So-called intercarrier billing involves calculating services between different carriers or upstream suppliers and checking control invoices.
Why do telcos need intercarrier billing?
End customers make calls via landline or mobile either within Germany, Europe or even to non-European countries. To do this, the calls must run over the networks of other carriers or telephone companies. In return, people from abroad also make phone calls to Germany or make calls within Germany.
The providers must bill each other for access to their networks.
What is special about intercarrier billing?
Interconnection points, zoning, different service types and tariff times are crucial for mutual billing.
The carrier receives an invoice from the (non-)EU telephone company. He must cross-check this and compare it with the regulated rate. The carrier in turn creates an invoice for access to its own network.
For international calls (non-EU) by the end customer, the prices are shown according to a corresponding country classification, so-called OBR zones - Origin Based Rating. The peak and peak-off method is also relevant in the calculation. Peak-off means the use of the network outside regular business hours, i.e. Mon-Fri from 8:00 p.m. to 8:00 a.m. as well as on weekends and national holidays. The peak procedure includes business hours on weekdays from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. The prices for the services are fixed.
An appropriately prepared intercarrier tariff model is essential for displaying the different prices and services. The billing solution from dimari GmbH includes all tariff options and can always be flexibly adapted to regulatory requirements.
Software-supported billing is important
In order to achieve the highest possible level of automation in billing, appropriate Billing Software is necessary.
First, the invoices from carriers from non-EU countries must be cross-checked. The consistency check is carried out via the mediation module varioMediate. The integrated OBR zones allow errors to be identified and data correctness to be checked. The creation of control invoices, so-called shadow invoices, enables a direct comparison.
If other carriers use your own network, billing is based on the OBR zones.