Telcordia Powers Sprint's Pre-Paid BizTelcordia Powers Sprint's Pre-Paid Biz

Telcordia's SPIT tools provide the service delivery and charging mechanisms that run Sprint's four different pre-paid brands

Sarah Thomas, Director, Women in Comms

February 1, 2011

2 Min Read
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Telcordia Technologies Inc. 's Service Delivery and Charging platform is putting the Service Provider Information Technology (SPIT) in Sprint Corp. (NYSE: S)'s pre-paid service, a big job considering Sprint has four independent pre-paid brands under its umbrella.

Telcordia's network-managed service takes care of real-time session control, policy, charging and converged and interactive services for Sprint. It's able to apply these parameters to every individual subscriber, whether they pay by the minute, day, week or month. And, Cathy McMahon, executive director of service delivery solutions at Telcordia, says that although Sprint has four brands to manage, each with their own pricing and plans, it's not difficult for Telcordia's self-contained platform to keep up.

"It's a matter of simple configuration on our platform that Sprint was able to offer those different brands all running from the same core platform," McMahon says. Sprint's four pre-paid divisions include: Boost Mobile 's $50 unlimited monthly plan; Virgin Mobile USA Inc. (NYSE: VM)'s three no-contract Beyond Talk options; Assurance Wireless's extremely low-cost and often free plans; and a fourth pay-by-the-minute brand. (See Sprint Segments Its Prepaid Subscribers .)

Telcordia powers policy and charging for more than 250 million pre-paid customers worldwide, and it says that lessons learned in emerging markets where pre-paid is the norm helped inform management of Sprint's multi-tiered approach.

Why this matters
The need for service delivery and billing management is especially important in the growing pre-paid market, given that there may not always be consistency in subscribers' plans as there is in postpaid. But, as wireless operators move into tiered pricing and adjust their plans on the postpaid side of the business, flexible and scalable back-end support will be just as important here. This is something Sprint has learned as it makes billing and policy changes to both its pre- and postpaid services. (See Sprint Raises 3G Prices to 4G Levels and AT&T Intros Mobile Data Caps.)

For more
For more on wireless operators' approaches to pre-paid, check out the following stories:

  • Mobile Ops Should Get Personal

  • Verizon Throws Handsets at Prepaid Problem

  • Leap Revamps Prepaid With Tiered Data

  • Shentel, Sprint Strike Prepaid Wireless Deal

  • Android Gets a Prepaid Boost



— Sarah Reedy, Senior Reporter, Light Reading Mobile

About the Author

Sarah Thomas

Director, Women in Comms

Sarah Thomas's love affair with communications began in 2003 when she bought her first cellphone, a pink RAZR, which she duly "bedazzled" with the help of superglue and her dad.

She joined the editorial staff at Light Reading in 2010 and has been covering mobile technologies ever since. Sarah got her start covering telecom in 2007 at Telephony, later Connected Planet, may it rest in peace. Her non-telecom work experience includes a brief foray into public relations at Fleishman-Hillard (her cussin' upset the clients) and a hodge-podge of internships, including spells at Ingram's (Kansas City's business magazine), American Spa magazine (where she was Chief Hot-Tub Correspondent), and the tweens' quiz bible, QuizFest, in NYC.

As Editorial Operations Director, a role she took on in January 2015, Sarah is responsible for the day-to-day management of the non-news content elements on Light Reading.

Sarah received her Bachelor's in Journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia. She lives in Chicago with her 3DTV, her iPad and a drawer full of smartphone cords.

Away from the world of telecom journalism, Sarah likes to dabble in monster truck racing, becoming part of Team Bigfoot in 2009.

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