Convergent Prepaid Postpaid
Prepaid and postpaid services are typically handled separately within operator businesses. This means customers are often segmented according to their preferred payment method, rather than their lifestyle or usage. Another effect has been the introduction of separate support systems to manage the prepaid and postpaid customer bases, increasing operator costs and causing a fragmented view of customer value.
Traditional prepaid solutions (based on closed SCP/IN) are not suited to a multi-service networks environment. Martin Dawes Systems’ Convergent Prepaid Postpaid (CPP) solution provides a convergent platform that allows prepaid and postpaid customers to be managed through a single user interface and deliver additional – hybrid – functionality.
The introduction of hybrid billing enables multiple payment types to be set against a range of services for a single device or customer. To illustrate this from a business mobile user perspective, the allocation of payment methods and services might look as follows:
- Postpaid for standard voice and SMS, because the tariffs are transparent and the invoices predictable
- Prepaid for international voice and SMS, providing a greater degree of cost control
- Pay Now for content, charged to the mobile user’s personal credit card rather than the company account.
With hybrid billing, family and business accounts can contain both prepaid and postpaid users, with the postpaid accounts being used to top-up spend on the prepaid accounts. Bills can include statements of the prepaid calls attached to the account, making it possible to monitor and control usage, especially for children or employees.
