 7613)

10/100 Ethernet Data Center Router (Cisco 7513) Data Center Router (Cisco 7513)

PSTN Switch

Aggregation Router (Cisco 7507)

PE Router (Cisco 7613)

Central Router (Cisco 7513)

X.25 or IP

CDR based Billing & Customer Care

Move from telephone based system to Customer based system Accurate and timely invoicing of call details to generate error free bills Supports different tariffs, different Billing cycles, different discounting schemes for different category of subscribers. Pre-paid and Post Paid integration possible Easy implementation of change in business policies and rules. Host of online services, online query and prompt customer response

CDR based Billing & Customer Care

CDR Data Flow from LE to DC

CDR based Billing & Customer Care

Online mediation of CDRs eliminates the need of bill data transportation, eliminating fraud on this account Proper accounting of payments & receivables for better financial management Standard and adhoc reporting on all aspects of the business Facilitate market studies and analyses for forming optimal sales strategies and assess business performance of self and partners, Churn analysis and prevention. Minimization of internal and external frauds System consolidation resulting in reduction of O&M cost.

Why Mediation System ?

Facilitates on line Collection, Processing & Distribution of raw CDRs & meter reading; Removes human interference between switching & billing system Provisioning of Subscriber Services Alarm Generation Support to Fraud Management & Control Single source of data for Interconnect Settlement, Retail Billing and Fraud Management;

Features of Mediation System

Sits between Network elements and BP Collection, Processing & Distribution of CDRs Selection & validation of CDRs Merging of Multiple CDRs Duplicate CDR detection Time gap detection Flexible processing & error handling of CDRs Database Lookup CDR collection Scheduling

Features of Mediation System

CDR collection Scheduling Monitoring of Active Jobs Maintenance of Logs (Event, Error etc) Elimination/Filtering of CDRs Data partitioning into different streams based on user-defined criteria Service Provisioning

Billing and Accounting

Creation and maintenance of tariff plans as per BSNLs requirements Ordering of services and activation of billing Maintenance of individual subscriber ledger accounts Payment noting. Maintenance of deposit accounts Subscriber hierarchies Contracts configuration

Billing and Accounting

Easily configurable rating plans Differential rating for CUG Special Calls, Frequent numbers, Friends and Family Tariff and product structures flexibly Ability to assign a unique tariff to each customer or same tariff to a group of customers. Special pricing based on dates to support holiday rates.

Billing and Accounting

Corporate billing Different methods of discounting Billing hierarchies Ability to provide taxes with respect to all charge types Ad hoc bill (Bill on Demand) Ability to charge late payment fees. Journal Creation and Posting to General Ledger Tight integration between the Billing Application and a CRM

CRM
Order Fulfillment to Billing Customer Call to Problem Resolution Marketing Campaign to Order Capture Integration with Order management, billing, CTI and IVRS, Provisioning systems and with all customer related subsystems Integration with Complaint Handling system Workflow Customer service through call centre, E-Mail, SMS, FAX, Web Self Care(WSC), letter

BSS - A Complete Solution

Claearing House or Other Sources

Printing System/ Print Vendor

Payment Interfaces Cr Card/Banks/Chq etc.

Web Self Care

AAA

Self Care

Payments
Content

Billing

Report Generation

Customer Care

Rating
Mediation

Inventory

Customer Care

Provisioning

DATABASE

Network

General Ledger System

Current Scenario
Today
Separate Service Networks
Services

Separate Access Transport & Switching Networks

PSTN/ISDN

INET other Data /IP Networks

PLMN

Problems of Existing network

Slow to develop new features and capabilities. Expensive upgrades and operating expenses. Proprietary vendor troubles Large power and cooling requirements. Limited migration strategy to New tech. Product/model obsolescence.

In other words CONVERGENCE is the need of the hour..

