The Internet NG Project

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The SimpleWeb

General Accounting Questions

What’s the difference between accounting in the ‘old’ (telephone) and ‘new’ world?

Motivation: people often say that operators that offer POTS have an advantage over new Internet providers since they have many years of experience in accounting. The question is, if the knowledge of these `old operators' is still usefull in the Internet world. If this knowledge is still usefull, we have to spend considerable time in study existing standards defined within the POTS context.
Answer: We believe that we have to differentiate between metering at one side, and charging and billing at the other side. Metering in an Internet world is not comparible to metering in an Internet world (in a POTS world metering looked at the duration of connections; in an Internet world this is not possible). Charging and billing can be very similar, however.

Which actors will be involved in the accounting process and which role will each actor play?

Motivation: traditionally accounting of the POTS is performed by the operator that provides the customer access to the POTS. Will these operators also perform the accounting in the Internet world, or will accounting in the Internet world be different. What, for example, will be the role of banks in this process?
Answer: we have to differentiate between accounting of transport, and accounting of services. In transport accounting the Internet Access Provider plays an important role. Service accounting, however, will be similar to accounting of E-commerce. It is therefore likely that in this case banks will play the dominant role. In this project we will therefore focus on transport accounting.

What accounting information needs to be exchanged between ISPs/operators?

Motivation: is it necessary in the Internet world to exchange accounting information on a `user basis', or will accounting between ISPs/operators be performed on aggregates?
Answer: it is unlikely that information between ISPs will be based on users.