FLEXCAB 101

An introduction to Wholesale Billing Concepts (via FLEXCAB)

DME Ref: 65620

Steve Ballinger ITS Billing Delivery Centre September 2004
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Topics/ Contents
Terminology/Buzzwords. Types of CHURN/ Wholesale Billing. Key Applications involved. Future of Wholesale Billing.

To remember.

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Terminology - 1
Carrier: A provider of Telco services that owns network infrastructure. (Remember. Telstra can only bill charges when it is the carrier) Rebiller/Reseller : Non-carrier providers of telecommunications services. Resellers utilise equipment owned by carriers such as Telstra. Service Provider: An organisation supplying Telco services. (Could be a carrier or a reseller) Churn: any process where a customer can transfer their service/account to and from Telstra Retail.
Types: Commercial Churn : When the lessee details on a service are changed to a Reseller. (Also called Change of Lessee COL) LNP (Local Number Portability): When a customer decides to take their service to another carrier but still retain their phone number. LinxOnline eBill (formerly known as The Wholesale Billing Platform) Telstras preferred/current infrastructure for billing Resellers an enhancement to FLEXCAB.

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Terminology - 2
Port: When a customer opts to transfer a service(s) from one carrier to another, retaining the same service number. Preselection: The process whereby customers choose a default carrier for certain call types (currently long distance). NTAC (Non Telstra Access Customers). Customers who ported to another carrier (or signed on to another carrier in the first instance). Telstra sometimes needs to bill such customers if they make override calls via the Telstra network.

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Who is the customer?

Own Use
Telstra (TW)

Commercial Churn or eBill

Telstra (TW)

Reseller

The Customer

End user
(But could be a part of a large company)

End user The Customer

End user

End user

These guys are not Telstras customers Their privacy is therefore extra important.
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Basic Concepts eBill

LinxOnline eBill involves the creation of a purpose built operational platform to allow the redirection of billing for usage, OCC and Service and Equipment charges to a service provider chosen by the End User. eBill provides service providers with: An electronic interface for automated processing of customer redirection requests. A Daily Event File (DEF) of selected usage, OC&C and Service and Equipment charges. An electronic Monthly Invoice containing summarised charges and an inventory section to verify data transmitted on the DEFs for that month. Daily completion notification of Product Package Redirection requests. Information that allows service providers to create and maintain their own End User Service Equipment inventory. Daily notification of OC&C charges and Service Ons and Offs.
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eBill Scope
LinxOnline eBill provides for billing redirection of fixed line voice services and most data services.

eBill does not include Mobile services however these are supported via a separate Daily File provided to the Service Provider
Some Telstra Retail specific products, eg. override calls & packaged offerings, are excluded from eBill however the service to which they apply may still be transferred to the Service Provider.

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Billing Process Commercial Churn/Change of Lessee

Service Provider

Customer Billing Data

Churn Interface (MCSS)

Call Record

Message Collection

Call Record Daily Processing

Call Data Base (CDA)

Monthly

FLEXCAB Bill Cycle Process

Call Data Base (EBDS)

OBS Bill Process

AAL

(MCSS)

(UPS)

(Agreed Accounts List)

Note. As at Sept 2004, only 2 customers remain on COL.But they are big ones (Optus and AAPT)

Service Provider

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Billing Process eBill

Customer Billing Data Call Record

Churn Interface

Message Collection (MCSS)

Call Record Processing (UPS)

Daily

Call Data Base (CDA)

Monthly

FLEXCAB Bill Cycle Process

Service Provider

Daily Daily Charges Format

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Billing Hierarchy COL

Customer - Optus Corp. Customer Steve B.

Invoice: Steve Account 1 (IA)

Account 2/ Inv. Argt 1

Account 3 etc

Service 1 (SAID) FNN: 03

8661 3059 SAID : 1234567890
Product 1 Msg Bank Product 2 Line Rental Product 3 STD Usage

Serv 2 (SAID)

Serv 2 9876543210

Product 1 Product 1

Effectively, the invoice is moved from one hierarchy to another (via a Relink)

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Billing Hierarchy eBILL (Before Churn)

Customer - Optus Corp. Customer Steve B.

Invoice: Steve Account 1 (IA)

Account 2/ Inv. Argt 1

Account 3 etc

Service 1 (SAID) FNN: 03

8661 3059 SAID : 1234567890
Product 1 Msg Bank Product 2 Line Rental Product 3 STD Usage

Serv 2 (SAID)

Serv 2 9876543210

Product 1 Product 1

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Billing Hierarchy eBILL (after Churn)

Customer - Optus Corp. Customer Steve B.

Invoice: Steve Account 1 (IA)

Account 2/ Inv. Argt 1

Service 1 (SAID) FNN: 03

8661 3059 SAID : 1234567890

Service 1* (SAID) FNN: 03

8661 3059 SAID : 9988776655
Product 1 Msg Bank Product 2 Line Rental

Serv 2 (SAID)

Serv 2 9876543210

Product 1 Product 1

Product 3 STD Usage

Effectively, the service is made to exist in two hierarchies. In the Resellers it is termed a Shadow Service Arrangement
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eBill : Customer interaction.

