The Outcollect Process

If outcollects occur between two roaming carriers, a clearinghouse, or ARP, (such as Syniverse) performs the transmission of the call usage data, and handles the billing and payments between the carriers.

Usage detail records from the switch are processed through the Rating and Billing application. IDI rates this usage, but does not bill or tax it.

Once rated, the usage detail record is exported to the ARP for distribution to the appropriate roaming partners. The roaming partners then charge their subscribers for the call.

The system determines which records belong to your company's subscribers and enters the rates in the appropriate database for future billing. Those usage records that do not belong to your subscribers are rated according to the agreed-upon rates of the respective partner carrier (roaming partner).

These records are stored in an Outcollect-specific database and then sent to the ARP in the appropriate format. CDMA/TDMA records are in CIBER format, GSM records are in TAP format. See Writing the CIBER/TAP Batch for more information.

Occasionally, a file may be rejected by the ARP. This is usually because it has corrupted in some way, or it did not agree with the transmittal file that accompanied it. The reject files can then be corrected and resent as a new file. (See Error Files.)

Note:

Outcollects cannot be generated by the clearinghouse service when rating or billing is taking place.. This is to prevent incomplete outcollect files, reporting mismatches, or locking problems. A message or exception is generated if a requested process is not currently available.

The Clearinghouse Service controls the flow of the outcollect usage records. (See Clearinghouse Service Configuration to set up the Clearinghouse Service in Config Console.) These are the steps that the process follows:

Determine the records to outcollect. See Determining the Records to Outcollect.

Start the file generation process. See Starting the File Generation Process.

Write the CIBER/TAP batch. See Writing the CIBER batch.

Transmitting Roaming Usage Records. See Transmitting Roaming Usage Records.