Aptis, EDS Launch Intercarrier Billing Innovations

Written by Channel
January 31, 2000

Posted: 03/2000

Aptis, EDS Launch Intercarrier Billing Innovations
By Peter Lambert

Since no service should go uncharged, Aptis Software Inc. and global information
technology integrator consultant EDS (www.eds.com) have
unveiled new services to make life easier for customers whose communications routinely
cross carrier boundaries.

The services are designed to help providers keep up with the increasing complexity of
carrier interconnections, billing and customer care. Aptis Software Inc. (www.aptissoftware.com), a subsidiary of Billing
Concepts Inc. (www.billingconcepts.com), and
EDS introduced their new outsourceable, managed services separately.

The Aptis Inter Carrier.ICP is designed to make sure carriers can track and charge for
local carrier-to-carrier traffic. EDS’ GlobalClear service enables wireless carriers in
any country to present a unified bill for domestic and international calls as their
customers roam the world.

The Aptis Inter Carrier.ICP service is built on a shared-hosting environment for
monitoring and reporting usage of a carrier’s network by other networks. In many cases,
the service can represent found money, says Jeffrey Boozer, vice president of sales for
Aptis.

Thanks to the proliferation of CLECs in the United States and abroad, a single call can
traverse many incumbent, interexchange and CLEC networks, and "there can be up to
seven tariffed access charges to various entities per call," he said.

Consequently, local-to-local reciprocal charges are gaining more attention,
particularly for CLECs with extensive facilities, "some of which can have as much as
a third of their revenue coming from these charges, and one of which has generated $3
million per month by activating the service," Boozer says.

Aptis also is augmenting the service with advance funding for carrier access billing of
up to 80 percent of a carrier’s receivables.

"The focus for our customers so far has been on recovering uncharged revenues, and
whether the carrier licenses the software for in-house implementation or uses the service
bureau. Payback has consistently been in less than 12 months," says Boozer.
"Internet services are only to increase the number and kind of charges, none of which
should be just left on the table."

EDS says it soon will name two, large, global wireless customers for GlobalClear. One
will be in the United States, the other will be overseas.

GlobalClear is designed to execute conversion of currencies and incompatible call data
record (CDR) formats across national boundaries. The service also will provide
intercarrier reconciliation and the ability for carriers to rerate or reprice fees
according to roaming agreements between carriers.

Data services also may increase demand for such services as emerging third-generation
mobile phones anywhere-anytime access to text messaging, Internet access,
videoconferencing, as well as to provide micropayments charged to the phone bill.

"Global service providers have stitched together a patchwork quilt of roaming
agreements, but providing seamless service is more complex than just signing
agreements," says Atlanta-based analyst Jeffrey Kagan.

"Service providers won’t even be able to compete for the most profitable customer
segment if they don’t offer seamless roaming on a domestic and global scale."