Call Records Recurring Charge Records Non Recurring Charge Records Tariff Records

Billing
Invoice

Daily Event File Monthly

Wholesale Customer A

Provisioning

Firewall

Infotranz
Completion

Churn request Completion

Wholesale Customer A

End User

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Applications involved - eBILL

INOSS
Churn Requests for 1300 / 1800

Service Provider
Churn Request / Response via WNO file
File

PAMS
Future WSB scope
Churn Requests for 13 Products

ONE3OSS
Churn Requests for Austpac

INFOTRANZ
File
Completion Advice MQ File

PMA
Service Provider & Product Details - Copy Managed Churn Requests for PSTN services

SDNM
Churn Requests for other Special Products

and completion advice

Validation Response

MQ

Screen Scr .

INCAS RASS-P
Churn Request for Telecards Service & product details MQ CODE-F

AXIS
Validate Request (Account/Service)
File
MQ MQ

Service Orders via SOTB

S*P (B&I)

FLEXCAB
Churn Requests for Special / Data Products File .

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Comparing Retail and Wholesale Invoices.

Retail Invoice Wholesale Own Use Retail. (Cycle 1 to 29) Service Provider (end user) Commercial Churn COL Retail. (Cycle 1 to 29) Service Provider (no contact with end user) eBILL Wholesale. (Cycle 32, 34, 40, 44, 49, 55, 59) Service Provider (only contact with end user is via products not billed to Service Provider) Paper (or electronic means) + Daily Event File (electronic) Y

FLEXCAB Bill Cycle Telstra relationship with:

Retail. (Cycle 1 to 29) Retail Customer (end user)

Invoice delivered via:

Paper (or electronic means)

Paper (or electronic means)

OBS

Customer needs their own IT infrastructure to process bills. Access to Charge information (Time)

At end of month/qtr (unless prebill via OLB)

At end of month/qtr (unless prebill via OLB)

At end of month/qtr (unless prebill via OLB)

Daily file of charges.

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Future for Wholesale Billing

TW are planning a next generation Billing Platform.
Currently assessing vendor bids

Tricky aspect is filtering

TW are working with Billing Directorate and BSS Architecture groups.

No matter what platform is chosen, the Billing Delivery Centre WILL be involved.

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Messages to take away

Dont forget to consider TW impact. Dont forget to consider the different types of Churn. Learning what the buzzwords mean can be very handy.

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References.
Some Docos on DME:
This Presentation: 65620 Wholesale Billing Integration: High Level Architecture : 38464

Some Docos on the Intranet

eBill end-to-end : 006 874 Wholesale Document Library:
http://www.in.telstra.com.au/ism/wholesaledocumentlibrary/index.asp

Service Provider Info :

http://www.cdn.telstra.com.au/cc-foss/url/1competitors/servprov.htm

Other stuff that I have found, and grouped on our LAN:

O:\SYSTEMS\# BILLING DELIVERY CENTRE\Analyst's Corner\Wholesale Billing (V234c-06-f06$ on 'Emfile0004c01)

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Appendices

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Customer Relationship Combinations - 1

Fixed
C ustomer R elationship Access L ocal L ong Who isTels tras C alls Distance customer (for / F2M billing) TR TR S P TR TR S P TR S P S P E User nd E User nd S P What info can Tels retail tra use for Marketing? All All except LD / F2M usage post churn None post churn Identification C odes (not to be used for including in marketing lists) R etail Own C ode (eg. C ON) PC C MS odes at service level (eg. NAOTH*) Wholesale Own codes at account level (eg. 3 digit code starting with W or Z ZAG ZAA; and 6 digit , service org code starting with Z ZC QOP ZC T, NBG or AALNO not = 1) blank) Because customers have R etail Own C odes, identify using PC MS C odes at service level (eg. WSBPST

Full service retail Long Distance Preselection (away from Telstra retail) C ommercial C hurn

E bill (linx on line billing relationship)

S P

S P

S P

Non-Telstra Access

NTA

NTA

NTA

C ommercial C hurn but long distance with TR E but long distance bill with TR
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S P S P

S P S P

TR TR

E user remains nd legal lessee but S P is customer. If end user overrides, they become TR customer for those calls. N/A but if customer overrides, end user is TR customer for those calls S P
In theory, E User is nd TRcustomer for theory
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None post churn except can use info if customer overrides

access package, WS BLOC local call usage package, WS TD long distance BS call usage package, WS BOTH other call usage package, WS BDLL data products package

None except can use info if customer overrides None post churn None post churn except ld

PC C MS odes at service level (eg. E LOVE , E R LPOR LNR T, OTH, G OPOR OUTOTH) T,

P Note: S can overrule this LD churn Note: Niche ebill may change this
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Customer Relationships - 2
Mobile
C ustomer Relationship
Full service retail

Access Who is and Telstras C alls customer

TR E User nd

What info can Telstra retail use for Marketing?

All

Identification C odes
Service Provider Type C =7 and customer ode does not have a wholesale fixed account defined by a Wholesale Own C (e. 3 digit ode code starting with W or Z-ZAG, ZAA; and 6 digit service org code starting with Z ZC QOPT, AXNBG1 or AALNOnot = blank). Service Provider Type C not=7 ode C ould also be identified as MNPported customer if took phone number identified as a ported customer with status flag DE PO Port out customers are identified in OC MS by a combination of access status and reason codes such as DE DeactivatedPO Port Out.

C DMA or GSM resale

SP

SP

None post leaving Telstra / port out

Non-Telstra

NTA

NTA

N/A

TR Telstra retail SP Telstra Wholesale resale service provider NTA Non Telstra Access service provider

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