Operator billing gets a boost as tech firms step in to make on-bill billing better

While much attention has been focused of late on alternative billing tools that seek to circumvent operator billing – as much for easy of use among consumers as to avoid the ENORMOUS cut the networks take – it seems that some very big names out there are looking at trying to redress the balance.

Leading suppliers of high end billing kit to operators are lining up in the build up to next week’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona to offer network operators better ways of using their billing platforms to cope with on-bill billing, especially as the consumer market goes apps crazy and media companies attempt to start charging for content.

Last week we reported on our newsite www.telemedia-news.com that mobile roaming billing hub MACH is set to revolutionise content and app billing by leveraging its expertise with roaming settlement amongst two thirds of the world’s operators into delivering one click on-bill billing to MNOs (more of which a little further on).

Now leading suppliers Nuance and Vesta in the US have joined forces to co-promote and integrate Nuance’s Mobile Care application with Vesta’s Mobile Payment Platform, to deliver a comprehensive payment service to mobile operators worldwide.

Network operators it seems are, all of a sudden, taking their billing much more seriously. The Nuance-Vest story highlights how more than 50% of calls to MNOs from customers relate to billing issues and the two companies are looking to work together to basically tidy up the chaotic, often highly silo-ed, web of operator billing platforms.

Nuance and Vesta are looking to help MNOs automated and secure the entire payments process so that consumers can really start to use their handsets to pay for things.

As a result of this collaborative offering, mobile operators will now have the ability to provide a comprehensive and secure self-service experience to consumers via the mobile channel.  Consumer research indicates that nearly a quarter of all mobile customers, and nearly a third of the youth market, prefer to pay through their handsets. Mobile consumers like the convenience and flexibility that mobile payments deliver.

While this is interesting from the mobile payments point of view, the MACH story is of extreme importance to the telemedia community. As we reported last week, MACH is looking to leverage IP billing to actually deliver something that will help consumers and networks alike: one click operator billing.

“To date anyone who is trying to sell apps, mobile content or mobile web services has only had operator billing, PSMS, PWAP and IVR to use and these are relatively cumbersome messaging tools, not payment and settlement tools,” explains Bernadette Lyons, MD of MACH’s mobile applications and content billing arm. “Consumers, developers and network operators all want a much more simple and easy way to pay and to settle payments for these services – and that is what we are offering.”

The service, which is likely to be rolled out across a number of yet to be named apps stores by the summer, offers a simple way to bill for apps, and to deliver in-app billing, says Lyons.

And everyone has to gain from it. Consumers get an easier way to consume, apps developers and apps stores get a simple and trusted way to pay and network operators get direct billing from which they can take a cut. It also removes cross border price point issues too, she says.

“It finally brings proper IP billing to the market,” she adds. “The mobile content market had plateaued before apps came along because getting content and paying for it was so cumbersome. Apps have made that more attractive and easier for users and we hope our direct billing will make it really take off.”

While still to be rolled out and seen in action, in theory what MACH is looking to do could seriously shake up the billing space. Sure, there will always be a place for alt.billing for using PSMS and so on to pay for stuff online, and credit card on the fly and so on, but if MNOs buy in to what MACH is offering it gives them a tool that they really can start to market to consumers as an easy and trusted way to start using their phone bills as a payment mechanic.

This could put back in place the reliance by telemedia companies, services providers and everyone else in the value chain on operator billing – and that means back to operators calling the shots on outpayments, tariffs and what you can and can’t sell.

Equally though, it also means that Payforit3.0’s launch next month could be even more of a damp squib than it was shaping up to be. If operators buy in to the idea of a simple one-click, on-bill payment, then they have even less incentive to market and get behind Payforit. Will many in the telemedia industry looking at ditching as much operator billing as possible, this could final see Payforit railroaded into the sidings.

As I write no operators would come out of their glass offices to discuss MACH’s offering, but I suspect we may hear a lot more about it post-Barcelona. I certainly will be on the case at the show and hope to have some interesting stories to tell about billing in the coming weeks. Who knows, this time next year we may be looking at a very different billing landscape?