Revenue Crunch Triggers Focus on Real-Time Charging, Rating and Policy

Redknee urges CSP's to assess their real-time rating, charging and policy capabilities as new age of data consumption begins

TORONTO, Nov. 16 /PRNewswire/ - Redknee (TSX:RKN), a leading provider of business-critical billing and charging software and solutions for communications service providers, today is advising service providers to assess the capabilities of their rating, charging and policy solutions as the telecoms industry continues to experience a revenue crunch in spite of growing data traffic. The key components of a real-time rating, charging and policy solution that will enable service provides to monetize 4G services is detailed in "The Future of Data Rating, Charging and Policy", the latest in Redknee's series of position papers on hot industry topics.

Lucas Skoczkowski, Redknee's CEO commented:

"The dynamics of data services and how service providers can rate and charge for them comes into flux. It is said that an hour of watching videos on YouTube is equivalent, in terms of data usage, to sending a million text messages. Legacy IN rating and charging solutions are simply not equipped to manage the new age of data consumption, which means service providers today are potentially losing millions of dollars a day in lost revenue."

Today's data services are in need of three core components from their real-time rating, charging and policy solution in order to monetize data services: flexibility, integrated policy and personalization. As flat rate plans are being phased out and tiered pricing models are being launched, a key differentiator for service providers is the additional value that they can provide. Be it in the form of bolt on services, personalized packages, such as a Facebook bundle that supports enhanced social networking apps and services aimed at students, or pay as you go business models for 4G smartphones, a flexible rating and charging system is required to dynamically track quotas, usage, rates and individual profiles in real-time. The addition of integrated policy control into the charging layer can further enhance the subscriber experience by tracking subscriber's usage to their quota and providing balance notification alerts in order to protect them from experiencing bill shock. User profiles and preferences can also be supported, such as location, network type, device, application type and time of day, creating a more personalized user experience that engages and empowers the subscriber whether they are an individual subscriber, a family group or corporate account holder. Real-time rating, charging and policy solutions can further personalize services by enabling providers to better segment their market, deliver highly targeted promotions, including 3^rd party advertisements, and relevant incentives based on location and demographic data as well as historical usage patterns.

Lucas Skoczkowski continues:

"Today's new services and technologies require a flexible rating and charging engine that is pre-integrated with an industry compliant Policy Management solution and delivers a personalized offering. This powerful trio helps to ensure service provides remain competitive in a world where the old rules no longer apply. At Redknee, we continue to invest in real-time billing and customer care solutions to support the growth of mobile and broadband data and content for wireless and non-wireless subscribers around the world."

More information on the role of real-time rating, charging and policy management solutions monetize data services and support the resulting new business models can be found in Redknee's position paper: "The Future of Data Rating, Charging and Policy" and can be downloaded from http://www.redknee.com/solutions/real_time_rating_and_charging/

For more information about Redknee and their solutions, please go to www.redknee.com.

About Redknee:
Redknee is a leading global provider of innovative communication software products, solutions and services. Redknee's award-winning solutions enable operators to monetize the value of each subscriber transaction while personalizing the subscriber experience to meet mainstream, niche and individual market segment requirements. Redknee's revenue generating solutions provide advanced converged billing, rating, charging and policy for voice, messaging and new generation data services to over 90 network operators in over 50 countries. Established in 1999, Redknee Solutions Inc. (TSX: RKN) is the parent of the wholly-owned operating subsidiary Redknee Inc. and its various subsidiaries. References to Redknee refer to the combined operations of those entities. For more information, visit www.redknee.com.

SOURCE Redknee Solutions Inc.