ABSTRACT: GR-2976, Generic Requirements for the Interactive Billing Transaction Manager (IBTM), provides the complete set of proposed generic requirements for an Interactive Billing Transaction Manager. An IBTM orchestrates an interactive billing transaction, providing a centralized point of flow control for the portion of a service interaction during which billing information is exchanged with a consumer, as well as providing the majority of the functionality that enables interactive billing capabilities and services to be offered to consumers.

The IBTM is a new logical entity in a service provider's network architecture, and may be a new physical entity as well. By deploying an IBTM to enable interactive billing, a service provider gains the ability to offer interactive billing capabilities and services to consumers in a more efficient and effective manner, with minimum impact on existing systems and processes. Alternatively, a service provider may choose to purchase and resell another company's interactive billing capabilities. The term interactive billing provider (IBP) will denote the provider of interactive billing (as differentiated from the service provider). It is likely (although not required) that a company will be both a service provider and IBP.

This GR contains requirements for the following IBTM elements: Real-time pricing/costing functionality - determines, in real-time, the price/rate/cost that is applicable for the purchase of a particular item or use of a particular service.

Usage control functionality - determines if the consumer should be authorized to use or continue to use a service, based on budget and credit limits.

Interactive payment functionality - determines the desired payment method and corresponding charge information (e.g., account number) from a consumer; determines if the consumer should be authorized to use the provided payment information, and if so, charges the consumer's account in real-time.

Billing transaction management functionality - controls an interactive billing transaction, invoking various sets of functions as needed.

Interactive billing repositories - various repositories of information used during an interactive billing transaction, such as repositories for consumer profiles, usage histories, pricing rules/tables, and payment rules.