Carrier Requirements Change Due to Soaring Wireless Backhaul Usage

CHAMPAIGN, Ill., Sept. 23, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- The free-for-all days of wireless backhaul billing are coming to a close. As wholesale carrier services evolve and grow, wireless service providers, like Sprint and AT&T, are tightening their wholesale billing and auditing practices. Many wireless and dark fiber providers have begun insisting that wholesale carriers provide mechanized, industry-standard bills and reports, which can be loaded into their systems for processing and verification. "It's a pretty common industry response," says industry expert and DataTech CEO Jon Jones. "When new wholesale revenue streams, like wireless backhaul, begin you often end up with a mixed bag of approaches and solutions. However, as those streams grow and establish themselves, providers begin to take a closer look at how they process, verify, and resolve issues with invoices rendered to them. In the case of backhaul, for example, the wireless providers noticed a lack of consistency in the billing formats and circuit inventory provided by the wholesale carriers. Everybody was doing things differently and many carriers were using homegrown solutions or cheap online services to produce bills and spreadsheets of circuit information that looked acceptable, but could not be easily processed or audited by the wireless providers. To establish consistency, providers are turning to the mechanized C-BOS compliant bills, BDTs and CSRs most often associated with landline access/interconnection billing as a solution."

"It makes sense, even if it's a bit ironic," according to CDG CEO Bob LaBonte. "As industry and regulatory changes continue to call into question the future of access/interconnection, here come these new emerging wholesale markets that can directly benefit from the standards established for managing switched access circuits. We've actually been billing backhaul services and producing C-BOS compliant wholesale bills, BDTs and CSRs for numerous clients for several years using tools originally designed for carrier access."

With wireless data traffic projected to reach nearly 16 million Terabytes by 2016 and Ethernet backhaul revenues expected to eclipse $10 billion by 2017, wholesale backhaul services will continue to expand as likely will the billing and auditing requirements of carriers. To learn more about the future of wireless backhaul, see the infographic.

About CDG:  Billing for voice, video, and data service providers. Online and licensed options include CABS, Mediation, Customer Care, Facilities Management, Service Activation, E-Care, and Task Management.

CDG CONTACT: Bobbie McKay, Marketing Manager, 217/355-7100, [email protected], www.cdg.ws

SOURCE Communications Data Group