- Intec Telecom Systems has created The Futures Group, an internal research team established to research, monitor and predict future billing environments
- The Group will seek to identify how telcos will partner with content providers and structure the processes and billing economics of services such as video-on-demand and fee-based information in a world of infrastructure changes such as WAP, IP and unmetered Internet
April 13, Woking, England: Intec Telecom Systems, the world leader in inter-carrier interconnect billing solutions, has today announced at the international telecommunications event Billing 2000 in London, that it has created a strategic new division known as ‘The Futures Group.’
Building on the success of it’s partnering program, Intec’s Futures Group will solicit input from leading system integration, network providers and mediation companies as well as other leading industry figures and customers, to formulate the strategic direction of the company and product.
It predicts in particular that with the rise of IP and WAP technologies, telcos will become value-added distributors of information services to content providers rather than just remain mere carriers and capacity providers. It suggests that carriers will begin to partner with the content provider to provide a process for charging the private and business consumer for the services provided – perhaps via their ‘phone bill for the cost of the information purchased, rather than simply by connection time as now.
While the above idea may not in itself be new, one of the goals of The Futures Group is to define exactly how value based charging might work; e.g. the interconnect charging processes necessary as different carriers transport the information and the billing solutions needed.
“The Intec Futures Group predicts that Telco’s, rather than content providers, will take control of the charging processes involved in billing for WAP and IP information services,” said Richard McBride, Director, Strategic Futures. “This will benefit the consumer by simplifying the payment experience and benefit the content provider by making its information easy to buy. The complexity comes in that telcos and content providers need to partner and build billing strategies and solutions that make such a fee-based operating and charging structure possible - Intec is intent on ensuring the provision of such solutions for its customers, that they may hold a competitive edge. Our research will feed into Intec’s product development programme.”
Looking to the future in an IP world, Intec has also recently attained membership of the IPDR (Internet Protocol Detail Record). The body seeks to agree an industry standard for recording the transactional information necessary to bill for IP-based services. It is recognised that without a standard the swift and efficient transport of IP-based information services across multiple networks will be threatened. Intec has also formed a partnership with XACCT, a leading provider of intelligent business infrastructure solutions for IP networks, with the objective of enabling Intec to rate IP mediated traffic.
The IPDR
The IPDR effort involves a collaborative team of leading Internet system integrators, network providers, and billing, mediation and equipment vendors. IPDR working group membership is open to everyone in the Internet community. The main goal of the initiative is to reach consensus for the IPDR prototype definition, and submit the prototype to the appropriate accredited standards body (or bodies) for acceptance. www.ipdr.org
XACCT Technologies
Headquartered in Santa Clara, Calif., XACCT Technologies, Inc., develops anew class of intelligent software solutions that enable Service Providers to design and deploy innovative, revenue-generating programs and services. XACCT markets its software directly and through network systems integrators to Service Providers and Fortune 1000 companies. A privately held corporation, XACCT is funded by venture capital investors. More information at www.xacct.com