Metering and Billing Workshop and Seminar: Notes of Meeting held at Oftel on 18 April 2000

Attendees

Introduction

Discussion

Revision of the Oftel standard

Conclusions

Attendees:

Introduction

The meeting began at 1:45 p.m. after the assembled delegates, arriving at 1:30 p.m., had taken brief refreshments. MD welcomed all those attending and introduced Caroline Wallace as the new Chief Engineering Advisor and Head of Profession for Oftel Technical staff.

MD stated that the workshop/seminar would involve a number of presentations and discussion opportunities with the objective of establishing a common level of understanding of Oftel's Statement on the review of the Meter Approval Scheme, the Oftel Meter Approval Standard, BABT's central role in the development and management of the approval process as applied to the currently approved PTOs and reflections on the scheme based on the experience of an approved PTO.

MD gave a slide presentation covering elements and limitations of the current scheme, Oftel's proposals for extension and expansion of the scheme and the next steps in the programme. Click here to download the PDF.

The presentation broadly covered such areas as history of the scheme, regulatory framework, scheme boundaries and future thoughts. Click here to download the PDF

Following the BABT presentation, HB of Easynet asked whether copies of the BABT process were available for operators not currently approved. As BABT own the IPR in their approval process the approval documents were not published but BABT would be happy to field general individual enquiries as required. PJW stated that it was Oftel's intention that other notified bodies, in addition to BABT, would develop their own processes to demonstrate compliance with a revised Oftel Standard. MT of BT asked how Oftel would ensure comparability between competing processes. PJW said that this responsibility would rest with the DTI.

MH of Vodafone asked whether the value of SMS text calls used on mobile networks would be included since both voice and SMS calls decrement a customer's account on the pre-pay mobile system. PJW responded that data calls would not be included because the PTO licence conditions on metering and billing only cover voice telephony. MH also asked how the 5% materiality threshold would be applied, would it be 5% of each customer's bill, 5% of overall voice telephony revenue or some other measure. PJW said that this would be one of the areas for consideration by the working group but proposed that it should be set on a product by product basis where 5% or more of the total customer base were taking the product.

BH of Energis asked for Oftel's definition of voice telephony services. PJW replied that a broad definition would be 'simultaneous, switched, two-way voice communications'.

DL of CWC asked how long would the process of transition from the current to the revised scheme take. PJW stated that this would be a matter for further discussion and agreement and that the first priority was to define the new Meter Approval Standard.

The presentation covered reflections based on experience within BT Cellnet - a BABT approved PTO under the current scheme. Click here to download the   PDF

KH of the BBC expressed the view that service providers might regard approval of their operations under the scheme as a positive selling point. CW of Oftel sought confirmation that approved PTOs could advertise their approved status. RB of BT reminded the meeting that BT had been doing this for some time. BABT added that a list of all PTOs currently holding meter approval was posted on its public web site.

MH of Vodafone said that it would be useful if Oftel could give more detail of the nature of billing complaints in the statistics published on the Oftel web site. MH pointed to an apparent disparity in terms of ranking of billing complaints when the top ten complaints against named companies report was compared with the Oftel Customer Representation Section (CRS) statistics. PJW stated that the published statistics were correct for the stated periods covered by the reports.

PJW reminded the meeting that Oftel was seeking voluntary co-operation from the many independent service providers e.g. mobile service providers and that they might in due course consider application for approval of their consumer billing systems.

After a short break for refreshment the meeting was resumed.

An overhead slide presentation was given by MD on proposals for revision of the Oftel Meter Approval Standard OTR 003:1993. Please click here to download the PDF

A general discussion was lead by PJW to consider what elements of the existing approval process could be transposed into the Revised Oftel Standard. For example, it was clear that some elements of the Service Usage Specification, currently only broadly defined in the Oftel Standard, could be moved as specific requirements into the Revised Oftel Standard.

In relation to Oftel's stated intention to include the sampling of real customer bills in the Revised Standard, it was stated from the floor that it would be necessary to analyse at least 200 individual bills in order to ensure statistically meaningful results.

AS of Barclays Bank observed that they had experienced billing disparities in relation to call rounding on their mobile account and therefore sought that appropriate rules for such matters be included.

It was also suggested that the timeliness of retrospective billing, for example for unallocated calls held in suspense, was also a suitable area for inclusion with an upper limit clearly defined beyond which charges should be written off.

MH of Vodafone added that since the GSM Memorandum of Understanding already defined the rules for dealing with billing records from mobile cutsomers 'roaming' in overseas networks, then the Revised Standard should reflect these rules.

A question from the floor enquired whether the metering and billing accuracy requirements in network interconnections between operators would be covered by the Standard. PJW stated that whilst it was clearly in the mutual interests of such operators to ensure accuracy it was not the primary area of concentration for either the current or revised schemes where the focus was on the billing accuracy for the end customer.

MH of Vodafone asked whether the working group could consider the generation of two standards, one for post-pay and one for pre-pay as there would appear to be significant benefits in such an approach. PJW said that this could certainly be considered and he invited the mobile PTOs to submit a discussion paper on the subject.

It was agreed that the first task was to set up a working group to revise the Oftel Standard, made up from a representative cross section of interests, with a limit of one person per organisation.

Offers to contribute to the working group were agreed and accepted from over a dozen delegates before the meeting closed at 5 p.m. It was agreed that Oftel would chair the first working group meeting and that dates and invitations would be organised in due course.

END OF NOTES

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