Alcatel-lucent INSTANT ZONE APPLICATION NOTE, 8614 INSTANT ZONE DATA SHEET User Manual

Alcatel-Lucent Instant Zone (IZO)

R EL E A S E 2 . 4

The Alcatel-Lucent IZO is an application that enables mobile service providers to address hyper-market seg­mentation by creating attractive tariff packages based on the location of the subscriber. The Alcatel-Lucent
IZO is a key software component within the Alcatel-Lucent Convergent Payment solution. Alcatel-Lucent
Convergent Payment is an industry-leading, highly configurable and proven solution with deployments
by 210 service providers supporting more than 400 million subscribers worldwide.

The Alcatel-Lucent Instant Zone (IZO)
allows mobile service providers to define
key zones, such as home zones, regional
zones and yield zones, to support a
greater diversity of price plans for
current and future subscribers. For
example, when a mobile subscriber is
within their home zone, the service
provider may choose to apply a different
rate, which translates to a fee equal to
or better than their fixed-line rate for
the month; when the subscriber is
outside their designated zones, the
standard price plan would apply.
Similarly office zones can be proposed
to enterprises: as enterprises may have
multiple office locations, they may want
to have multiple zones defined as the
office zone for their employees.

The Alcatel-Lucent IZO allows service
providers to support defined zones for
both voice and data services as well
as to support multiple zones per
subscriber. Some examples of zones
that could be offered are:

• Regional zones – supporting
specialized tariffs for regions
where fixed line penetration is low

• Home zones – targeting consumer
segments

• Office zones – focusing on
corporate or small-to-medium
business segments

• Campus zones – addressing
university students

• Special events zones – supporting
zones created around stadiums,
concert halls and festivals

• Tourist zones – targeting the
discretionary income of roaming
prepaid Subscriber Identity Module
(SIM) users

• Commercial zones – combining
mobile “value-call” concepts with
enterprise marketing partners such
as coffee shops and associated
loyalty programs

• Yield zones – enabling local and
dynamic yield management, with
attractive tariffs at off-peaks
for encouraging calls and tariffs
at peaks that make network
expansion economic

The definition of zones with special­ized tariff structures has demonstrated
the ability to increase service usage,
reduce churn and even acquire
subscribers from fixed-line providers.

Features

• Home zone and Group zone

¬ Define one or more subscriber

specific zones for consumers,
families and enterprises

¬ Apply discounted when calls are

performed from these subscriber
specific zones

¬ Allow multiple zones per subscriber

• Regional zone

¬ Define geographical zones for

all subscribers

¬ Apply discounted tariffs when

calls are performed from these
geographical zones

• Preferred zone

¬ Associate one or more pre-

defined regional zones to
specific subscribers

¬ Apply discounted tariffs when

calls are performed from these
geographical zones

¬ Allow multiple zones per subscriber

• Yield zone

¬ Discount is based on the traffic in

the zone, periodically calculated
using current traffic data and
historical data

¬ Discount info can be cell-broad-

casted in the zone (configurable
option) or can be requested by
individual subscribers via USSD

¬ Subscribers are notified of the

discount via flash SMS when
they launch a call, as ultimate
guarantee

• Geographic Number translation
to implement a pseudo fixed/long
distance call with tariff differentia­tion based on called-number
geographical zone

• Hyper-segmentation

¬ Apply unique tariffs for voice as

well as data

¬ Several zone types can be defined

to create new commercial pack­ages such as event zone, campus
zone …

• No modification of the handset
required

• Simultaneous support of 2G and 3G
mobile networks

• End-user interaction and provisioning

¬ Self care API (subscriber specific

zone provisioning & location/
discount inquiry) available for
self care channels.

¬ Unstructured Supplementary Ser-

vice Data (USSD) self-care channel
integrated in Alcatel-Lucent Instant
Convergent Charging product.

¬ Service provider administrators

can create, modify or delete zones
using a web-based Graphical User
Interface (GUI) or using batch files

¬ Database can be extended to add

parameters for zone definition
and to improve zone accuracy

¬ Choice of algorithms available to

calculate the actual definition of
the zones

• Open APIs

¬ Ease of integration with third-par-

ty information technology (IT) and
network elements using open in­terfaces based on XML and Simple
Object Access Protocol (SOAP).

• High availability

¬ High availability solution offering

active-standby configurations

¬ Geographical diversity to support

disaster avoidance and disaster
recovery programs

• Extensive usage records

¬ Generation of call detail records

(CDRs) / event data records (EDRs)
in operator configurable formats
(ASN.1)

Benefits

• Encourages subscribers to substitute
mobile services for fixed services

• Defines unique rates based on
the zones associated with the
given subscriber

• Defines geographically discounted
calls for all subscribers

• Allows tariffs dynamically depen­dent on traffic in the zones (yield
zones): peaks and off-peaks are

efficiently tracked, network utiliza­tion is optimized, congestion risk is
reduced, playful offers with attrac­tive tariffs help reduce churn, gain
new subscribers and increase
consumption

• Simultaneously addresses consumer
home zones, enterprise office zones as
well as campus zones for universities

• Simplifies subscriber-zone process
calculation with pre-integrated GIS by
entering subscriber’s physical address

• Allows end-user query on present
zone location

• Simultaneously supports both
prepaid and post-paid subscribers,
eliminating the need to have
separate support infrastructures

• Offers open APIs for ease of
integration into existing service
provider environment

• Delivers flexibility to support a
number of different connectors to
third-party elements:

¬ Real-Time Charging/Call Control

system, for real-time location­based charging

¬ Home Location Register (HLR), for

retrieving the end-user location
e.g. when Cell Id is not provided
by the network or in case of called
location option

¬ Network Topology Data Base, for

keeping the cell database of IZO
up-to-date

¬ Short Message Service Cell Broad-

cast system (SMS CB), for the yield
zone discount information broad­cast option

¬ Operation and Maintenance Cen-

tre (OMC), for collecting cell load
indicators for yield zone

¬ Geographic Information System

(GIS), for enabling zone calcula­tion from physical address

¬ Operations Support System/Busi-

ness Support System (OSS/BSS),
e.g. for customer care or customer
self provisioning

• Ability to easily support the expan­sion and evolution of the network

Alcatel- Lucent 8614 Instant Zone – IZO | Release 2.3 | Data Sheet2