With origin-based-rating being approved and adopted by an ever-increasing number of countries within the EEA, iCONX note the early adoption of OBR charging protocols by non-EEA operators.

The adoption of OBR by European telco networks has become an increasingly accepted scenario, impacting on billing and settlement for terminating operators, as well as impacts upon routing and pricing for transit carriers.

Greece (fixed) has become the latest in a long line of EEA countries adopting the practice, carriers are recognising that new ways of managing traffic and controlling billing are necessary. Additionally, Regulators in Denmark, Finland and Luxembourg have recently cleared the way for the adoption of OBR, and among analysts there is a high expectation that Italy (for fixed traffic) and Germany will take up the practise.

Outside the EEA, Russian operators are now being observed jumping aboard the OBR train and with many others expected to follow, including strong speculation that African and Asian countries and/or regional groupings may soon adopt OBR, the need to adopt new software capable of managing complex interconnect rates is becoming ever more pressing.

“OBR marches forward in Europe, creating operational pain for European terminating operators, even if they are somewhat shielded from the business impact as recipients of the ‘cheaper’ rates in the relationship”, comments iCONX Head of Sales and Marketing, Gavin Stewart.

“The spread of OBR charging to non-EEA operator regions will undoubtedly magnify the commercial pain for European operators, a pain which of course already exists for any carrier also involved in international transit”, he explains.

As a thought leader in OBR, iCONX offers a comprehensive solution providing total compliance for OBR traffic across rates/codes loading and verifying, rating and re-rating, billing, settlement, transit pricing and routing, including full consideration of bilaterals in OBR costbase.

For more information please contact info@iconxsolutions.com.