You are on page 1of 14

The Operator Guide to

G P R S
Enabling Technologies
by Rick Allen
A brave new world of billing page 1 of 14

◆ Up

C History Back A brave new world of billing


1 Search

@MOTOROLA
° Results List
By Rick Allen – Business Development Manager, Logica
) Next Hit

( Prev Hit
GPRS is about to trigger an explosion in mobile data services. However,
 First Page
without an effective charging system in place, operators risk missing out on a
 Prev Page
massive opportunity.
 Next Page

he mobile world is undergoing a seismic shift. services will come when the new, packet-based,
 Last Page
T Until now it has been all about voice GPRS (General Packet Radio Services) data
¬ Print communications—but very soon that is set to networks are deployed in GSM networks.

³ Directory
change. A brave new world is almost upon us
which will have far-reaching consequences for
The shift to mobility for services will have
an enormous impact on every aspect of people’s
U Exit
mobile operators around the world. And what is professional and personal lifestyles. Personalised
this fundamental change? Mobile data, of course. and localised services, easily accessible via a
Today, data services using a mobile phone mobile phone, will bring new levels of
represent a small fraction of total usage. Use of convenience to customers wherever they are.
short message services (SMS) has been growing This will bring a whole new dimension to the
steadily, but the real take-off for mobile data and concept of ‘service’ industry.
The Operator Guide to

G P R S
Enabling Technologies
by Rick Allen
A brave new world of billing page 2 of 14

GSM operators are eagerly investigating to offer. Much is made of the fact that the new

◆ Up
mobile data services for the extra level of
differentiation they need to contend with their
packet data networks will enable connection to
the Internet and to Internet portals, in effect
C History Back
competitors’ offerings. They understand that giving you Yahoo! and the like on your phone.
1 Search there is a crucial, time-to-market element in
offering these services. Whoever gets there first,
The operator is the provider of a ‘data pipe’ that
operates via the mobile phone. What this model

@MOTOROLA
° Results List
and with the best set, will gain substantial, fails to take into account, however, are three
) Next Hit
increased market share. important points.
( Prev Hit Implementing GPRS networks and services The first is that, if someone is using a
 First Page presents new business and technical challenges
for network operators, network vendors,
network solely as an access ‘pipe’, then that
network business is commodity-based and will
 Prev Page
systems integrators and software product suffer from all the problems of a commodity
 Next Page developers alike. Not only are new, packet-based
data networks required, but also a wider and
business—in particular low margins and multiple
competing sources of supply. This is not to say
 Last Page
more complex range of skills and capabilities if that the data pipe business is not wanted. Of
¬ Print such networks are to be successfully delivered. course it is, and it will no doubt form a good
The big question on the minds of portion of the ‘data bits’ revenue of any GPRS
³ Directory
operators is how to bill for these new services. network; especially from the corporates who
U Exit This is a very important question—although want always-on mobile access to company
there are other, equally important ones that need systems. But a network will be standing on truly
to be asked before the issue of billing is even shaky ground if this is its only means of
considered. generating revenue from mobile data services.
It is essential to start with a clear Sounds like scaremongering? It is already
understanding of the type and range of services happening with consumer wireless data services
The Operator Guide to

G P R S
Enabling Technologies
by Rick Allen
A brave new world of billing page 3 of 14

in the US. The Palm VII, which has wireless precious access to customers away to someone

◆ Up
capability enabled by a small flip-up aerial, should
be sounding alarm bells for every operator. It
else? In the wacky world of Internet IPOs, each
portal customer is valued at $1000 in terms of
C History Back
offers, for a monthly fee, access to a range of market capitalisation—and these are businesses
1 Search wireless data services which are shown on its
screen as icons. Which network delivers this US-
that would seem to be miles away from making a
profit.

