Telenor plans common billing in Asia Pac

Telenor is seeking cost savings by implementing a common billing platform across three of its major Asia Pacific businesses.
 
The new system for Telenor Pakistan, DiGi in Malaysia and DTAC in Thailand will cover a combined 60 million subscribers and is designed to improve the telco’s competitiveness in the region. Huawei was yesterday selected as the lead vendor for rolling out the set-up, though some third-party systems integrators will also be used to implement the change.
 
“Our ability to quickly adapt to changing customer needs and find ways to leverage our cross-border competencies and size deliver direct competitive advantage,” Hilde Tonne, Telenor Group’s executive vice president of industrial development explains.
 
Tonne says common charging and billing IT platforms are a core requirement for telcos to cope with constantly changing business models. “In the future, operators will need to find inventive ways of packaging the new data-based services in a way that consumers find attractive,” she notes.
 
DTAC chief Jon Eddy Abdullah believes the new billing system will cut time to market for new services and products. “By sharing ideas with Telenor’s other markets, we increase our competitiveness,” he states.
 
Abdullah’s view is echoed by DiGi chief Henrik Clausen, who notes that a simpler IT architecture is “a critical component in our growth strategy.”