Posted: 10/1999

Nineteen Form IP Billing-Standard Group
By Liz Montalbano

Nineteen billing companies, network service providers, telecommunications carriers and
equipment providers–including AT&T Corp., Amdocs, Andersen Consulting LLP, Convergys
Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co., Portal Software Inc. and Sun Microsystems Inc.–have formed a
working group to develop a new Internet usage billing standard.

The standard–the Internet Protocol Detail Record (IPDR)–will establish an open format
that stores data about any Internet activity, giving a network service provider (NSP)
access to that information.

IPDR will be industry-wide and will enable simple integration between IP networks and a
service provider’s operations support systems (OSSs). The standard will act as a conduit
between user’s activities on the network and business decisions and processes of the
service provider.

In a press statement, Dr. Matthew Lucas, vice president of TeleStrategies, McLean, Va.,
the IP billing and consulting company that will coordinate the IPDR Working Group, said
having an IP billing standard will enable the success of next-generation networks. He
compared IPDR’s establishment to the previous development of a standard for
circuit-switched networks.

"As we move toward a pervasive IP network providing an increasingly rich set of
services, it is critical that the industry have a standard definition for every activity
on the network, and how each activity should be billed, just as the switched network has
its own standard definition," Lucas said.

The IPDR Working Group had its first meeting Aug. 3 in Palo Alto, Calif., and posts
updates about all its activities on www.IPDR.org.

The group expects other billing companies, telecommunications carriers and equipment
providers to join in its objective to agree on an Internet billing standard by the end of
this year. It then will present the result to the appropriate standards-setting body for
approval.