Summary
Revenue Assurance that has been the standard in landline billing is being surpassed in mobile services with mining customer bills and complaints to fend off carrier-switching.
Analysis
Revenue Assurance was the billing vanguard for landline networks and operating profits. But mobile services creates a new model for revenue assurance. Mobile revenue assurance is mining for customer acceptance of the bill. The mobile analytics are what customers dispute the bill and makes calls to customer service. And the key metric is the correlation of high billing and carrier-switching. Revenue assurance yields to retention assurance. Overage or excessive billing on megabytes and minutes are the threat to retaining customers. The penalties by Florida’s attorney general on Verizon and AT&T for billing free ring tones sets the parameters for mobile billing beyond revenue leakage on the network. Carrier’s urgency for content and apps revenue is compromised by overseeing assurance for the entire mobile bill.
For minutes of usage, Verizon is doing direct mail to high billers offering unlimited plans from $99 to $139. Verizon pitches the so-called “rate plan upgrade” with the benefits of not changing the contract period or phone replacement eligibility. Verizon envisions their option to switch to $99-$139 rate plans will fend off carrier-switchers. With Sprint advertising $50 to $70 unlimited, Verizon has a challenge in customer perception.
