Real-time charging

Real-time charging is an extension of call accounting that enables communications service providers (CSPs) to apply customer-specific rules for rating, discounting, promotions and settlements to better personalize the telecom experience. As CSPs begin to roll out advanced networks and services, offering and making money on these services requires the ability to do real-time charging.

Real-time charging came into existence to serve the needs of prepaid mobile phone carriers as they sought to enter market segments where the traditional subscription model was no longer applicable, Pre-paid offers required instant evaluation of both the cost and the ability to pay for a telecommunications service, followed by in-call decrementing of the balance. These real-time attributes began to be demanded for service offers other than pre-paid. For instance, to create a spend limit in a post-paid account the account balance must be continuously monitored to detect when the limit is reached and take the appropriate action e.g. suspend calling or send a warning SMS. Real time charging has been in place within the enterprise market for a number of years, most notably in the hospitality industry where transient guest required real time resolution of charges and payments. Enterprise markets are not centered on subscribers but as components of a broader employee or customer relationship or transaction.

While enterprises may have long possessed real time capabilities, CSPs are replacing or augmenting their existing, offline billing systems with real-time systems, that are capable of supporting pre-paid and post-paid services, as well as wired services. In the process, these real-time systems are creating new revenue opportunities for CSPs.

Real-time charging systems are part of the telecom industry trend toward convergence.