WP
CLEC
ILEC
Tandem
ILEC
Common Trunk 123 Direct Trunk (DT)
DT
DT
DT
Carrier Billing: Advanced Topics
• Revenue assurance/phantom traffic – Phantom traffic
• ILEC can record incoming trunk 123 but cannot identify the CIC or OCN of the responsible customer
• Direct trunk numbers at the access tandem are translated to CIC’s/OCN’s to determine the customer to bill
• Terminating usage is billed based on whose network is used, not necessarily who owns the from number
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Carrier Billing: Advanced Topics
• Revenue assurance/phantom traffic – Phantom traffic study
• ILEC records the common trunk
• Usage received from the access tandem is matched (call-for-call) against the common trunk recording
• Switch timing differences must be taken into account to match the two recordings
• Usage not received as CDR’s makes the study difficult (not impossible) as you will only have MOU comparisons for this usage and will not be able to do call-for-call matches
• Make sure the usage period is the same when doing the study
• Create a file or spreadsheet of unmatched usage
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Carrier Billing: Advanced Topics
• Revenue assurance/phantom traffic – Phantom traffic study
• If you subtend multiple tandems, you may want to study usage from the different tandems individually
• May want to temporarily record local and EAS trunks to determine if toll, wireless and/or CLEC usage is routed over these trunks
• Depending on the CDR’s available from the access
tandem(s), you may want to start with a smaller study, maybe 1 – 3 days. This will give you a smaller volume of unmatched usage to research. If you elect to do this, make sure
business days are studied. Once you are comfortable with the 1 – 3 day study, a 30 day study could be done
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Carrier Billing: Advanced Topics
• Revenue assurance/phantom traffic – Phantom traffic study
• Unmatched usage needs to be researched
• Start by determining who owns the from number or from LRN
• This may establish a pattern and you may find usage is missing for a certain customer from the access tandem
• Hopefully you can find a contact to work with at the access tandem (account manager)
• You may need to send examples of the unmatched usage so they can research why you are not receiving CDR’s
• Even if you can’t establish a pattern, unmatched usage may be helpful in resolving phantom traffic
Carrier Billing: Advanced Topics
• Revenue assurance/phantom traffic – Phantom traffic study
• SS7 probes can also provide additional insight
• AMA from the switch, EMI from the access tandem and data from the SS7 probe can all be attempted to be matched
• Sometimes fields recorded by the SS7 probe might help support the recording of one or the other or may take the research a different direction
• Sometimes the SS7 probe lets you target certain types of calls you are researching or lets you filter or drill down to assist in the research
• Is anyone using SS7 probe recordings as the input for your CABs billings?
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Carrier Billing: Advanced Topics
• Revenue assurance/phantom traffic – Phantom traffic study
• If you have toll, wireless or CLEC usage routed over EAS or local trunks, you may find you are receiving CDR’s from the access tandem
• You still may want to work with your access tandem contact to have this usage routed correctly. If you have direct or EAS trunks established with a customer and their usage is routing over the common trunk, you may want to see if usage can be rerouted
182
Carrier Billing: Advanced Topics
• Revenue assurance/phantom traffic – Phantom traffic study
• Some ILEC’s have reported they have 20 – 30% phantom traffic
• Need to examine your usage
• Need to do this periodically
• Sometimes you may need to work with a customer directly
183
Carrier Billing: Advanced Topics
• Industry documents – NECA FCC Tariff No. 4
• Administered by NECA
• Describes the location and technical capabilities of wire centers providing access telecommunications service. It contains interconnection information that supports the ordering and billing of jointly provided (meet point or billing percent) access service and data for determining the distance (airline mileage) of any particular segment of access transmissions for billing purposes
• The Tariff No.4 on-line system locks on the 6th of every month and takes effect on the first day of the following month
Carrier Billing: Advanced Topics
• Industry documents
– NECA Tariff No. 4 Wire Center Information
• Contains technical information for all Wire Centers (rating points) providing access service
• Locality (city, town, village)
• Common Language Location Identifier (CLLI) – City (4), State (2), Building, Network-Site code (2), SWC, Functional Category of Equipment - Network Entity code (3)
• Vertical and Horizontal (V&H) Coordinates
• Company Code (OCN)
• LATA
• Office Type Code – description of the capabilities and services available for that specific Wire Center
• NPA NXX
185
Carrier Billing: Advanced Topics
• Industry documents
– NECA Tariff No. 4 Billing Percentage Information
• Billing percentages are established between two or more carriers involved in the joint provisioning of access service.
These percentages must be mutually agreed to by the carriers involved (concurrence)
• Locality (city, town, village)
• Location Code – first 8 characters of CLLI
• Company Code (OCN)
• Billing Percentage
• Office Indicator – end or intermediate
• Service Type (SVC) – ALL, SPA, SWA, OPH, SWD, SWT, SWO, TSO, DTO, FGB, FCD
186
Carrier Billing: Advanced Topics
• Industry documents
– NECA Tariff No. 4 Subtending Wire Center Information
• Identifies the relationships between primary and subtending Wire Centers for the ordering and provisioning of access service
• LATA
• Locality (city, town, village)
• Common Language Location Identifier (CLLI)
• Office Type Code
• Company Code (OCN)
• A list or description of the Subtending Offices
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Carrier Billing: Advanced Topics
• Industry documents – NECA Tariff No. 4
• On-line tool allows airline mileage to be calculated by entering V&H coordinates