'Convergence Will Stimulate Billing Sector,' Says Latest visiongain Report.

SAN FRANCISCO & LONDON -- Billing is already an essential function for operators but it is set to gain an even more important role, as the onset of convergence makes services and service provisioning more complex. That is the finding from a new study, "Billing in convergence: Analysing the next-generation billing market", published by industry research company, visiongain.

Among the hype associated with FMC, 3G, IMS, UMA, WiMAX, VoWLAN and others, these services will only succeed if the necessary billing mechanisms are in place to support them. With the move towards multimedia and convergence, having a robust billing platform - as well as a cohesive billing strategy in place, is absolutely critical if operators want to generate revenues.

"While billing vendors have begun to focus on these issues, we believe they must place greater thought into the unique challenges convergence will present, articulating their strategies now in order to satisfy operator demands going forward," says report author Kaushik Das.

"We believe IMS is in everyone's picture and billing vendors are all betting some kind of "true IP billing" might take place in IMS, especially towards real-time and QoS. Furthermore, vendors all believe FMC will happen sooner than later. However, there is little enthusiasm for voice over WLAN or unlicensed mobile access," adds Das.

As service complexity increases, so transactions have to be simplified and usage has to be billed appropriately. Future applications involving multitasking and multi-modality will also require a single bill if businesses and consumers are to embrace them.

This latest report looks at billing mechanisms and architecture in mobile networks, with a particular focus on convergence and next-generation networks (NGN). Besides analysing the unique challenges and opportunities that exist with billing in a convergence landscape, this report also looks at integrated prepaid/postpaid billing, revenue leakage and assurance, and business models.

Notes for Editors

If you are interested in a more detailed overview of this report, please send an e-mail to [e-mail] or phone Sara on [phone] or see

http://www.visiongainintelligence.com/reportDetail.aspx?reportId=1267 &adSelection=Y&industryIdL1=-1 (Due to its length, this URL may need to be copied/pasted into your Internet browser's address field. Remove the extra space if one exists.)

About visiongain

Visiongain is one of the fastest growing and most innovative independent media companies in Europe. Based in London, UK, visiongain produces a host of business-2-business conferences, newsletters, management reports and e-zines focusing on the Telecoms, Pharmaceutical and Defence sectors.

Visiongain publishes reports produced by its in-house analysts, who are qualified experts in their field. Visiongain has firmly established itself as the first port-of-call for the business professional, who needs independent, high quality, original material to rely and depend on.

For more information on visiongain, please visit the website: www.visiongainintelligence.com