 The Convergence and requirement of fast deployment of new services at less cost .gives birth to NGN OR NEXT GENERATION NETWORKS

Present Day Networks

Next Generation Networks (NGN)

Internet
Workstation

Workstation

Gateways Wireless Telephone System

Integrated Services Over IP

Evolving towards IP Communications

NGN Concept
Customer
OSS OSS OSS OSS OSS Mobile NB Voice WAN Private Data Internet Video

Customer OSS

MPLS Core
Services Edge Multi-service Aggregation Deep Access

Today
Each service has its own network
Migrate

New Service Network

Seamless service linkage

Multiplied operational costs

Each network managed separately

All services over any access

One network for any service

No service interaction
Multiple customer profiles

Unified management structure

Single customer profile

NGN :Definition (As per ITU)

NGN is a packet based network which is able to provide telecom services and able to make use of multiple broadband, QoS enabled transport technologies in which service related functions are independent from underlying transport related technologies.

NGN :Definition (As per ETSI)

NGN is a concept for defining and deploying networks, which due to their formal separation into different layers and planes and use of open interfaces, offers service providers and operators a platform which can evolve in a step-by-step manner to create, deploy and manage innovative services.

Towards Convergent Billing

Transition to Convergent Services

Transition from static market environment to dynamic fastpaced innovation; From low speed to high speed. From divergence to convergence From local to global; From fixed to mobile(3G); From sometimes on to always on; From one-media to multi-media; From distinct to bundled; From circuit switched to packet based networks;

Traditional Billing vs Convergent Billing

Traditional billing systems are tied to individual technologies. Call detail records (CDRs) are generated by wireline voice switches. IP flow records are generated by Cisco routers. PVC(Permanent Virtual Connection) traffic history is gathered from ATM and Frame Relay devices. RADIUS accounting records monitor switched dial-up or ISDN Internet access, media through Cable network; At its core, convergent billing is the integration of all service charges onto a single customer invoice. Convergent billing means creating a unified view of the customer and all services provided to that customer for single-point customer care.

Why Convergent Billing?

Customers want to purchase many communications services from single provider; Customers want all services invoiced on a single consolidated bill. Receiving a single bill simplifies processing and payment for the customer. A unified bill enables cross-service discounts, so that customers who order multiple services can receive preferential pricing. Multi-service providers who successfully create a unified view of each customer gain a competitive edge that helps them hold onto existing customers and attract new ones.

Features of Convergent Billing

At the lowest level, Convergent billing involves gathering data in various formats, originating from diverse systems, and mediating it into a common format. One industry effort that may facilitate this is the standard IP detail record (IPDR) format being defined by IPDR.org. Options for Billing by second, byte (volume) or packet or Billing by Event. (these options can be mixed and matched with a flat fee in addition). Supports 3G services/VoIP/ circuit-switch for voice, Interconnect billing, etc.

Features of Convergent Billing

Decoupling

of service provision and network; Can separate network billing with Service billing; Supports multi-party billing; Unrestricted access by users to different service providers;

Features of Convergent Billing

Highly scalable; Can be customized (parents can pre-pay a part of the bill); Multi-service data collection and mediation possible; Flexible enough to bill by volume or content type or by event; Its versatility can be leveraged to use this as a strategic selling tool; VoIP/ IPTV gets a new lease of life in this environment, being cheap and content-rich. It can be the killer-application leveraged by Convergent billing; Pre-paid and Post-paid accounts unified; Service providers make a killing with Inter-connect billing, by using the state of the art Convergent Billing apps over those with older legacy billing systems;

Factors influencing Convergent Billing

Legacy Business Rules; Regulations regarding content, M-commerce, Copyright issues ); Competitions and ensuring level-playing field; Security and privacy issues; Affordability and pricing issues; New Technology, like 3G Mobile devices being used in place of credit cards; Inter-connect issues; Customer demands; Economy of scale;

Convergent Billing in Ubiquitous Societies

New Ubiquitous Societies

Advanced countries like Japan, South Korea, Singapore besides USA are fast moving towards an ubiquitous network society; Always available and Everywhere network; Merging of wire-line/ wireless/ DSL/ OFC network infrastructure;

New Ubiquitous Societies

Research and deployment in the following field to synergize with the converged network/ services:
- Microchip Network Technology; - Ubiquitous Network Authentication and Agent Technology; - Ubiquitous network control and management technology; - Radio-frequency identification (RFID)

Real-time Event based billing:

Each interactive device and activity can be billed in real-time, by using the robust features of the Convergent Billing Apps, based on volume, time, distance, quality of content and services or based on Event.

I skate to where the puck is going to be, not to where it has been. -Wayne Gretzky

thanks!
schatterji@bsnl.co.in