1、 International Telecommunication Union ITU-T D.170TELECOMMUNICATION STANDARDIZATION SECTOR OF ITU Supplement 1(05/2010) SERIES D: GENERAL TARIFF PRINCIPLES General tariff principles Drawing up and exchange of international telephone and telex accounts Monthly telephone and telex accounts Supplement
2、1 Dispute management guidelinesRecommendation ITU-T D.170 Supplement 1 ITU-T D-SERIES RECOMMENDATIONS GENERAL TARIFF PRINCIPLES TERMS AND DEFINITIONS D.0 GENERAL TARIFF PRINCIPLES Private leased telecommunication facilities D.1D.9 Tariff principles applying to data communication services over dedica
3、ted public data networks D.10D.39 Charging and accounting in the international public telegram service D.40D.44 Charging and accounting in the international telemessage service D.45D.49 Principles applicable to GII-Internet D.50D.59 Charging and accounting in the international telex service D.60D.69
4、 Charging and accounting in the international facsimile service D.70D.75 Charging and accounting in the international videotex service D.76D.79 Charging and accounting in the international phototelegraph service D.80D.89 Charging and accounting in the mobile services D.90D.99 Charging and accounting
5、 in the international telephone service D.100D.159 Drawing up and exchange of international telephone and telex accounts D.160D.179International sound- and television-programme transmissions D.180D.184 Charging and accounting for international satellite services D.185D.189 Transmission of monthly in
6、ternational accounting information D.190D.191 Service and privilege telecommunications D.192D.195 Settlement of international telecommunication balances of accounts D.196D.209 Charging and accounting principles for international telecommunication services provided over the ISDN D.210D.269 Charging a
7、nd accounting principles for next generation networks (NGN) D.270D.279 Charging and accounting principles for universal personal telecommunication D.280D.284 Charging and accounting principles for intelligent network supported services D.285D.299 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR REGIONAL APPLICATION Recommendati
8、ons applicable in Europe and the Mediterranean Basin D.300D.399 Recommendations applicable in Latin America D.400D.499 Recommendations applicable in Asia and Oceania D.500D.599 Recommendations applicable to the African Region D.600D.699 For further details, please refer to the list of ITU-T Recommen
9、dations. Rec. ITU-T D.170/Suppl.1 (05/2010) i Recommendation ITU-T D.170 Monthly telephone and telex accounts Supplement 1 Dispute management guidelines Summary This supplement is intended to assist telecommunication carriers in the development of efficient processes that might be used to resolve di
10、sputes in international settlements. Before a dispute can be raised, parties should have agreed to a reconciliation or dispute criteria and such criteria should preferably be specified in the signed agreement or contract. The supplement is focused on revenue and costs assurance and it mitigates any
11、revenue and/or cost risk. It describes the details of the criteria which may be taken into consideration before raising and verification of any dispute, possible sources of dispute, and determination of validity of dispute or discrepancy. The supplement provides guidance on managing the resolution o
12、f disputes resulting from poor reference data maintenance (rate discrepancy, destination or dial code) and transactional data (recovery rate shortfall, volume discrepancy, time zone differences, calls crossing midnight and one month to the next, negative declarations, double counting, volume committ
13、ed agreements, reverse charged calls, call durations, etc.). It also describes a method of CDR exchange and comparison process and how to proceed with unresolved disputes. It is recognized that telecommunication carriers use their own procedures which depend upon internal processes, resources, knowl
14、edge, experiences and bilateral agreements with counterparts. Commercial arrangements typically determine venue and choice of law for dispute resolution, as well as any requirements for negotiation that must be exhausted before formal arbitration may commence. There are many existing mechanisms worl
15、dwide through which disputes arising in these commercial arrangements are settled. These existing mechanisms have usually operated successfully in the past and show no signs of failing to address current or anticipated connectivity issues. This supplement proposes a set of common practices and stand
16、ards that could be included in bilateral agreements between the partners. ii Rec. ITU-T D.170/Suppl.1 (05/2010) History Edition Recommendation Approval Study Group 1.0 ITU-T E.270 1972-12-15 2.0 ITU-T E.270 1976-10-08 3.0 ITU-T D.170/E.270 1980-11-21 4.0 ITU-T D.170/E.270 1984-10-19 5.0 ITU-T D.170/
