Mobile Subscriber Home Zone Billing

Abstract: As a mean to increase the subscriber base, Mobile telecom operators are now trying to target also fixed network subscribers. The main idea is to use the mobile network to provide fixed network rates (cheaper) for the used telecom services when the mobile subscriber is at home and mobile network rates (more expensive) for the used telecom services when the mobile subscriber is not at home. The "home zone" area therefore shall be defined by individual subscriber and the service provider shall be able to determine whether the subscriber is within his home zone. This thesis work investigates the HZB issues and possible solutions, and implements a service prototype thereof exploring user experience of HZB functionality. The thesis report starts with an introduction of related background concepts regarding GSM Mobile Network, Intelligent Network and mobile positioning technologies. Then a detailed technical solution of the HZB service is presented in terms of system requirements, design and implementation. Several major communication protocols in the mobile core network, such as CAP, SMPP and MLP, are involved in the HZB prototype. The prototype is implemented as a framework for future commetial product. Furthermore, some evaluations are conducted to explore the user experience during the call setup phase. Finally, the report discusses potential future work based on the accomplished system prototype and summarizes achievements as well as challenges of the project.