User:Ldevin2/Sandbox
Bill2Phone™ is an alternative payment option, offered by BSG Clearing Solutions (BSG), that allows purchasers of eCommerce Digital Content (consumers) to place those real-time purchase transactions onto their Local Exchange Carrier (LEC), telephone bill. The consumer receives a bill from their LEC on their regular monthly billing cycle. An additional page of eCommerce charges is appended to that bill by BSG in accordance to LEC guidelines as defined in a Billing and Collections (B&C) Agreement between the two parties. Consumers remit payments for those purchasers directly to their LEC who further remits payment to BSG, who acts as a clearing and settlements provider to participating eCommerce Merchants.
History
[edit]Placing third party charges onto a telephone bill with B&C functionality, has been in practice since the time of Bell System Divestiture and the Modified Final Judgement in 1982. As part of the break up of AT&T, it was mandated that the resulting RBOCs, and subsequently most LECS, would allow other providers of telecommunication services to place their third party charges onto the LEC bill. The intent and result was to increase competition in the industry.
As telecommunication services are highly regulated and billing systems are complicated, an industry emerged as did standards (EMI) to simplify the process of taking the third party telephone records and placing those charges onto the 1400 US LEC bills. In the 1990’s there were many providers of long distance telecommunication providers IXC, Operator assisted telecommunication service providers, etc, who wanted to avert or defer the cost of implementing a costly billing system of their own, and by doing so, get to market more quickly. IXCs also understood that a single bill to the customer was desired. Companies like ZPDI, , Integretell, Enhanced Billing Services, OAN, ACI and many others emerged to reduce the integration complexities of these many to many relationships.
Billing for third party charges had for the longest time been restricted to telecommunications charges, Customer Premises Equipment(CPE), and Enhanced telecommunication charges (e.g. ISP services, voicemail). In 2005, the LECs having expanded their own initiatives into IPTV (IPTV: e.g. AT&T U-verse, Verizon FIOS), and Video on Demand, and with increasing penetration of DSL connectivity into the household, allowed for more content types to be billed to their bills. While there is no uniform standard for what is an allowable content type, it is safe to say that most digital content delivered over the internet has been acceptable as long as it meets the prurient interests of the LEC consumer base.
As it is now possible to bill for digital content using the phone, a variety of changes to the standard data and financial procedures had to be implemented to satisfy the needs of the entire value chain: Consumers, eCommerce Merchants, Clearinghouses and LECs.
Similarities to Credit Card
[edit]For illustrious purposes, Bill2Phone and like services work very similarly to Credit Cards from the following value chain perspectives:
End Users: Online Consumers choose a Bill2Phone payment option. They are prompted to enter their telephone number and data that uniquely identifies them (e.g. last 4 digits of social security, LEC billing code, birthdate, or what have you).
Merchants: Merchants collect information from the user to uniquely identify them. They attach appropriate purchase data (e.g. date, amount, product description, tax, email, etc) and communicate that data via a secured Payments Gateway and associated API calls (Authenticate, Authorize, Settle, Sale, Credit Order, etc) to a Payments Processor or clearinghouse. A fee is assessed the merchant for processing transactions through-out the value chain.
Clearinghouse: Authenticates the user against various public and private databases and then authorizes the transaction based on preset spending limits as determined by the LECs. Translates the API call into a telecommunication industry standard (EMI) format defined by the [[Alliance_for_Telecommunications_Industry_Solutions] | Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions]’s (ATIS) Ordering and Billing Forum (OBF). The resulting EMI record is sent to the LECs for processing in their normal billing cycles. Remitted payments from the LEC are subsequently remitted to the merchants less their processing fees.
LEC: Processes the EMI records for placement on the end user telephone bill, collects payment from the end user and remits payment back to clearing house.
Similar Services
[edit]BSG’s and its Bill2Phone™ product is not the only provider of similar services. Others providers include ILD, and PhoneBill™ from PaymentOne .
References (External)
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Further Notes
[edit]Modified Final Judgement:
In United States Telecommunication law, Modification of Final Judgment (MFJ) is the 1982
US Antitrust law suit settlement agreement Consent Decree
entered into by the United States Department of Justice and the
American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) that, after
modification and upon approval of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, required the Divestiture of the
Bell Operating Companies from AT&T.
The exact term for the MFJ is given under the general definition of Local Access and Transport Area (LATA), a term used in U.S. telecommunications regulation for geographic areas in which local telephone companies are allowed to provide service, the term being used is
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the Modification of Final Judgment (MFJ) entered by the United States District Court for the District of Columbia in Civil Action number 82-0192 or any other geographic area designated as a LATA in the National Exchange Carrier Association, Inc. Tariff FCC No. 4. |