HP link helps Megisto awareness campaign

Megisto Systems, developer of an intelligent mobile service delivery system, said it has completed integration and testing with Hewlett-Packard’s OpenView Internet Usage Manager to support content-aware billing for mobile data services.

The successful integration is a significant validation of Megisto’s content-aware charging solution based on its Mobile Services Delivery System (MSDS), and also represents a step forward in the evolution of how carriers will bill users for data and other next-generation services, said Carol Politi, co-founder and vice president of marketing at Megisto Systems.

Currently, many mobile carriers charge per-byte or per-multi-byte packages for their data services, which is a confusing concept for users. “Charging per event based on what the content is makes it easier for the users. They’ll see what they are paying for and may be inspired to use the data services more because of that,” Politi said.

However, while mobile operators are trying to encourage use of their new data services, existing mobile networks seem woefully inflexible to the task of recognizing different types of data traffic, where it’s going, what kind of customers are using the service, or billing based on traffic type.

Megisto’s MSDS is an intelligent mobile IP service core that it molded around the concept of content-aware charging with support from carriers seeing demand for it. The MSDS can be deployed as an access control point in a mobile network with northbound interfaces to billing and mediation systems such as HP’s OpenView and others, Politi said.

“HP’s system is deployed in a lot of top-tier mobile operators, and now they can take our system into those operators,” she added.

While the idea of usage-based billing for mobile data services has gained acceptance around the world, particularly for SMS usage, most U.S. mobile carriers have been busy just building out their data footprints thus far, and haven’t recognized the need to identify the traffic on these networks, Politi said. “Our system can tell them what it is and where it’s going, and they can charge for it appropriately.”