WIMAX/REAL-TIME CHARGING - Real-life revenues
WiMAX is finally making its way into the mainstream telecoms market as WiMAX operators 
around the world begin to roll out their services. Previous obstacles for launching their ventures, such as obtaining the necessary spectrum licenses, deploying mobile WiMAX infrastructure, or selecting the right vendor have either been overcome or are about to be resolved. Finally, WiMAX is no longer a hyped up term being tossed around in the telecoms industry. It is now a reality, and operators are testing their WiMAX capabilities in real-life environments, with paying subscribers, on loaded networks. David Knox assesses the different types of entrants in the WiMAX market, and reveals the many charging challenges the new innovation faces and the ways in which operators can overcome them
According to a recent report from the Gartner Group, revenue from sales of WiMAX equipment will grow to more than $6.2 billion by 2011, and global connections will reach 85 million in the same year. The current scramble to roll out WiMAX around the world provides enough evidence to back up this statistic, as operators get ready to launch the next big thing in global communications. Best of all, WiMAX is being regarded as a technology that is being embraced by both developed and developing nations around the world - creating endless business opportunities for vastly different economies.
Paving the way for WIMAX's entry into the mainstream is a new breed of dedicated WiMAX service providers that are starting to successfully target high density, high usage metropolitan areas in various parts of the world, as well as in rural communities where there is no access to fixed line broadband or 3G.
In the developing world, telecoms provider Wateen Pakistan has successfully deployed its WiMAX network in 17 major cities across Pakistan, including Islamabad, Karachi and Lahore. The success of the project demonstrates how the cost effectiveness and speed of deployment offered by WiMAX is allowing competitive carriers to quickly build a wireless broadband network. It also shows how a developing economy can immediately embrace a new, innovative next-generation technology, and smoothly deploy a cutting edge communications infrastructure.
Closer to home, UK companies like The Cloud, Europe's largest Wi-Fi operator, are making positive inroads into the WiMAX space. The Cloud has become the first to offer the service in the financial district known as The City Of London. Heralded as Europe's most advanced WiMAX roll out, the venture has given 350,000 workers and thousands of visitors the chance to get broadband access anywhere within "the square mile".
The success of this project has led to more successes for The Cloud, including its hotspot access deal with McDonald's, which recently rolled out free high speed wireless Internet access across almost 1,200 restaurants in the UK, making it the UK's biggest provider of free wireless Internet access. The Cloud also signed a major new deal with the BBC, which became the first UK broadcaster to have all it's online content made available for free via Wi-Fi. This latest venture enables the public to access all bbc.co.uk content for free through the UK's largest network of hotspots, operated by The Cloud. The 7,500 hotspots are located at a various locations across the UK, including McDonald's, Coffee Republic, BAA airports (Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted) as well as a number of outdoor locations including Canary Wharf and the City of London.
Dedicated WiMAX providers are not the only entrants in this burgeoning market. Established fixed line telecommunications providers with no mobile arm - such as UK's BT- are also trying to get into the WiMAX space to complement their fixed line broadband offerings and to compete with the likes of 3G for high-speed data access. Established mobile service providers are also trying to muscle their way into the market, especially in regions where there is strong demand for high speed data but where 3G is not a feasible option, due to higher infrastructure deployment costs or geographical difficulties. A good example is the Caribbean's leading GSM operator Digicel, which recently rolled out WiMAX in the Cayman Islands. The existing broadband offerings in the country rely heavily on fixed lines, making it expensive and limiting in choice for many consumers and businesses. Digicel therefore used WIMAX as an opportunity to create competition by offering a better solution to consumers at a lower cost.
Each of these aforementioned types of WiMAX market entrants will have many challenges to overcome before they can achieve profitability - and each one will also have different requirements for WiMAX charging, depending on their infrastructure and what BSS/OSS systems they already have in place.
One of the main challenges presented by WiMAX in terms of charging will be finding a means to perform user authentication in real-time for home and roaming subscribers. Another will be the ability for subscribers to be able to roam on other WiMAX networks and still use the same authentication mechanism and balance information from their home network. In other words, operators will need to find a way to offer customers just one account with their "home" WiMAX provider and not require them to worry about multiple sign-ons or topping-up their balance with multiple providers.
Having real-time access to customer, pricing and product information which may be stored "off-board" in existing / legacy systems will be another essential requirement for WiMAX providers, so that they can have a real-time view of the customer and therefore be able to charge and control the service in real-time and provide a positive user experience.
Being able to enforce post-paid credit limits in real-time in order to reduce windows for fraud and exposure to bad debt will also be crucial for WiMAX charging. This is a very important issue to address, since fraud and bad debt are now considered the largest areas of revenue leakage for telecom operators. According to a new survey published by UK research firm Analysys, average fraud losses resulting from all types of fraud, including external fraud, internal fraud and fraud by other operators, has grown from 2.9 per cent of operators' total revenue last year to 4.5 per cent this year, and this is expected to increase with the rise in popularity of data and Internet services. WiMAX providers must therefore find a way to protect themselves from this kind of revenue leakage if they want to manage short term as well as long term profitability.
The flexibility to offer pre-paid charging will be another challenge for WiMAX. Initially many WiMAX users will be corporate clients, so they will expect to be on post-paid deals, but they will also need the reassurance of not having to worry about exceeding spending limits. A real-time convergent charging solution can significantly enhance the flexibility of pricing plans and allow users to be automatically switched over from a post-paid to a pre-paid payment mechanism if these user-definable spending limits are exceeded. Instead of being an impediment to new service rollouts, the right charging solution will be able to drive change with the fast launch of new pricing strategies - regardless of what type of WiMAX contract a user is on.
Fortunately for WiMAX service providers, the market already boasts the right technology to ease its numerous rating and charging challenges. Among the rating and charging experts for this new innovation is VoluBill, which offers a comprehensive range of WiMAX solution capabilities - whether it is simply WiMAX charging, or a complete WiMAX solution including integrated customer care, web self-care, billing and voucher management.
We also offer flexible deployment options for the solutions, making it possible to start with a limited scope and functional footprint and to expand the scope of the solution as business requirements demand.
All eyes are on WiMAX as it brings the reality of truly portable high-speed data access to the mainstream public. According to a recent report from Informa, revenues from mobile broadband services will generate more than US $400 billion globally by 2012, giving WiMAX the potential to be one of the most profitable innovations in telecoms history.
The next big step that WiMAX providers must take is to invest in solutions that offer flexible charging and control capabilities. This will ensure that operators will be able to maximise their financial and business potential while bringing a service that is not only enjoyable to the customer but affordable as well.
David Knox is Product Marketing Director at VoluBill
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