Prepaid, Postpaid and Real-Time Charging on One Platform
Convergent billing sounds simple on a slide. In practice it means a prepaid balance, a postpaid invoice and a hybrid plan all agreeing with each other, every second of the day. Here is where we have done it.
The short version
EarnBill has delivered convergent billing in three different shapes: hybrid billing for an Australian MVNO (plan fees in advance, usage in arrears on one invoice), real-time prepaid charging for AdenNet in Yemen (an on-premise OCS answering millions of balance checks a day over RADIUS, with Diameter supported), and triple-play TV, internet and phone billing for an operator in Gibraltar.
Three kinds of convergence we have run in production
Hybrid billing: Australian MVNO
Every plan combined a prepaid element and a postpaid one. The monthly plan fee was charged in advance, and calls, SMS and data were charged in arrears from carrier CDRs. Both sat on one invoice, with call credits, data pools and SMS usage alerts tracking the balance in between. Read the case study.
Real-time prepaid: AdenNet, Yemen
AdenNet sells SIM-based 4G mobile data on prepaid. Their previous cloud billing system could not answer balance checks fast enough, so sessions failed. We deployed EarnBill with its OCS on-premise. The network gateway sends usage over RADIUS, the OCS also accepts Diameter, and balance checks now come back in milliseconds, with capacity for two to three times the subscriber base. Recharges come in from the major Yemeni banks, and front-desk staff work in an Arabic portal. Read the case study.
Triple-play: Gibraltar
TV, internet and phone for the same household, billed together, with set-top box provisioning tied into the billing workflow. One customer, one account, one bill.
How the pieces fit
| Model | How it is charged | Where we have run it |
|---|---|---|
| Prepaid | Balance reserved and debited in real time by the OCS | AdenNet, Yemen; Australian NBN and broadband provider |
| Postpaid | Usage rated from CDRs and invoiced at the end of the cycle | Australian MVNO; B2B telecom VAS (US, UK, Singapore) |
| Hybrid | Plan fee in advance, usage in arrears, one invoice | Australian MVNO |
| Multi-service | Several services on one account and bill | Gibraltar triple-play; Australian MVNO (mobile, fixed, VoIP, internet) |
What this work taught us
- Convergence has to be native. When prepaid and postpaid live in two systems joined by an integration, the customer's balance and the invoice drift apart. One rating engine and one account model avoid that.
- Put the OCS close to the network. AdenNet's problem was not capacity, it was round-trip time to a cloud service. On-premise charging fixed it.
- Migrate balances, not just customers. Wallet balances and remaining data quotas have to carry over exactly at cut-over, or subscribers notice on day one.
- Front-line staff are users too. Recharges, plan upgrades and downgrades at the counter needed a simple portal in the local language, with agent and supervisor roles.
Questions operators ask us
What is convergent billing?
Convergent billing charges prepaid, postpaid and hybrid services, often across several products, from one rating engine and one customer account, so the customer gets one balance view and one invoice. Our convergent billing guide goes deeper.
Can one customer have prepaid and postpaid services on the same account?
Yes. EarnBill keeps prepaid balances and postpaid charges on the same account and brings them together on one invoice.
Which protocols does EarnBill's online charging system support?
Diameter and RADIUS. At AdenNet the network gateway sends usage to the EarnBill OCS over RADIUS, and balance checks are answered in milliseconds. See the online charging system.
Keep reading
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