@MOTOROLA
° Results List
wide wireless access? Who knows? Who cares? There is a huge new business opportunity
) Next Hit
Bulk wireless deals, a true commodity, are sitting there in the existing customer base of
( Prev Hit underpinning this service delivery. The important every operator in the world.
 First Page element is the person who is holding the Palm.
This leads to the second important point:
What should operators offer on their
portal that will convince customers to choose it
 Prev Page
the mobile phone screen, which sits in every over a Palm VII approach?The answer is a range
 Next Page customer’s hand and shows the network’s name.
This should be the portal itself. Why give this
of personalised and localised services that offer
real convenience to someone on the move.
 Last Page

¬ Print

³ Directory

U Exit
The Operator Guide to

G P R S
Enabling Technologies
by Rick Allen
A brave new world of billing page 4 of 14

The Network Operator as "Lifestyle Portal"


◆ Up
Games,

C History Back
Voice
multiplayer
games

1 Search
Mail
Location
To

@MOTOROLA
specific
° Results List
SMS
services search
broker

)
&
Next Hit Network Portal Profiled
services
databases

(
Home Page news, shares
Prev Hit E-commerce

 First Page Fax


Self-
provisioning
Service
activation

 Prev Page Text to


Speech
service
enquiries
billing
customer
care

 Next Page
Email
"Wireless
Internet"

 Last Page
Access

¬ Print Supplied within the Operator's network

³ Directory Figure 1 - The lifestyle portal


U Exit
Customers should consider these services to be time, to be a rather small piece of screen real
useful and highly desirable. They will need to be estate.
implemented quickly and the charging needs to The key is to supply these services from
be right. It is also vital to ensure that what is within the network, or seemingly from within the
displayed works well on what is likely, for some network, and under the control of the operator.
The Operator Guide to

G P R S
Enabling Technologies
by Rick Allen
A brave new world of billing page 5 of 14

Why? Because of the third important point, charge. They may be free to the customer but

◆ Up
which is the acquisition of financial transactions.
Being simply a portal isn't enough, it's
funded by advertising.
There may be information and location
C History Back
official. Late last year Yahoo! Inc launched an services which lead naturally to a purchase—for
1 Search advertising campaign aimed at persuading its 105
million non-paying customers to use the portal
example, cinema and sport tickets, taxis and
small-value services. These will require

@MOTOROLA
° Results List
for web shopping. According to the Wall Street applications developed by the operator or
) Next Hit
Journal, the small fraction of Yahoo! users who supplied by partners. The cost of the data call
( Prev Hit buy goods via the company’s retail shopping site may be very small, but the percentage of the
 First Page spent US$100million with affiliated retailers, who
in turn paid Yahoo a fee for bringing Internet
financial transaction it generates could be worth
10 times, 100 times or 1000 times its value.
 Prev Page
users to them. The company’s shares rose by The essential point is that business models
 Next Page 81.25 cents, taking its market capitalisation to
US$45.3billion.
for the mobile world are set to change, and quite
soon. Questions need to be asked such as: What
 Last Page
The portal attracts the customer, but it is business are we in? Is it communications, content
¬ Print essential to do more. The opportunity is there to or commerce? Where are we in the value chain?
become a trusted brand which offers a range of Who do we bill? Whose is the customer? If it is
³ Directory
quality-controlled services, backed up by help- not our customer we are billing then how viable
U Exit desk support and a guarantee that any financial is our future? Can we survive as a data pipe
transaction performed on the portal service is provider? Can we capture e-commerce
secure and backed by the operator. transactions and grow our business that way?
Of course, many services will consist of How much like the Internet business model do
information, which may or may not be free of we become?
The Operator Guide to

G P R S
Enabling Technologies
by Rick Allen
A brave new world of billing page 6 of 14

◆ Up

C History Back

1 Search

@MOTOROLA
° Results List

) Next Hit

( Prev Hit

 First Page

 Prev Page

 Next Page

 Last Page

¬ Print

³ Directory

U Exit
Figure 2 - Revenue flows from data services
The business models and relationships will is critical that the underlying billing and mediation
become more and more complex. Revenue and systems allow any and all of the above business
risk-sharing models will become more prevalent. models, along with the ability to move quickly
Complication looks to be the order of the day. It from one to another.
The Operator Guide to

G P R S
Enabling Technologies
by Rick Allen
A brave new world of billing page 7 of 14

