Telecommunications rating

In telecommunications rating is the activity of determining the cost of a particular call.^[1] The rating process involves converting call-related data into a monetary-equivalent value.

Call-related data is generated at various points in the network or measurements may be taken by third party equipment such as network probes. Generally this data is something quantifiable and specific. The usage data so gathered is then either packaged by the equipment or it may be sent to a charging gateway.etc.

Rating systems typically use some or all of the following types of data about a call:

• Time property of the call (day of week, date, time of day)
• Amount of usage (Duration of call, amount of data, number of messages, number of songs)
• Destination of the call (land line, overseas, etc.)
• Origin of call/ Location of the caller (for mobile networks)
• Premium charges (third party charges for premium content, cost of physical items such as movie tickets)

Generally individual calls are rated and then the rated amounts are sent to a billing system to provide a bill to the subscriber. Often the rating system will be a module of a larger "Billing System" architecture.

A rating system must be adapted to the constantly changing pricing policies, which have the strategic goal of stimulating demand.^[2]