Convergent Online Charging Solution. Modernization of Prepaid and Charging with Oracle Convergent BSS Platform National-Scale Unification of Postpaid and Prepaid

Involved Institutions: Instituto Costarricense de Electridad (State Owned Telecommunications Operator of Costa Rica), SOIN Soluciones Integrales S.A (implementation and integration), Oracle (technology)

Provider: SOIN Soluciones Integrales S.A / Oracle

Project Year: 2019

The Challenge:

For years, ICE’s mobile ecosystem operated in two separate enviroments: • Prepaid on traditional prepaid platforms on the network element (Service Control Point), completely isolated from the BSS. • Postpaid on the Oracle stack (BRM, ECE, PDC, OCOMC) managed and implemented by SOIN. This separation generated multiple challenges: • Fragmented commercial models. • Inability to offer convergent prepaid–postpaid products. • Duplicate operations, mediation, and charging processes. • Limited ability to scale digital offers, bundles, consumption control and analytics. • High operating costs (OPEX) and reduced agility in an increasingly competitive market. The challenge was to migrate the entire prepaid business to the Oracle solution without affecting nationwide operations, create a single convergent BSS platform (billing and charging), and unify both enviroments under a single commercial and technological vision.

Our solution:

SOIN led a complete modernization and unification of ICE’s BSS core: • Full migration of prepaid services from the legacy network element (Service Control Point) (client legacy) to Oracle BRM + ECE, fully integrating them with the postpaid ecosystem. • Unification of prepaid/postpaid business logic under a single online and offline charging scheme. • Consolidation of plans, consumption policies, pricing rules and dynamic controls. • Complete reengineering of mediation, profiles, subscriptions and real-time synchronization. • End-to-end integration with CRM systems, commercial channels, IVR, portals and recharge systems. • Execution with zero impact for the country’s millions of prepaid users.

Results:

• First fully convergent Oracle BSS platform worldwide (prepaid and postpaid). A historic milestone for Oracle and the global Telco industry. • Real convergence achieved at commercial, operational and technological levels. • Significant reduction in operational complexity (one platform, one logic, one mediation). • Enablement digital products, bundles, hybrid models and advanced consumption control. • Improved time-to-market for new unified offers. • Significant increases in efficiency, availability and scalability. • Consolidation of ICE as a leading operator in Costa Rica, with a modern platform ready for 5G evolution. • Differentiated pricing enabled in the prepaid domain for main balances, as well as for customer-purchased packages and bonuses. • Compliance achieved with IFRS 15 (NIF 15) regulations. • 90% reduction in prepaid operating cost through optimization leveraging the existing postpaid platform. • 60% reduction in time-to-market for new prepaid products. • 99.99% operational availability. • 15% reduction in churn.

Technologies used:

• Oracle BRM (Billing & Revenue Management) • Oracle ECE (Elastic Charging Engine) • Oracle PDC (Pricing Design Center) • Oracle OCOMC (Offline Mediation Controller) • Integrations AIA / SOA / ICE BSS • Migration from Huawei legacy platforms