Policy Control & Charging

Offer a range of personalized pricing packages that successfully meet the most stringent user demands. Effectively manage the consumption needs of various subscriber segments and ensure that revenues are directly related to utilization.

Here are a few examples:

• Personalized packages and pricing for Facebook, YouTube, P2P traffic, etc.
• Pricing, quota and QoS-based packages, each configured to a specific service, such as gaming, VoIP, video streaming, or other dedicated OTT applications (e.g. allocation or top-up of prioritized bandwidth for gaming, video, etc.)
• Time and location-based pricing on an application-based formation: enabling operators to offer Internet access at discounted rates or other ‘Happy Hour’ promotions, based upon usage during non-peak hours
• Zero-rated apps, free access to specific content (e.g. free Wikipedia or free Twitter access)

Offer cross-promotions across a range of devices (fixed, mobile, HD TV, etc.) or services (voice, data, video, etc.). Create incentives for subscribers to sign up for premium services.

Some of the possibilities provided by FTS Billing Policy Control include:

• Issuing money credits for premium service subscriptions (private cloud, video, etc.)
• Refunding data consumed for premium services (e.g. gaming, VoIP) for regular Internet usage
• Providing data vouchers (e.g. for dedicated bandwidth for gaming) for subscribers who purchase a new video game in a retail store

Alert subscribers in real-time when they are about to reach their data usage limit and offer a broad range of options to resolve the immediate and long-term associated issues:

• Real-time self-controlled data usage plans
• Roaming cost control features
• Usage caps
• User defined notification alerts
• Operator-defined rules when 100% usage has been reached

Offer a variety of rates and quotas per PC, smartphone, tablet, or any other device, to one or multiple subscribers. Help users stay in control by being able to see which device is using what type of data and how much has been consumed.

Gain the flexibility to offer:

• Low-cost data plans for low-usage devices
• A family or small business plan with a large block of shared data and unlimited talk and text for a flat rate for multiple users
• Time, bandwidth or application usage-based packages (per device or per person)
• Concurrent quota sharing plans
• Different quota notifications to customers with multiple devices

Offer new deals, services and pricing models quickly and easily.

FTS Billing enables:

• Policy rules based on transaction type, time of day, network congestion, interactions frequency, criticality of data etc.
• Congestion-based pricing according to the traffic load
• Application, time and location-based pricing

FTS Billing Policy Control, integrated with an external third party Wi-Fi offloading platform, gives an operator’s marketing team the ability to easily and rapidly introduce policy and charging rules that switch the user from the mobile network to the operator’s-owned Wi-Fi networks or partner hotspot providers.

This enables an operator’s marketers to implement and deploy innovative ideas without programming involvement.

A few examples of such plans are:

• Offloading video only and leaving VoIP or VoLTE services on the regular cellular network
• Incentives such as data credits (additional free megabytes of data usage) for customers who are willing to move certain traffic to Wi-Fi (video, music, gaming, etc.)
• Charging the subscriber per transport layer (Wi-Fi/mobile), for example lower rates for data transferred over Wi-Fi (i.e. each MB is calculated as if it were 0.5 MB)

Drive up consumption of bandwidth-hungry video services while freeing customers from a portion of the charges, by allowing them to access fixed or mobile content without it affecting their data plan. Data charges for that specific usage are billed directly to the sponsoring company rather than the user.

FTS’ policy control enables:

• Toll free (1-800 style) data services in which certain usage or applications are not charged or counted as part of the monthly quota (zero-rated usage)
• Mobile data costs are moved from the consumer to the content provider via a two-sided charging model for mobile data. Advertisers, app developers or content providers foot the bill for the data used

We enable the creation of various revenue sharing models, supporting multiple over-the-top (OTT) providers, different service levels and different types of data.

Operators can manage OTT partner relationships through:

• The creation and control of invoices
• Handling payments
• Managed balances

Furthermore, FTS Policy Control allows flexible negotiation terms and personalized contract creation with each type of partner.

Manage allocated bandwidth per subscriber. Offer extended bandwidth-on-demand with a Turbo Service plan. Allow subscribers to increase download bandwidth instantaneously for a pre-set quota or period of time.

Subscribers can temporarily increase data bandwidth/speed for an additional payment simply by pressing a Turbo Button, dynamically improving performance of an application at the time of usage.

With FTS Billing Policy Control you can:

• Send automated notifications to users
• Enable instant purchase of a turbo boost package for a particular game or to stream high-definition video
• Provide turbo boosting for user-selected, pre-defined periods

Introduce fair usage policy management methods. When users exceed or abuse their data plan usage levels, the service provider has the option to slow the speed in order that all subscribers can enjoy quality access to the Internet. Fair usage dictates average bandwidth thresholds, with allowances for extended bandwidth access.

Using these measures, operators have the flexibility to implement a number of options:

• Assure availability of network resources for all subscribers by preventing overall bandwidth throttling by a few specific subscribers
• Send a warning notification (e.g. SMS or email) indicating excessive usage and preventing bill shock
• Down-speeding usage or limiting prioritization
• Restricting bandwidth-intensive services or applications during peak traffic hours
• Providing options to sign up for a temporary or permanent upgrade in a service plan
• Prioritizing or blocking specific services, content or applications in order to encourage subscribers to move away from basic, flat-rate data plans and take advantage of special, personalized offers or packages

Enable your customers to protect their children from:

• Text or video bullying
• Exposure to inappropriate, harmful or illegal content
• Sending inappropriate texts and images
• Overspending
• Location-based harassment and dangers

Give parents the capability to control, monitor and set limits on their children’s Internet usage based on content type, time of day and service type:

• Quota management for a child’s account or device
• Limiting times for Internet access
• Application control
• Spending control

Allow subscribers to test specific broadband services or new digital content and premium services by purchasing an initial quota for a trial period. Once it ends or the trial quota is depleted, FTS Billing Policy Control redirects the subscriber to the web portal, offering options such as:

• A hotline upgrade to high speed bandwidth, while continuing with the ongoing session
• An upgrade plan with a monthly quota
• A pricing plan that varies according to quota
• Remain with the basic access speed