Discover how advanced Business Support Systems are essential for telecom operators to successfully monetize 5G services through flexible billing, real-time charging, and comprehensive customer management.
The 5G monetization model is evolving into a far more complex billing model, more than what we have seen before in the Telecommunications Industry. The products and services using 5G are offered with so much variety and in different extended domains, that each offering is unique in itself and it requires to be monetized in its unique way.
Some of the examples of 5G based products and services are e-sim based data offerings, IoT based devices that are plugged into our cars, electric meters in houses that are connected to power companies with the use of SIM cards or even ATM machines in the nearby branches of a bank, and more. The applications and possibilities are endless.
The 5G based services providers are coming up with innovative ways of selling and charging the usage and their subscriptions. This places some unique demands on systems that are used for monetization, especially the telecom BSS systems. Let us understand what requirements the BSS systems need to cater to, in order to support end-of-end 5G business effectively.
BSS Systems or Business Support Systems are the software systems that cater to business side of the telecom system operations, covering a full range of functions starting from tracking prospects and leads in a CRM system, to managing quotes and contracts, to handling activation and provisioning, customer data management, order management, inventory management, rating and charging, invoicing, payment collection and more.
BSS systems need to be enterprise grade software systems, yet be able to offer a flexible billing platform. Monetizing 5G involves supporting a varying set of pricing models. There are clearly complex billing use cases, that go beyond simple subscription billing and offering pay as you go rates of the 4G era. The 5G service providers need flexibility to offer different packaging options to their customers.
The speeds that 5G networks offer can lead to more data usage and more downloads and uploads for the given time period compared to 4G. This can lead to an increased traffic volume which is at least 4x to 5x the traffic volumes handled by the BSS systems with 4G. The 5G BSS platforms must be generally scalable.
The BSS systems are well suited for monetizing 5G services, if they support real time billing, enterprise billing, complex billing and flexible billing. A BSS system is shown functioning in the diagram above. The diagram shows following important features of a full fledged BSS system that can help with 5G monetization:
A CRM system offered under a BSS captures customer data, allows tracking of a customer relationship from inception stage, through prospect status, to quotations, contracts and finally signing into a subscriber. This gives a lot of information and data about the customer and allows the 5G service provider to offer their future products and services accordingly.
The BSS systems offer OCS or Online Charging System which is crucial for 5G services using prepaid billing. The OCS system offers real time billing so that usage is updated online and subscribers are aware of their usage at all times. The OCS system can be configured to trigger automatic package add-ons and use automatic renewals of their plans. This gives flexibility to the subscriber to use their plans without the worry of exhaustion of their quota, and at the same time clear transparency of their usage.
Real-time billing ensures subscribers stay informed about their usage, preventing service interruptions and enhancing customer satisfaction.
The BSS systems support mediation of Call Data Records (CDR) into chargeable events that can be applied onto postpaid invoices. This mediation process is a backbone of a postpaid billing system. The usage of customers who use postpaid services is received from network switches into CDR files. The billing mediation module handles such CDR events and converts them into chargeable events.
BSS systems can provide automated invoicing and payment collection. This takes away much of the reconciliation efforts and accounting related efforts from the billing team.
These applications offer subscribers with convenient access to their own accounts. They can check their usage quotas, their usage consumption of various services, their invoices and payments. It is possible to securely make recharges or payments for their top-ups or invoices as the case may be.
The BSS systems generate a lot of meaningful information and data. This data can be used for analytics and financial reports. This gives useful insights to management to fine tune their offerings, their market strategies and device newer plan offerings.
"Less BSS issues, more time to innovate. A complete BSS system takes away much from the plate for 5G services providers to focus on delivering value."
A complete BSS system takes away much from the plate from a 5G services provider. Typically companies struggle with billing issues and networking issues and support calls. If a BSS implementation has not worked out well for them, a carefully carried out BSS implementation with a well suited system, can however have a critical role in ensuring business success.
Less the BSS issues, more time the companies will have to innovate and provide newer solutions.
EarnBill has many successful case studies where the system not only supported the business but went well over the stated goal to surpass the business objectives. Its formula for success has been an enterprise grade platform with flexibility of customization to meet client requirements. The quick time to market ensures 5G service providers get value for money by rolling out their business plans speedily to the market.
Roll out your 5G services faster with proven implementation methodologies.
Adapt the platform to your unique business requirements and pricing models.
Scalable architecture designed to handle 4-5x traffic volumes of 4G systems.
Backed by successful case studies and satisfied clients across industries.
The journey to successful 5G monetization requires more than just network infrastructure. It demands a powerful, flexible, and enterprise-grade BSS platform that can handle the complexity and scale of modern telecom services.
With the right BSS system in place, telecom operators can focus less on billing issues and more on innovation, delivering exceptional value to their customers while capturing new revenue opportunities in the 5G era.
Discover how EarnBill's enterprise BSS platform can help you unlock the full potential of 5G
