Virgin Media and Cartesian announce successful consolidation of Virgin Media’s Interconnect settlement systems

The consolidation of the UK’s cable industry in early 2007 into a single company is having a major positive impact on the way it operates. Virgin Media immediately launched a programme of system reviews, selections and migrations that is being completed during 2007 and 2008.

One of the most challenging has been to bring together its two interconnect settlement and billing systems onto a single platform, so that it can in future negotiate agreements and settle with other carriers as a single entity. The project was a culmination of nine months’ work to implement one of the world’s most sophisticated interconnect settlement systems.

From 1 April 2007 both NTL and Telewest’s interconnect revenue and costs have been rated by a consolidated architecture built around Intec’s InterconnecT 6.0.7. This architecture now processes approx 100m unique CDR events per day.

Cartesian’s Chief Operating Officer Chris Johnston commented on the challenges that the combined Virgin Media/Cartesian team had to overcome: "Interconnect is very dependent on well-modelled and correct information on products and charging elements, trunk groups, number ranges, operator prices and rating algorithms. Here we had to model Virgin Media’s integrated network and also clean and merge complex data for operators with existing agreements with both NTL and Telewest. This project also had to take into account changes in the entire end-to-end architecture - from conflicts between network elements in the combined network, an entirely new mediation platform, to reporting on a range of new call scenarios."

Malcolm Watson, Head of Wholesale Settlement at Virgin Media welcomed the smooth start of the new settlement platform. "The new system and redesigned business processes will mean that we can reach new levels of efficiency, bill additional revenue and reconcile additional cost compared to the legacy system, reduce our overheads and identify how best to strengthen our margins on key routes."

Background

Virgin Media was formed from the merger of ntl, Telewest and Virgin Mobile creating a unique quad play offering for the UK market. The combined company offers an expansive set of both residential and business products and has almost 10 million customers.

Cartesian is a leading business and technical consultancy focused on serving telecoms operators. Cartesian specialises in implementing complex systems, migrating massive data and processes, and improving financial and operational control. Cartesian’s Ascertain solution addresses the revenue assurance needs of fast-growing telcos with automated tools.