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IP billing model emerges -
Xacct unveils engine under the hood
Lost in much of the excitement over developing IP voice and its related
applications is the fact that no one is quite sure how to bill for services.
And like a certain joke making its way around the industry, until IP
telephony providers can bill, they're a charity. Currently, most carriers
delivering IP voice are billing through prepaid models where users dial
personal identification numbers.
To move the service into the mass market, though, few question the need to
develop a system that generates call detail records similar to those used in
the circuit-switched environment. But given the fact that IP services have
traditionally been based on flat-rate pricing, most network equipment was
not designed to parcel out any type of usable billing information.
A new software development from Xacct Technologies, however, offers one
possible remedy. Although certainly not the only solution in the works,
Xacct already has wrapped up agreements with some of the bigger market
players, including Cisco Systems, Amdocs and CableData.
"The first show stopper in IP was security," said Anil Uberoi, vice
president of marketing for Xacct. "After that, many businesses started
developing mission-critical applications. We believe the next step is
billing for these things."
The system, which can bill any IP service but may find its greatest use in
the traditional voice market, takes data directly from routers or any
network device and filters out information that is pertinent to billing. By
catching data at the source, the system can correlate it based on several
factors, including origination address, destination, application, effective
quality of service, type of content, distance, bytes or product
identification. The resulting record is similar to a telephony call detail
record, said Uberoi.
For Internet service providers, the development could force a change of
philosophy. Instead of providing a best-effort service, ISPs will be able to
start charging for unique services such as IP video and guaranteed
bandwidth. For the casual Web browser, who currently is getting much better
service than he is paying for, it also may mean being left in technological
limbo, Uberoi added. For telco ISPs, however, the move to usage- or
distance-based billing is simply an extension of the landline model.
"The retail ISPs have gotten themselves in a major hole," said Uberoi.
"They'll reach a point where anyone that wants to use them for anything more
than casual Web browsing won't be able to get the services they want. This
is the only commodity sold solely on price."
Xacct isn't alone. Kenan Systems, which has a customer roster that includes
the @Home cable modem service and Verio, is moving toward an IP solution
that incorporates similar parameters.
"If you think about where the value is coming from, there's a value in terms
of relationship," said Betsy Campbell, Internet business unit marketing
manager for Kenan. "That's almost impossible to do in a prepaid world."
Kenan is exploring content-based billing, in which ISPs will be able to
charge different rates for voice or video services.
"We think the intelligence comes in when you're rating against all different
types of ratings schemes. Service providers need to start charging for the
value they deliver," Campbell said.
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