Using billing to compete in a developing wireless market

Tata Teleservices Limited is relying on a new real-time billing solution from vendor Telcordia to help the current CDMA-based operator launch a new GSM prepaid service into India’s crowded and competitive wireless market.

Tata already uses Telcordia’s Real-Time Charging platform on its CDMA network, which services 40 million subscribers. The operator is expanding its offering with a new GSM-based network, with network gear provided via a partnership Tata has in place with Japanese telecom operator NTT Docomo.

Telcordia serves the Indian market through Telcordia Technologies India, which it established in 2006, including Telcordia India Labs, which provides dedicated software services to Indian operators. “India as a market is really growing quite a bit right now, it’s the largest growth market in the world exceeding even China,” said Anuj Kapur, country head, service delivery solutions, for Telcordia India.

Among the innovations that Tata is relying on to compete with its new GSM services is so-called “single-second billing,” which the operator is promoting as a cost savings versus competing services which round up usage billing to the nearest minute in the case of a short or dropped call, said Kapur. Tata is also using the real-time billing platform to do things like send out real-time notifications of usage levels and delivering promo offers based on subscriber usage patterns, such as upselling SMS service, he said.

While in a high-growth phase, operators often focus on network buildout above all, but as a service area matures and competition and churn become a bigger factor, using rating and billing platforms to improve marketing and customer service becomes a major differentiator – even in developing markets like India, said Telcordia’s Kapur.  India is largely a prepaid market, which means that aggressive discounting and promotion can have a big impact on customer loyalty, he said.

Telcordia Real-Time Charging is part of the Telcordia Service Delivery Suite, a platform that includes real-time charging, policy control and service creation tools to help operators build personalized services.