On top of the bill

摘要

When the UK telecommunications regulator, Oftel, announced its proposal for revising the standard that governs metering, there were, as was expected, some rumblings of discontent. Comments from operators ranged from questioning the exact definition of charging to technological complexities that would arise in attempts to meet the new standard. Pioneering telcos recalled the difficulties experienced back in the early 90s when the original metering approval was introduced. However, the contours of the industry have changed dramatically since then with many more operators providing far more diverse services. Gone are the days when a monolithic BT with a virtual monopoly simply offered plain old telephony. Today there are more than 490 operators licensed by Oftel and it became evident that the need forthird-party assessment of metering and now billing is growing rapidly as the number of services mushrooms. For example, metered telephone traffic now includes voice, data and Internet access and billing includes subscriptions, discounts and voucher telephones. As Paul Fegan, chairman of the billing special interest group of the Communications Management Association, says: "Metering and billing has become hugely complicated because of the number of different services which are now available."