WASHINGTON-The Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association has completed work on a calling-party-pays standard scheduled for presentation to “appropriate industry standards bodies” this month and next in an effort to end the collect-call mentality under which wireless subscribers have had to function in most U.S. markets since 1983. This proposal will not be presented to the Federal Communications Commission, which is addressing calling party pays in a separate rulemaking.
According to a CTIA release, “It is believed that the CPP requirements, as specified in the standards requirement document, will provide the basis for developing national standards that will allow for the nationwide deployment of CPP.” The CTIA Calling Party Pays Standards Requirement Document, drafted by more than 35 carrier and vendor representatives, is the result of two 1997 fora sponsored by the association in hopes of moving the United States more into line with other countries regarding incoming wireless calls. The 23-page paper addresses such topics as geographical scope, caller notification of charges, roaming, leakage (when a CPP call cannot be billed fully), settlements, call blocking and billing. Also included are flow charts documenting how a call could be billed from a wireline phone, a wireless unit, a hotel/motel phone, a payphone and a prepaid card.
In sum, the document refers to itself as “defining the functional requirements necessary for seamless operation of a CPP service. It avoids requirements that would unnecessarily prevent carriers from customizing the service or methods for billing or charging for the service.” Initially, the plan is restricted to setting up CPP programs within defined service areas although, in the long term, it will allow CPP to go nationwide in conjunction with the North American Numbering Plan.
Outside callers to wireless subscribers who opt for a CPP program will have to be notified prior to a call being connected that extra charges for that call will be incurred. The CTIA plan suggests that an audible tone possibly followed by a recording or a real-time voice operator be instituted as an industry standard to allow callers to decide if they want to purchase air time or not.
If a caller reaches an automated interactive voice system, some charges automatically will be charged for access to the calling choices. Callers may be asked to provide credit-card or calling-card numbers, they may be able to bypass the CPP feature or they may be able to access the subscriber directly. What callers will not know ahead of time is whether the call they are making is to a wireline or wireless phone, due to number-portability and future pooling issues, for which the architecture still is being developed.
The document also suggests that carriers should have the option of charging CPP calls at a fixed rate or rates that reflect time of day, terminating carrier, a subscriber’s rate plan or a subscriber’s location. CPP rates will not be affected if the subscriber is roaming, and the subscriber will be responsible for all roaming charges.
All communications carriers should be included when information-exchange standards are formulated. For accurate billing purposes, CTIA’s document stresses that “it will be necessary for all telecommunications carriers to share requisite information to achieve identification and accurate billing of CPP calls. This may require modifications to signaling protocols and call-detail record exchange formats.” In addition, the proposed standard said, “In the exchange of all detail and billing information, consideration should be given to the ability to reconcile the records that were submitted for billing with the revenue received.”
Originating carriers can identify themselves in several ways, including mobile station identifiers, carrier identification codes, a four-digit NANP number, company code, operating company number and two formats administered by Bellcore and the National Exchange Carriers Association.
In its proposal, CTIA outlined possible scenarios for how CPP calls from all possible hardware to a wireless phone could be billed. For calls made from a residential or business wireline phone to a wireless CPP subscriber, a touchtone phone may be required; a caller will be asked if he or she will accept CPP charges and billing information will be entered if charges are accepted; after the call is terminated, billing information will be forwarded to a clearinghouse, which will forward it to the originating carrier’s billing system; and the originating carrier will bill the caller on the monthly statement. For calls placed from a wireless phone to a CPP subscriber’s wireless phone, the billing procedure is the same.
For calls made from phones that are billed more frequently than monthly, the procedure changes somewhat. Calls made from a hotel or motel phone must be made via credit card; if the caller refuses, the call is blocked. “Automatic billing cannot be provided because the wireless carrier has no way to influence the hotel/motel PBX or access the hotel/motel billing system,” the proposal explained. If a call is completed on a credit card, no record of it will exist on a caller’s home or business phone bill.
Payphone calls to a CPP subscriber’s wireless phone also are handled differently. First, the caller must pay for the payphone charges; he or she then will be asked for a credit card to terminate the call on the subscriber’s phone. Automatic billing also is not an option here, because the carrier cannot access payphone coin-collection algorithms. And if the call is completed with a credit card, no charge on a caller’s home or business phone will show up.
Callers using a prepaid phone card on a wireline system to call a CPP wireless subscriber are routed first to the prepaid system, where additional information could be gathered. The call then is sent back to the originating carrier or to a similar carrier. The caller then is asked if he or she wants to pay the CPP charges; if so, the call goes onto the caller’s credit card and does not appear on any phone bill. The proposal also puts forth that the local exchange carrier may be able to provide a billing alternative that is more efficient than the one provided by the home wireless system, especially if the LEC controls local payphones, hotel/motel phones and prepaid systems. The LEC would have to indicate to the wireless carrier that it can perform such a function, the wireless carrier would have to accept the terms, the LEC would have to charge the caller the appropriate CPP rates and then the wireless carrier “would send a settlement record to the LEC, possibly long after the call had terminated, to collect its portion of the CPP revenue from the LEC.”
