A recent research conducted by Analysys Mason forecasts that worldwide billing systems market will grow from $4.7 billion in 2009 to $5.6 billion in 2014, at a compound annual growth rate or “CAGR” of 3.7 percent.
The report, “Billing systems: worldwide forecast 2010–2014” attributes the slow rate to limited spending on postpaid billing solutions.
The forecast does not include prepaid billing or the real-time aspects of converged billing solutions, officials at Analysys (News - Alert) Mason said. The research agency separately covered these two high-growth segments in its “Service delivery platforms: worldwide forecast 2010–2014” report published in August 2010.
However, the report finds that in the later years of the forecast, the spending on billing software will regain the long-term trend of 4 percent growth, mainly driven by growth in the number of subscribers in emerging markets.
Apart from the subscriber growth, the competition in mature and emerging markets, and growth in mobile data and related services will also accelerate the growth in the later part of the forecast period, according to Peter Mottishaw (News - Alert), principal analyst at Analysys Mason and author of the report.
Mottishaw also said in the long term, growth will also be driven by CSPs’ need to reduce their cost structures and support new business models, as well as by the growth of cloud computing and renewed interest in convergence projects.
Among the postpaid billing systems, partner and interconnect billing will be the fastest growing segment, which is forecasted to grow at a 6.7 percent CAGR, from $0.5 billion in 2009 to $0.6 billion in 2014.
This, according to analysts at Analysys Mason, is to due to the increasing importance of partner settlement as CSPs sign up new partners to support new business opportunities. Settlement for mobile roaming will also contribute to growth.
Another growth area comes from business optimization systems, which according to the analysis will grow at a 5.8 percent CAGR, from $0.7 billion in 2009 to $0.9 billion in 2014. This is driven by a shift towards using commercial platforms rather than in-house developments for fraud management, revenue assurance and analytics.
Analysis Mason finds that rating and pricing are at the core of postpaid billing platforms, but the focus of CSPs’ investments in this area has shifted towards real-time charging.
Following this trend, the research agency predicts that spending in this segment will grow at a very modest 3.1 percent CAGR from $3.0 billion in 2009 to $3.5 billion in 2014.
Rajani Baburajan is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Rajani's articles, please visit her columnist page.Edited by Juliana Kenny