17、E.270 1988-11-25 6.0 ITU-T D.170 1993-03-12 III 7.0 ITU-T D.170 1995-03-20 3 8.0 ITU-T D.170 1998-06-12 3 9.0 ITU-T D.170 2006-06-27 3 10.0 ITU-T D.170 2010-05-21 3 10.1 ITU-T D.170 Suppl.1 2010-05-21 3 10.2 ITU-T D.170 Suppl.2 2010-05-21 3 Rec. ITU-T D.170/Suppl.1 (05/2010) iii FOREWORD The Interna
18、tional Telecommunication Union (ITU) is the United Nations specialized agency in the field of telecommunications, information and communication technologies (ICTs). The ITU Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T) is a permanent organ of ITU. ITU-T is responsible for studying technical, oper
19、ating and tariff questions and issuing Recommendations on them with a view to standardizing telecommunications on a worldwide basis. The World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly (WTSA), which meets every four years, establishes the topics for study by the ITU-T study groups which, in turn, p
20、roduce Recommendations on these topics. The approval of ITU-T Recommendations is covered by the procedure laid down in WTSA Resolution 1. In some areas of information technology which fall within ITU-Ts purview, the necessary standards are prepared on a collaborative basis with ISO and IEC. NOTE In
21、this publication, the expression “Administration“ is used for conciseness to indicate both a telecommunication administration and a recognized operating agency. Compliance with this publication is voluntary. However, the publication may contain certain mandatory provisions (to ensure e.g., interoper
22、ability or applicability) and compliance with the publication is achieved when all of these mandatory provisions are met. The words “shall“ or some other obligatory language such as “must“ and the negative equivalents are used to express requirements. The use of such words does not suggest that comp
23、liance with the publication is required of any party. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS ITU draws attention to the possibility that the practice or implementation of this publication may involve the use of a claimed Intellectual Property Right. ITU takes no position concerning the evidence, validity or a
24、pplicability of claimed Intellectual Property Rights, whether asserted by ITU members or others outside of the publication development process. As of the date of approval of this publication, ITU had not received notice of intellectual property, protected by patents, which may be required to impleme
25、nt this publication. However, implementers are cautioned that this may not represent the latest information and are therefore strongly urged to consult the TSB patent database at http:/www.itu.int/ITU-T/ipr/. ITU 2010 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, by any means w
26、hatsoever, without the prior written permission of ITU. iv Rec. ITU-T D.170/Suppl.1 (05/2010) CONTENTS Page 1 Scope 1 2 References. 1 3 Definitions 1 4 Abbreviations and acronyms 1 5 What is a dispute management? . 1 6 Dispute resolution process 2 6.1 Criteria 2 6.2 Analyse dispute or discrepancy 3
27、6.3 Disputes relating to poor reference data maintenance 4 6.4 Disputes relating to transactional data 5 6.5 CDR exchange and comparison . 7 6.6 Unresolved disputes 7 7 Possible technical causes resulting in disputes . 8 8 Dispute process flowchart 9 Rec. ITU-T D.170/Suppl.1 (05/2010) 1 Recommendati
28、on ITU-T D.170 Monthly telephone and telex accounts Supplement 1 Dispute management guidelines 1 Scope The scope of this supplement is to describe possible processes for managing a dispute related to a specific account, invoice and bilateral recovery rate. 2 References ITU-T D.170 Recommendation ITU
29、-T D.170 (2010), Monthly telephone and telex accounts. 3 Definitions Definition of terms used in this supplement includes but is not limited to: An account or traffic declaration statement (under ITU Recommendations) is defined as: What Carrier “A“ sends to Carrier “B“ to declare what Carrier “A“ ow
30、es Carrier “B“. An invoice (refile or hubbing) is defined as: What Carrier “B“ sends to Carrier “A“ to bill Carrier “A“ for what it owes Carrier “B“. 4 Abbreviations and acronyms This supplement uses the following abbreviations and acronyms: CDR Call Detail Record IDD International Direct Dialling 5
31、 What is a dispute management? Dispute management, whilst seen as a form of billing assurance as it mitigates revenue and/or cost risk, occurs where a discrepancy between the records of Company “A“ and the invoice/declaration of Company “B“ own records and that included in a Carriers declaration or
32、invoice exceed the reconciliation parameters negotiated between yourself and a specific carrier. Disputes result from a multitude of reasons of which poor reference data maintenance is the most common. Factors resulting in disputes and pre-cautionary measures are described in the clauses below. A di
33、spute first arises when a discrepancy in data is noted. Not all discrepancies will result in a dispute, e.g., if a discrepancy has a significant financial impact, a dispute will be raised, whereas an insignificant financial impact may not necessarily result in a dispute. The terms “dispute“ and “dis
