Prepaid 2 Postpaid Convergence

Pre2Postpaid Convergence as a concept can be seen both as business and as systems convergence.

In terms of business, community and/or friends & family price plans may involve both prepaid and postpaid subscriptions under the same billing entity (i.e. account), incorporating:

• Postpaid top-ups to the prepaid subscriptions (periodic and ad hoc),
• Postpaid-driven policy management aspects (e.g. parental control) upon the prepaid subscription (e.g. silent time), 
• Postpaid-driven alarm notification for the bill shock prevention,  
• Cross payment method discounting schemes (e.g. for each X Euros spent by the prepaid subscription, a Y-Euro discount is given to the postpaid subscription),
• Ability to migrate the prepaid subscription to postpaid, retaining at the same time the available credits as well as the event-source (MSISDN or telephone number).

As far as systems convergence is concerned, typically until now, postpaid billing is an IT-driven activity through the use of an IT Billing System, whereas prepaid billing is a Technology-driven activity through the use of the Intelligent Network.

The new business scenarios (such as the aforementioned one) clearly impose a Pre2Post convergence that should be implemented and supported by one single system (one rating & billing engine), offering both off-line and on-line capabilities.

Off-line capabilities are obviously needed for the postpaid billing, whilst the on-line capabilities are essential for the prepaid billing but also for some aspects of the postpaid one, such as policy management and alarm notification.