BillRun’s online charging system (OCS) is flexible, fast, and easy to manage.

Our online charging system enables operators to process diversified billing rates in real-time both for prepaid and post-paid subscribers, encourage usage, and enhance customer loyalty.

BillRun’s online charging system - a sophisticated tool converging several data networks - identifies real-time calls and tracks data usage, calculating charges automatically according to geographic location, and generating call records visible to subscribers within a few milliseconds. The system immediately identifies whether a subscriber is prepaid or post-paid,  and determines, in real-time, whether they have exceeded their allocated data volume or calling plan,  alerting them accordingly by sending a message.

An online charging system enhances customer loyalty and increases revenues

Carriers can easily block access of prepaid subscribers to certain services, encouraging them to recharge. Alternatively, they may slow down internet connection for post-paid customers; send pre-configured offers to entice users to purchase a larger package, or inform them how much talk time is left in their package.   

This can be particularly beneficial, for example, for carriers offering special calling plans during the summer vacation for travel abroad, whereby the system can identify the exact geographic location of mobile users, and seamlessly run complex calculations of calling costs according to local carrier rates in each country.

BillRun’s online charging system (OCS) is flexible, fast, and easy to manage, enabling operators to process diversified billing rates in real-time both for prepaid and post-paid subscribers, encourage usage, and enhance customer loyalty.

Here is how our online charging system works:

BillRun’s online charging - a sophisticated system converging several data networks - identifies real-time calls and tracks data usage, calculating charges automatically according to geographic location, and generating call records visible to subscribers within a few milliseconds. The system immediately identifies whether a subscriber is prepaid or post-paid,  and determines, in real-time, whether they have exceeded their allocated data volume or calling plan,  alerting them accordingly by sending a message.

Carriers can easily block access of prepaid subscribers to certain services, encouraging them to recharge. Alternatively, they may slow down internet connection for post-paid customers; send pre-configured offers to entice users to purchase a larger package, or inform them how much talk time is left in their package.   

This can be particularly beneficial, for example, for carriers offering special calling plans during the summer vacation for travel abroad, whereby the system can identify the exact geographic location of mobile users, and seamlessly run complex calculations of calling costs according to local carrier rates in each country.

Flexible and Robust Online Charging System

BillRun’s OCS agile open-architecture design utilizing MongoDB provides carriers with the ability to instantly implement new features or one-time plans, eliminating the time and costs involved in complex development.

While other systems require system synchronization and adding new fields for every new feature or version upgrade, BillRun automatically adds the required fields and immediately begins to generate automatic analyses and reports once a new feature is developed, without any database modification required.

Moreover, while other operators cannot avoid lengthy service shutdowns of 30 minutes or more due to version upgrades and routine database maintenance, with BillRun, when new features are introduced, downtime is minimal and lasts no more than a few seconds. The system has a virtual redundancy mechanism by which, in the event of failure, the software is replicated and can be installed on 5 separate workstations.   

Performance test reveals a processing time of fewer than 50 milliseconds

From the moment a subscriber dials, attempts to send a message, or logs on to the internet until the system verifies the subscriber’s account, several actions are taken in order to determine whether to authorize or block usage and if authorized, calculate the charge.  

A performance test carried out on BillRun’s online charging system tested the reaction time for processing 40,000 phone calls, messages, and internet usage sessions. The test results show an average reaction time of 50 milliseconds or less for processing and verifying 99.54% of the records.

The following verification steps are taken before authorizing usage:

• Identifying subscriber type - prepaid or post-paid
• Checking balance per account type - minutes or funds (for prepaid)
• Checking whether the account is restricted to certain numbers
• Identifying geographic location and calling destination  
• Identifying calling or internet plans
• Calculating the relevant rate for the subscriber
• Total funds remaining in the account
• Calculating rates based on geographic destination