The Downside of VoIP: Billing
There is no doubt the VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) is an amazing advancement in communication technology. Before, telephone conversations summoned images of mile-long cables and wires, which in turn infer great costs especially for very long distance, overseas calls. With the advent of the internet, which connected the entire globe in a fast but less-costing network, talking with people from any part of the planet is now possibly done within a reliable and very affordable medium. However, since VoIP is still very much at its infancy, or at the very least in its “toddler” stage of development, a lot of problems are still being encountered in the operations of the system. Among the most common problems with VoIP is billing.
The measurement of usage in a VoIP phone system is a very much complex when compared to traditional telephony. Old phone systems use centralized circuit switches that allow an easier monitoring of usage of services. On the other hand, VoIP phone connections are widely distributed since the internet, which is the interface on which the system moves, is wide-reaching, intertwined within a labyrinth of data that is far more difficult to manage.
In the traditional circuit-switched system, service providers can focus on monitoring just few areas of concern. First, traditional system providers are concerned with usage reconciliation – the precision of the measurement of call usage. Second, circuit-switched systems are also concerned with error management – making sure that the correct billing of calls based on the measurements. Lastly, circuit-switched service providers are concerned about billing accuracy – the implementation of the appropriate rates for each phone usage. There are only areas of concern in traditional phone systems, and this makes billing easier to manage.
The world of VoIP is much more chaotic. There is no geographical basis for calls, calls may come from anywhere in the globe. It would be difficult to code calls as phone numbers might not be assigned geographically. Unlike in traditional systems, keys cities do not have trunk groups that organize where calls come from or go to. Rating calls may not be simply based on originating numbers because it may come from anywhere. To hastily end the confusion, most service providers would just simply offer their services at a flat rate. While this seems to be an easy and obvious solution to a complex problem, it is not as simple as it seems.
VoIP services are tied to Tier 1 connections. In fact, VoIP is just one the many functions that can be performed with T1 services. This situation provides an opportunity to bundle VoIP services with other internet functions such as data transfer, video, games, etc, and increase the marketability of the service. It would also be impractical to just offer the VoIP service as a sole product since, all the capabilities of T1 connections are tied to it. When all these services are mixed, billing becomes more complex. It is easy for a company to say that just sell all these products in one package at a flat rate, however, that would be very impractical in terms of business. Pricing everything at a fixed rate would either make the total package too expensive for the consumer, or too low for the service provider to gain enough revenues.
Several software have been written to solve this problem. However, it is not enough to just purchase and use the software. The root of the problem lays within the foundations of the service itself and the very environment that the service provider is moving in. Fortunately, there are many consultancy service providers that offer solutions to VoIP service problems, particularly billing. One just needs to search for them online.
Communication technology is fast advancing. In this early stage of the development of certain revolutionary systems such as VoIP, problems are difficult to avoid. Nevertheless, solutions being formed by experts shed a life for a bright future ahead in the world of information technology. |
