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What makes an MVNO tick?
Alex Leslie - Feb 19, 07:27 AM
What makes an MVNO tick? BillingViews went to find out from a successful start up in Europe that has begun well.
How does your MVNO operate?
We are actually a joint venture with the network operator. This was an early decision and one that we felt would make for the best relationship between the parties.
You have worked for a network operator too, what was the biggest difference between working for a network operator and an MVNO?
The biggest difference is the speed at which you can get things done. It was a real eye opener to be able to get things done, get proposals approved and executed as quickly as we did. I think large companies can learn a lot from this. Small teams!
What were the challenges from a billing perspective?
The biggest challenge was that you have to rely on the partner network, even in a joint venture environment like ours. You need to be sure that you are getting the information you need from them accurately, on time and consistently. You have to rely on agreements to describe what information you will get and when. otherwise you cannot reconcile data and that is critical.
We also have a back up agreement with our vendor who we work with on a managed services basis. The vendor under the managed service agreement also lets us know if records have not been received within the agreed time scales
What stops you sleeping at night?
Probably fear of the unknown. We do not know when we receive the records that they are from the right period of time. We get a certain number of hours in each batch and we expect that CDRs will coincide with the time limits. If they do not load into the system on time then a customer might find their usage in the wrong month’s bundle and be billed incorrectly.
How does the billing data work – in other words do you do all the billing?
No, our partner bills all the prepaid customers and simply passes us the records, together with the reference data and we bill all the post paid customers, by receiving zero rated records from our partner.
What would you say is vital to make this kind of relationship work?
For me the key was to have Service Level Agreements (SLAs) in place before you start. Also we knew we had a certain level of access to our partner’s systems for the reporting from those systems. It would have been a huge challenge and an uncomfortable feeling not to have that.
What was the thing you least expected?
Actually nothing directly to do with billing but our national regulator demands we have our own regulatory compliance – and the rules are strict. So it was even more critical that we had access to the information we needed.
You have been in billing for a while – what was the worst thing you ever heard about in the billing world?
Half a million customers on a certain bundle were overcharged and the press got hold of it. It took months to get over the effects of that. All that had happened was that someone reset a simple flag to the default setting during a changeover in a system. That was all it took.
How do you work best in billing?
I distrust everything I am told. I always check everything.
What makes you laugh about billing – anything?
Actually this – that when everything is going right, no-one wants to know you. When something is going wrong the bosses certainly want to know you. You are doing a good job if no-one notices.
What is the best thing that has happened to you in billing?
The most satisfying is getting the first bill run right here. I put that down to the enormous amount of time I spent writing the processes – months. But it was a good feeling.
Do you have any lessons that have really stayed with you?
Yes, you can never do enough User Acceptance Testing. Our vendor was great actually, they forced a vast range of different scenarios on the billing system – daily bill runs, strange discounts, one off payments etc – until they were absolutely happy it was robust.
The other one is this – whatever else you do go and talk to – and listen to– the customer service representatives. They know what the customers think and ultimately that will make or break your company.
Thank you very much, there are some great insights there.
further reading: RA and fraud for MVNOs – for members of the TM Forum
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