The applications for signaling system 7 (SS7) networks just keep on coming. In addition to call setup and teardown, facilitation of enhanced calling services and internetwork connectivity, SS7 links are increasingly being used for revenue assurance.
Agilent and Transaction Network Services (TNS) are among the companies that tap into SS7 data to investigate carrier interconnections and how carriers bill each other. Additional vendors are considering adding SS7-enabled revenue assurance features to their portfolios.
Using SS7 for revenue leakage was a natural for TNS given the company’s telecom division owns an SS7 network that it wholesales to other service providers. Now, in addition to that core SS7 hubbing business and its validation services for payphone operations and prisons, among other services, TNS is expanding into other areas including revenue assurance, says Bill Thornton, director of business development.
Dan Lyman, senior director of service engineering at TNS, says the company’s SS7-based revenue assurance service solution is like an intercarrier connection firewall for a service provider — it doesn’t just tag unbillable calls after they’ve happened, it checks in real time whether calls are billable to prevent revenue leakage at the source.
Lyman says while revenue leakage varies by carrier, one small service provider TNS has worked with estimated the problem was costing it $80,000 per month in revenue.
The TNS SS7-based revenue assurance service, announced in February, is available either as a bureau-based solution or as an equipment solution the service provider maintains. The minimal configuration for a single tandem switch in the do-it-yourself version starts under $100,000.
With the TNS solution, service providers can create a “white list” or “black list” on characteristics of calls, Lyman says. “And if calls are not billable, they don’t terminate certain calls,” he says. Those characteristics could have to do with the calling party, the calling party’s phone number, the carrier or carrier code, or various other aspects of the call.
TNS also is working to enhance the revenue assurance offer. In late April, the company was in talks with analytics and mediation companies, looking for potential partners that could provide analysis on the SS7 data.
