There is a good chance you already know that current networks have a mature and stable Business Support System (BSS) architecture. No wonder operators are tasked with the responsibility of understanding what to change to support the new 5G Changing Function. But before you even think about doing anything else, you ought to determine how 5G handles collecting revenue.

Even though innovation and flexibility are vital to secure the growth of revenue, BSS changes always have to avoid any risks to existing business. What this simply means is that the plans ought to be developed early on the 5G project before things get out of hand.

Now more than ever, most initial 5G deployments are concentrating on the RAN changes. For some, they are better off counting on the updated Evolved Packet Core (EPC) architecture that maintains the 4G LTE charging architecture and the existing Business Support System (BSS) for charging and billing. While there is nothing wrong with taking this route, it may not allow for the full potential of 5G innovation to be realized.

Things tend to be different with the 3GPP 5G Core architecture as it is known to define a completely Telecom BSS, using a new service-based architecture (SBA). This will come in handy when looking forward to driving policy control in the 5G Core architecture. Furthermore, it allows new types of charging triggers which are vital for massive-scale IoT.

You should however remember that these standards replace the 4G online charging system (OCS) and its separate offline charging system, with a new 5G converged charging system (CCS). Well, these major changes are certainly going to affect the real-time charging systems while having an impact on back-office processes such as Call Detail Record handling. The same goes for charging revenue assurance and billing.

Hopefully, this quick guide can help you uncover what goes into 5G cash flow. If having doubts in mind, it pays off to do your homework before making the switch. That way, you won’t regret your decision when it is way too late, yet you could have avoided it.