Modernization of the Charging System: From Batch Rating to Online Charging

Involved Institutions: Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE) – State Owned Telecommunications Operator of Costa Rica.

Provider: SOIN Soluciones Integrales S.A (Implementation Services) and Oracle (Technology)

Project Year: 2017

The Challenge:

ICE operated its postpaid charging scheme on Oracle Pipeline, a batch rating engine that was significantly limited in the following areas: • Real-time charging capabilities • Flexibility to launch dynamic commercial offers • Immediate consumption control • Evolution toward convergent models and advanced services • The organization required a secure and progressive transition to a modern, online and highly scalable charging ecosystem, capable of processing millions of events in real time, without impacting nationwide operations or customer experience.

Our solution:

SOIN executed a comprehensive modernization of ICE’s charging stack, which included: • Migration from Oracle Pipeline batch rating → Oracle ECE (Elastic Charging Engine), Oracle’s new online rating engine. • Migration of Oracle Pricing engine → Oracle PDC (Pricing Design Center) to centralize and accelerate the management of pricing, rules, and tariffs. • Implementation of OCOMC (Oracle Communications Offline Mediation Controller) as the new batch mediation layer for postpaid events. • Full integration with Oracle BRM, CRM, and the existing BSS architecture. • Reengineering of commercial and rating processes to support real-time charging. • Migration with no impact to end users, maintaining 24/7 operational continuity with 99.9% availability.

Results:

• First productive online Oracle ECE deployment worldwide. A global milestone for Oracle Communications and ICE. • 15% reduction in time-to-market for new plans and promotions through Oracle PDC. • Improved control, transparency, and accuracy of consumption for customers, commercial areas, and support systems. • Platform ready for convergent models, advanced digital services, and evolution toward 5G. • Significant increase in performance, resilience, and reliability of the charging ecosystem. • Real-time rating enabled for 100% of the postpaid business.

Technologies used:

• Oracle Elastic Charging Engine (ECE) • Oracle Pricing Design Center (PDC) • Oracle Offline Mediation Controller (OCOMC) • Oracle Billing and Revenue Management (BRM) • AIA / SOA / ICE BSS integrations