A ‘bill shock' prevention solution

It is not uncommon for telecom subscribers to be shocked by unusually large bills. It would save telecom operators as well as their subscribers a lot of bother if there was a solution that would trigger an alarm that prevents unusually large bills from being generated by filtering them through internal systems before sending them off to their subscribers.

Subex Ltd., an Indian IT solutions company that provides operations and business services with a special focus on telecom operators, has announced a “bill shock” solution. Although the solution has been tailor-made to meet European Union regulations governing subscriber rights, the solution may just as easily be deployed in other markets for fixed and mobile telephony services.

Typically, a “bill shock” occurs when a subscriber receive an unexpectedly large bill from the service provider. Subex, in a statement issued recently, narrated the case of a German tourist who downloaded a television programme onto his smartphone while on holiday and received a bill of more than 46,000 Euros when he returned home.

Current EU regulation stipulates that “every operator must take all reasonable measures to protect customers from unintentionally high bills due to unplanned usage”. Subex uses its Credit Risk Management solution, which allows the subscriber and/or the operator to agree on an alert threshold.

Default threshold

The suggested default threshold is 50 Euros and any subscriber exceeding that level will receive an SMS alert. The Subex solution allows subscribers to change their threshold to match their individual requirements.

“This is an existing solution which we have already implemented in Telecom Slovenije,” said Paul Skillen, President of Subex Europe, Middle East and Africa. “The ability to change the credit alert or disconnection thresholds protects subscribers from bill shock whilst providing the operator with a tool to deliver a personalised customer experience.” Subex's customers include 36 of the world's 72 biggest telecommunications service providers. The company has more than 300 installations across 70 countries.
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