On gaining revenues in a 3G environment

3G networks promise a world of new applications. To make 3G a profitable business, these have to be billed. The classical billing process is in danger of collapse under the exploding load of tickets and log files to be processed. The IN based charging model, as currently used for pre-paid solutions, is much more efficient since it was designed for a real-time process. The article compares both processes with respect to projected developments in the communications market and user behaviour. It gives an outlook on what a unified billing process might look like and why it best fits to what the new world of mobile Internet is going to bring us.