Although in its early stages of development, Long Term Evolution (LTE) wireless broadband is rapidly growing. Boasting speeds of up to 100 Mbps, LTE opens the financial floodgates for mobile network operators (MNOs) to augment data plan prices, as well as to support offers such as family plans, tiered pricing, and content- or application-based quality of experience. But despite these clear opportunities, there are migration challenges operators must overcome in order to enjoy measurable financial gain. In part one of this series we divulged some of these challenges including: network harmonization, backhaul, and devices and terminals. But identifying the challenge is only step one. A bleeding-edge telecom billing platform can help operators solve these commonly-faced challenges for ultimate success: Open APIs: Open application programming interfaces ensure easy integration with the majority of today’s devices and terminals, as well as third party systems such as wholesale application and content/over-the-top (OTT) content providers. Multi-tier architecture: A top-shelf telecom billing system should boast interoperability with multiple vendors to ensure easy integration throughout the entire 4G ecosystem, which will achieve better network harmonization. Equipment convergence: A future-proof billing system enables the convergence of LTE access through a wide array of backhaul infrastructure that operators may currently use. By enabling operators to reuse their existing network equipment, OPEX can be lowered and backhaul gaps can be bridged with ease. A first-rate telecom billing platform should simplify the job of an operator throughout the entire billing cycle, including measuring and gauging new products after they are brought to market. This should include:

• A pre-integrated stack of fulfillment, assurance and billing addresses covering the entire 4G/LTE ecosystem end-to-end
• A centralized product catalogue so that operators can bring their products to market faster and lower time to value
• Real-time rating and charging, which enables new IP-based plans and pricing models to be launched faster regardless of the plan (i.e. family plans, à la carte, applications/videos)
• Comprehensive billing and revenue management, which supports real-time billing to customers and supports multiple payment options
• Analytics technology, which can examine customers’ buying behavior to identify areas for improvement and further revenue growth

With a market ready to breach $100 million in revenue by 2020, and boasting a compound annual growth rate of almost 60 percent, the global LTE market is rife with opportunity for MNOs looking to better monetize this quickly growing service. But first you must overcome these associated challenges. Elitecore’s LTE Revenue and Customer Management platform was built with these next-generation requirements of LTE in mind. The solution offers pre-integrated, next-generation BSS and evolved packet core components that provide convergence capabilities to support 4G/LTE, with a transition path to next-generation IP as well. Learn more about how service providers are monetizing LTE serviceswith Elitecore.