Let us assume however that all goes well. node) that operates in a similar (but not identical)

◆ Up
The new services and partnerships are in place,
the marketing programmes are worked out, the
manner to a GSM switch. This connects the
handset to the Internet and to intranets and data
C History Back
sales channels are primed, the business processes services—the bright and wonderful world of IP.
1 Search are re-engineered to deal with the new business
models and the new portal is up and running.
The major change is that, to enable the
operator to charge for usage of this new

@MOTOROLA
° Results List
Let’s look at what happens to enable billing for network, five new types of call data records
) Next Hit
usage of the new services from the network (CDRs) will be generated. These new CDRs will
( Prev Hit GPRS packet-data networks are an add-on be collected from the GPRS support nodes
 First Page to existing GSM voice networks. They use the
same base stations but with a software upgrade,
(GSNs) by a charging gateway function (CGF)
where they are collated, filtered and formatted
 Prev Page
and the handset communicates with a local base for onward transmission to billing systems.
 Next Page station over the radio interface in a similar
manner to that of a GSM voice network. The call
Under what circumstances are the different
CDRs generated?
 Last Page
is then routed to an SGSN (server GPRS support
¬ Print

³ Directory

U Exit
The Operator Guide to

G P R S
Enabling Technologies
by Rick Allen
A brave new world of billing page 8 of 14

◆ Up

C History Back

1 Search

@MOTOROLA
° Results List

) Next Hit

( Prev Hit

 First Page

 Prev Page

 Next Page

 Last Page

¬ Print

³ Directory

U Exit Figure 3 - The mobile packet data network


Once the handset is connected to the provisioned in the home location register (HLR).
SGSN (serving GSN), the SGSN identifies the The SGSN routes the connection to a GGSN
destination of the connection by looking up an (gateway GSN) that acts as a gateway to the
access point name (APN). Each subscriber will be requested service.
able to access up to 50 services via APNs The data packets are routed between the
The Operator Guide to

G P R S
Enabling Technologies
by Rick Allen
A brave new world of billing page 9 of 14

mobile handset and the remote host via the creation of two additional types of CDR in the

◆ Up
SGSN and GGSN. This connection is known as a
packet data protocol context (PDP context), and
SGSN, depending on whether the message is
mobile-originated (MO) or mobile-terminated
C History Back
up to seven of these may be established at any (MT).
1 Search time by a single subscriber. The SGSN allocates a
‘unique charging ID’ to each session on activation
Where this differs from a circuit-switched
connection is that S and G CDRs have what is

@MOTOROLA
° Results List
of the PDP context. known as traffic data volumes (TDVs). These are
) Next Hit
The key differences between this and a ‘containers’ which record the volume of traffic
( Prev Hit circuit-switched connection are that network transmitted under different charging conditions.
 First Page resources are not used when data is not being
transmitted, and the customer has always-on,
These conditions may change when the quality of
service (QoS) changes, when a new tariff period
 Prev Page
instant access to services. Calls may last for an starts or when a time period expires. The GSNs
 Next Page indefinite period with data communication taking
place for only a small fraction of that time.
will write data to one of 12 TDV fields in their
CDRs whether or not the connection has
 Last Page
Because of this, the GPRS networks produce the completed.
¬ Print five CDR types, which contain a range of These fields can continue to be populated
information that may be used by network during the course of the day, or the S or G-CDRs
³ Directory
operators as a basis for charging. can be released for processing whilst another
U Exit The S-CDR collects all information relating CDR is built up. Certain criteria, such as an
to usage of the handset, the G-CDR collects the incoming voice call or an SGSN handover due to
information relating to usage of the remote mobility, can also cause the release of CDRs.
network services and the M-CDR provides The charging gateway function—or GPRS
location and mobility information. Any short mediation—is what is needed to collect the
messages transmitted over GPRS cause the usage information. It is the foundation for billing,
The Operator Guide to

G P R S
Enabling Technologies
by Rick Allen
A brave new world of billing page 10 of 14

and is useful even for prepaid where it can tell new type of network. There is no doubt it will be

◆ Up
the customer post-event how he was debited.
The debate is whether to collect all, some
a major challenge to reduce the numerous types
of CDRs down to one chargeable record. The
C History Back
or none of this information. The answer to that key difficulty will be in collating all the various
1 Search depends on the business model and the charging
methods that are adopted. Collecting all of the
CDRs from the PDP context into one meaningful
‘session’ that can be passed on for billing.