34、crepancy“ are used interchangeably. Wholesale business in general represents a two-way process and, to maintain longstanding relationships, parties may be required to compromise from time to time. 2 Rec. ITU-T D.170/Suppl.1 (05/2010) 6 Dispute resolution process This clause can best be read in conju
35、nction with the figure in clause 8: Dispute process flowchart. 6.1 Criteria1Before a dispute can be raised, parties must agree to a reconciliation or dispute criteria. The criteria should preferably be specified in the signed agreement or contract. The advantages for having agreed criteria include,
36、but are not limited to: Ensure that both parties use the same base, i.e., compare apples to apples; Avoid unnecessary and cost-ineffective disputes being raised; Disputes are raised and resolved within acceptable time-frames; Considerably reduce the time to resolve the issue as parties will not enga
37、ge in unnecessary correspondence to clarify disputes. Criteria are typically driven by the type of agreement or contract negotiated between carriers and depend on the nature of the business. Agree on criteria that will work for both you and your partner. Examples of criteria include, but are not lim
38、ited to: An acceptable percentage of variance and amount of variance; An agreed time-frame for raising a dispute; An estimated good faith time-frame goal for resolving a dispute; Both parties agree to settle on undisputed amounts and per term of the agreement, e.g., 30 days, etc.; Specify the servic
39、e type, e.g., bilateral telephone, hubbing, refile, committed volume, etc.; Always reconcile on traffic month never on accounting month or per contract terms; Specify if you are reconciling on traffic volumes and/or financial values. Both have pros and cons; Terminating country or city (usually mand
40、atory) specify if cities need to be rolled into higher level grouping and list the cities that make up a group; Product or traffic type specify if products/traffic types need to be grouped together, list the products that make up a group, etc.; Rate and surcharges, including currency; Traffic volume
41、s; Call count, where applicable; Terminating carrier, if applicable; Originating country or city and/or carrier, if applicable; Transit/via carrier, if applicable; Financial value of disputed items, if required. Specify a minimum value for a dispute; Etc. Upon receiving a dispute, the following step
42、s should be taken: Register the dispute and check for any previous dispute issues and their resolution (this may give a hint as to what the root cause could be). Acknowledge receipt of the dispute and indicate by when your feedback will be provided. _ 1Applies to both raising and receiving disputes.
43、 Rec. ITU-T D.170/Suppl.1 (05/2010) 3 6.2 Analyse dispute or discrepancy1It is important to understand the cause of a discrepancy or dispute. A discrepancy or dispute must be quantifiable and measurable in financial terms. A discrepancy or dispute may result from: A mismatch of rates; A mismatch of
44、dial codes and/or destinations; A mismatch of traffic volumes and/or call counts; A mismatch of products; A mismatch on rounding; A mismatch in time zones; Other reasons; Each of these is described in detail in the following clauses. 6.2.1 Determine validity of dispute or discrepancy1The first step
45、is to determine if a dispute or discrepancy is valid. This involves the following analysis: Check the reconciliation criteria as agreed in the contract or agreement: Is the dispute based on the exact same criteria? Refer to clause 6.1 for a description of reconciliation criteria. Is your own data ag
46、gregated and/or extracted at the same level, i.e., are you comparing apples to apples? Does the dispute exceed the agreed percentage of variance? Check the actual financial value of the variance. If the financial value is less than the agreed amount of variance, then do not raise a dispute or reject
47、 the declared dispute. The cost for resolving an issue should not exceed the financial value of the dispute. Not only would you have wasted valuable time, but you could be perceived as an “annoying“ customer which could negatively impact the business relation with your counterpart. Has the dispute b
48、een raised within the agreed time-frame? If not, discretion should be used as to whether the dispute should be accepted or rejected. If the answer to any of the above questions is Yes and the financial value of the dispute is significant, then proceed to the second step. 6.2.2 Determine root cause(s
49、) of dispute or discrepancy1This second step involves analysing the root cause of the dispute or discrepancy and involves a process of elimination. Poor reference data maintenance and incomplete transactional data are the two most common factors that result in disputes. Check lists to guide carriers through this process are discussed in clauses 6.3 and 6.4 below. 4 Rec. ITU-T D.170/Suppl.1 (05/2010) 6.3 Disputes relating to poor refer
