App stores, 'bill shock' drive billing evolution

 

 

It's not that operators don't have the technology to integrate real-time billing systems with network policy. All four major US carriers offer overage protection services to family plan customers, most selling it for $2 to $5 per month; Sprint Nextel Corp. is the only one of the four to offer it free of charge.

 

The services enable parents to create custom restrictions for their children on calls, texts, data usage, content purchases and handset features. The controls shut down service under a variety of policies -- based on usage, time and/or phone numbers -- while allowing usage to reopen for emergency calls or an approved list of contacts.

 

More intelligent OSS and real-time billing systems can apply policy and enable the network to make that possible, according to Joanne Steinberg, marketing director at Bridgewater Systems, a vendor of "mobile personalization" software.

 

Bridgewater's myPolicy platform -- launched last year and in use by one undisclosed European carrier -- is a smartphone application that works with a policy controller in the carrier's core network to make decisions based on real-time billing information, Steinberg said. Users track and set dollar or megabyte limits from their handset, deciding when to alert or cut themselves off.

 

Last year, the European Union passed a "bill shock" law that caps roaming voice and data charges by European carriers, but US carriers are under no obligation -- yet -- to be proactive about cutting off service when customers go over their plan limits.

 

Responding to consumer uproar over the recent $18,000 Verizon Wireless billing standoff, regulators have elbowed their way into the issue. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced last week that it would seek comments on whether carriers should be required to alert customers to -- or prevent -- bill shock caused by unwitting data overages.

 

The real-time billing services offered by US carriers are notably optional services for a reason, said Deepa Karthikeyan, senior analyst at Current Analysis. "In my opinion, carriers are not automatically sending out alerts, because they would lose a chunk of revenue from overage charges," she said. "While dramatic bills like the $18,000 Verizon Wireless one usually go away," Karthikeyan said, "I suspect that users are required to fork up smaller overage charges."

 

Now that carriers have gotten a taste of revenue from selling overage protection plans, they may be unlikely to offer it widely as a standard automated service, according to Kaufman.

 

"I don't hear the carriers talking about that being a big priority for them," she said. "All of the family usage tools are probably of more interest to the operators because they can charge people for it … [and] 70% of carrier subscribers are part of family services."