@MOTOROLA
° Results List
CDRs allows the flexibility to discard anything Should data CDRs be passed into the
) Next Hit
that does not support the current business existing voice systems? Voice mediation and
( Prev Hit model. It enables the full spectrum of billing billing systems are a stable delivery channel for
 First Page scenarios and maintains the flexibility to support
future business models—including the ones that
that profit-generating engine, the GSM voice
network. The new data services are as yet an
 Prev Page
haven’t been thought of yet. It also enables the unknown quantity in terms of take-up, their
 Next Page input of valuable usage data into systems other
than billing—such as network planning, fraud
ability to generate profits and their level of
complexity.
 Last Page
prevention, churn analysis and marketing and Is it a good idea to load this potentially
¬ Print data warehousing for detailed. huge number of data CDRs with their complex
Mediating the CDRs from the GPRS processing requirements onto an existing, and
³ Directory
network into a billing system will not be easy. stable, profit generator? It would seem a lower-
U Exit Quite apart from the five CDR types with their risk approach to implement a separate mediation
new data fields, it is anticipated that volumes will stream for data outside of the voice stream,
be enormous. The average generation of voice which would reduce CDR quantities to a
CDRs per customer is three per day, while for manageable level without affecting existing voice
data a daily rate of between 20 and 50 CDRs is platforms.
expected. These are all new CDR types, and a GPRS network mediation does not deal
The Operator Guide to

G P R S
Enabling Technologies
by Rick Allen
A brave new world of billing page 11 of 14

with content CDRs. These will also need to be charging models which will include volume-based

◆ Up
collected and combined with data usage CDRs to
give a complete picture of the service used. It is
charging, content value charging and charging by
‘service access points’; links to an external
C History Back
not certain that all the data generated by a GPRS network or service. In addition there are
1 Search network will be useful for charging. But one thing
is certain—until its usefulness is determined, it
elements of new business models which include
the acquisition of e-commerce transactions,

@MOTOROLA
° Results List
must be easily available and capable of being advertising and trading systems for revenue
) Next Hit
processed by the network operator’s customer allocation. These are ‘off-network’ services that
( Prev Hit care and billing system. need to be combined with data usage charges.
 First Page Success here demands a clear
understanding of the operational issues involved
The network operator provisions the
access point names for each subscriber on the
 Prev Page
and a strong technical solution for dealing with GSM HLR when the subscriber contracts for the
 Next Page them. The traditional charging models for
services in a circuit-switched environment are
service. Types of access point include Internet
service providers (ISPs), corporate networks,
 Last Page
well understood. Charges are typically based on mail servers, broadcast services (news, stock
¬ Print such parameters as duration of call, time of day, exchange, etc.), telemetry (reading remote
location of called and calling parties, subscriber- meters, controlling remote plant, etc.) and
³ Directory
specific tariffs and discount plans. There are a gaming zones.
U Exit large number of customer care and billing Clearly, these kinds of service differ widely
systems on the market capable of charging for and data transferred through them will have
calls according to these criteria. different content value and will consequently be
However, the advent of packet-based data charged differently. Typical charging bases would
services means a move towards the tariffing be subscription (for example, monthly fee), event
models of the datacoms world. This involves new (fixed charge each time the service is used),
The Operator Guide to

G P R S
Enabling Technologies
by Rick Allen
A brave new world of billing page 12 of 14

volume of data (size of file transmitted) and of several. It is clear that while services and their

◆ Up
connect time. The service from the different
access point types may either be charged on one
charging base combinations may vary, the key
requirement is the ability to bill easily and
C History Back
of the suggested charging bases or a combination flexibly.
1 Search

