HP and Wataniya Telecom Algeria Launch Advanced Billing Solution to Support New Mobile Services

HP today announced that Wataniya Telecom Algeria is deploying a new HP billing solution that will support advanced wireless services and improve customer care for its almost 3 million mobile users in Algeria.

The billing solution, HP Convergent Charging (HP CC), will handle all the billing for the voice services of Wataniya Telecom Algeria, the country’s leading mobile operator. It also will handle the new data services that provide mobile customers with messaging, entertainment and other personalized, content-rich information. With the HP CC, Wataniya customers will have the flexibility to choose their own method of payment, whether pre-paid, post-paid on a monthly basis or pay-now.

At many operators, voice, data and content services are billed via separate systems, which can result in higher costs, inefficiency, customer care problems and difficulty launching new services. To solve these problems, the HP CC solution provides operators with a single, unified framework for billing of all services.

Wataniya is one of the first mobile operators in the world to deploy a fully convergent billing solution that manages both voice and data, on both pre-paid and post-paid plans.

“Wataniya is increasing its competitive advantage through unmatched customer service – and seamless, convenient billing is playing a leading role,” said Joseph Ged, chief operating officer, Wataniya Telecom Algeria. “HP understands our business needs. Its convergent solution increases internal efficiencies and enables us to provide world-class billing support for our customers.”

Wataniya selected the HP CC over other solutions because of its unique convergent capabilities, its low total cost of ownership and its ability to accelerate time to market for new services. HP is managing the deployment of the solution with Wataniya and providing primary consulting and integration services.

“Innovative operators like Wataniya understand that the new market realities demand a single billing platform that can support different kinds of services and different customer needs,” said Patty Lewis, director, BSS Solutions Domain, Communications, Media and Entertainment, HP. “With the HP solution, Wataniya can provision billing at the same time the service itself is created – and not as an afterthought.”

The HP CC solution consists of the HP OpenCall Service Access Controller, pre-integrated with the convergent billing and customer care system, BSCS, from LHS TelekomGmgH & Co.KG. LHS is a strategic partner of HP, providing a fully convergent, end-to-end billing platform to carriers and supporting real-time rating, balance management and billing across all customers, both pre- and post-paid. HP is working with other partners, including VoluBill, which is providing software for content charging.

The entire solution runs on standards-based HP Superdome servers running the HP-UX 11i operating system. HP StorageWorks XP10000 Disk Array provides a scalable storage infrastructure for the billing solution. HP Operations Support Systems software provides billing systems management, enabling Wataniya to reduce costs, increase efficiency and, ultimately, provide better quality of service to its customers.

“In today’s fast-moving and competitive market, smart mobile operators know they can’t launch the new data and multimedia services without an advanced billing system that is efficient, highly adaptable and pain-free for customers,” said Elisabeth Rainge, program director, Next-Gen OSS and Billing, IDC. “Wataniya and HP are providing an example of a fully convergent approach which has the potential to transform billing from a cost center into a competitive advantage.”

Wataniya Telecom Algeria is a subsidiary of Wataniya Telecom, which provides GSM-based wireless services throughout the Middle East and Africa.

HP Convergent Charging solution: Key benefits for mobile operators

Available worldwide, the HP CC is a standards-based, scalable, high-availability solution that gives operators the flexibility needed to get to market faster with new services and to improve the customer experience. Features include:

Ability to rate and charge subscribers in real time for voice and transaction-based services, including email, SMS, multimedia messaging, WAP and WLAN usage, web browsing and m-commerce;
Customization of services to a “market of one” by de-coupling the service portfolio from charging methods.

HP CC also streamlines all business support system operations and provides operators with key internal benefits:

Consolidation of multiple billing systems into a single system reduces maintenance and enhancement costs;
Integrated Intelligent Network and Internet Protocol foundation reduces operational costs by leveraging existing investment in real-time rating and billing;
Pre-testing and pre-integration accelerates deployment and reduces risk;
Modular, standards-based architecture allows full customization, configurability and integration of legacy and third-party assets.

More information on HP CC is available at www.hp.com/go/billing