The billing migration task is indeed a complex exercise. Some of the major challenges that operators face are as follows.

l Data migration: Migrating huge billing data itself is a complex exercise, as any IT manager involved with large migration projects would know.

l Functionality mapping and gap analysis: Not any two the billing systems do the same thing in same way. There are always slight variations between the system’s functionalities. Most of the services that are based on the older billing system have to be exactly offered in the same way in the new billing system. Else, there will be customer dissatisfaction, confusion or revenue leakage or both.

l Third-party application migration: The older billing systems, at the time when they get replaced, consist of not just the core billing system but also third party applications. They need to be migrated to the new system so that there is no gap with the earlier functionalities and billing capabilities. The challenge becomes much more complex when a group has five different operations in five circles and all operators have different third party applications. The deployed core billing systems are a handful in the market. The third party applications could be numerous. That adds to the complexity.

l It is real time: The times, however, do not stand still while an operator is migrating the billing system. Especially in a fast evolving market like India. So the operator not only will have to tackle the issue of continuity of business, in some cases, it has to quickly respond to market changes even while the migration is on. For example, while Orange in Mumbai was changing its billing system, AirTel launched its service, introducing some new rate plans. Orange had no option but to respond. No CMO would take no for an answer from the CIO at a time when the market demands a change.

l Processes: The smoothness of migration depends on the internal processes. No matter, how good the system is, a smooth migration is not possible, unless internal processes are correct.

l Lack of professional integrators: Unlike most markets, Indian service providers have not worked with integrators that would have taken a lot of burden from their shoulders. Ironic, considering the fact that India is known for its software services skills globally and some of the Indian software giants have huge global experience in telecom practice. In many markets, the vendor does not even get involved in the project. It is the integrators who front-end and ensure the smoothness of migration. A good professional integrator reduces the complexity, uncertainty, and duration of migration. Lack of an integrator has added to the migration woes of the operators.

Like many markets, and unlike many others, India has chosen the prepaid path. Today, there is not an iota of doubt in anyone’s mind that only prepaid can grow the mobile penetration in the country to a significant level. Different estimates project it will stabilize at anywhere between 60 to 75 percent of the total mobile user base.It means prepaid has become the core business of mobile operators. Operators now have to face two realities. One, prepaid users have to be treated at par with the postpaid users. Two, at the same time, efforts have to be made to steadily (even if slowly) take up the prepaid ARPU level over the next few years.

So far, the operators had two options regarding offering services to prepaid users. One was to deny services, where authentication is difficult (mostly data services), to them. The other was to provide those services, but remain prepared for compromising on real time authentication, and thus leaving scope for revenue leakage.

Today, the CEOs have realized that denying services to 70 percent of users mean losing out on huge amount of revenues. The ARPU-starved operators certainly cannot afford that. So the new directive to the CIOs: "do something about it.". What goes unsaid is of course, "without significant revenue leakage."

That is a tough task for someone who till yesterday never seriously bothered about prepaid. Traditionally, prepaid has been part of IN and so has been the responsibility of the network head.

Quite naturally, the CIOs have turned to the people that they are most familiar with—the postpaid vendors.This is the first and non-contentious part of the story.

The next part is more interesting, which postpaid vendors term as a deliberate conspiracy theory.

And here it goes. Already worried about the loss of licensing revenue once the postpaid user base stops growing, the postpaid vendors realize it is their last chance to hold the empire from falling. So globally, especially in Europe and Asia, campaigns begin to bring the prepaid to the postpaid fold.

So the issue—a more flexible billing mechanism for prepaid users—gets redefined to what is arguably the biggest OSS market hype in recent times: prepaid-postpaid convergence. An extra item gets added to the billing wish-list of the mobile operators. Today, prepaid-postpaid convergence is the biggest talking point in industry. What do you think about it?