@
° Results List

) Next Hit Figure 4 – Charging Bases for GPRS


( Prev Hit
Service Subscription Event Volume Duration Content QoS
 First Page

ISP access ✓ X ✓ X X ✓
 Prev Page

✓ ✓ ✓
 Next Page Corporate
networks
X X X

 Last Page

MOTOROLA
Mail server ✓ X ✓ X X X
¬ Print

³ Directory Broadcast
services
X ✓ X X ✓ X

U Exit

Telemetry ✓ ✓ X X X X

Games X X X ✓ ✓ ✓
The Operator Guide to

G P R S
Enabling Technologies
by Rick Allen
A brave new world of billing page 13 of 14

Some services may be charged by such as a periodic subscription charge as well as a

◆ Up
subscription only, which means that CDRs will
not be rated. Services charged by event will
usage charge.
There will also be charges made on the
C History Back
require CDRs to have a fixed charge based on basis of location. Location-based, or ‘home-
1 Search the service used. Short message services are
likely to be charged on this basis.
zone’, billing will become increasingly important
as operators drive for wireline replacement

@MOTOROLA
° Results List
Some services may be charged by the minutes and to provide services to corporates by
) Next Hit
volume of data transferred, either up or down, office locations.
( Prev Hit from or to, the GPRS user. This rating will be All these different types of charging will
 First Page determined by multiplying the data volume unit
rate by the number of data volume units
require an extremely flexible rating engine, which
may well exceed the capabilities of the rating
 Prev Page
transferred. This rate may vary according to time components for existing voice billing systems.
 Next Page band and the quality of service. The CDRs will
contain segments indicating the data volumes
Another likely requirement will be to combine all
the different voice and data services, including
 Last Page
transferred within designated timebands and by financial transactions, to provide a single bill for
¬ Print QoS. the customer. The methods of charging for GPRS
Some services may still be charged on the will vary between operators and service
³ Directory
basis of the duration of the connected session. providers and will change as the market evolves.
U Exit This would be done in the traditional fashion by There are, however, two common requirements
multiplying a time unit rate (normally the cost per whatever method is chosen: the abilities to
second) by the number of time units used. The charge flexibly and to change quickly as the
rate could be varied by timeband to provide peak business and markets dictate. Moreover,
and off-peak charging. Some services are likely to operators must be able to bill for GPRS services
require a combination of these charging bases, flexibly from day one.
The Operator Guide to

G P R S
Enabling Technologies
by Rick Allen
A brave new world of billing page 14 of 14

To recap, the four key questions facing an lower cost, on a small scale to match the initial

◆ Up
operator looking to bill for data services on GPRS
are:
take-up of the services. It can provide the ability
to bill for any type of data service or business
C History Back
1. What types of tariff plans and charges can I model from day one, and combine them with
1 Search make, and will be accepted by customers and
content providers, so that I gain the maximum
voice or any other service into a single bill.
It is tactical, enables experimentation, and

@MOTOROLA
° Results List
market share and return on my investment? is most likely the quickest time-to-market route
) Next Hit
2. How do I combine voice, data usage, for the new types of data service billing. As the
( Prev Hit subscriptions and financial transactions into market matures and experience is gained of the
 First Page one bill for the customer?
3. What changes are needed to my existing
right charging models for different types of
services and customers, then the scale of any
 Prev Page
billing infrastructure to bill for these new changes needed to the existing infrastructure can
 Next Page types of data services and business models?
4. How do I make these changes quickly enough
be much more accurately gauged.
The future will be fast-moving, more and
 Last Page
to be able to match the changes in the more like the Internet, and the ability to react to
¬ Print market, with the minimum impact on my it more quickly and more effectively than the
existing systems? competitors will be crucial.
³ Directory
Rather than investing significant sums in Billing is a key function. Applied wisely, it is
U Exit changing the existing voice billing infrastructure an important enabler and a profit engine for the
straight away, it is possible to implement a new data services. Applied badly, it will be the
flexible, data services-based billing system for one vital element in the value chain that holds the
GPRS customers. This can be delivered at much rest of the business back. ■

You might also like