ETSI TS 102 846 V1.1.1 (2010-06)

User Group; Quality of ICT Services; Requirements for Bodies Providing Conformity Assessment of Checking-up on Metering and Billing Processes

DTS/USER-00027

General Information

• Status: Published
• Publication Date: 03-Jun-2010
• Technical Committee: USER - User Group
• Current Stage: 12 - Completion
• Due Date: 15-Jun-2010
• Completion Date: 04-Jun-2010

Standards Content (Sample)

ETSI TS 102 846 V1.1.1 (2010-06)
Technical Specification


User Group;
Quality of ICT Services;
Requirements for Bodies Providing Conformity Assessment of
Checking-up on Metering and Billing Processes

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2 ETSI TS 102 846 V1.1.1 (2010-06)



Reference
DTS/USER-00027
Keywords
charging, quality, user
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3 ETSI TS 102 846 V1.1.1 (2010-06)

Contents
Intellectual Property Rights . 4
Foreword . 4
Introduction . 4
1 Scope . 5
2 References . 5
2.1 Normative references . 5
2.2 Informative references . 5
3 Definitions and abbreviations . 6
3.1 Definitions . 6
3.2 Abbreviations . 7
4 Approach for conformity assessment . 7
4.1 Scope of conformity assessment . 7
4.2 Types of conformity assessment . 7
5 Audit scope . 8
6 Audit team . 8
7 Audit activities . 8
7.1 Overview . 8
7.2 Audit methods . 9
7.3 Assessment of independent observer status . 9
7.4 Assessment of prerequisites . 9
7.5 Assessment of checking-up process . 10
7.6 Assessment of automated robots and software . 11
7.7 Assessment of management involvement . 11
8 Audit report . 11
9 Audit duration and frequency . 11
9.1 Initial audit . 11
9.2 Monitoring audit . 12
Annex A (normative): List of members of European cooperation for accreditation . 13
History . 14

ETSI

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4 ETSI TS 102 846 V1.1.1 (2010-06)
Intellectual Property Rights
IPRs essential or potentially essential to the present document may have been declared to ETSI. The information
pertaining to these essential IPRs, if any, is publicly available for ETSI members and non-members, and can be found
in ETSI SR 000 314: "Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs); Essential, or potentially Essential, IPRs notified to ETSI in
respect of ETSI standards", which is available from the ETSI Secretariat. Latest updates are available on the ETSI Web
server (http://webapp.etsi.org/IPR/home.asp).
Pursuant to the ETSI IPR Policy, no investigation, including IPR searches, has been carried out by ETSI. No guarantee
can be given as to the existence of other IPRs not referenced in ETSI SR 000 314 (or the updates on the ETSI Web
server) which are, or may be, or may become, essential to the present document.
Foreword
This Technical Specification (TS) has been produced by ETSI User Group (USER).
Information and Communications Technology (ICT) standardisation is part of the general standardisation activities, and
contributes to policy objectives to improve the competitiveness of European industry, as specified in the Lisbon
strategy. The legal basis for European standardisation and standardisation policy, including the ICT domain, is
Directive 98/34/EC [i.4]. One of its main elements is the formal recognition of three European Standards Organisations
(ESOs), CEN, CENELEC and ETSI, active in various degrees in the ICT domain. Standards produced by the three
ESOs and resulting from an open consensus building process are by nature voluntary and non binding technical
documents.
The standardization work described in the present document was funded by the European Commission, Enterprise and
Industry Directorate-General, as part of the 2009 ICT Standardisation Work Programme and executed by ETSI.
The present document has been produced within the ETSI Special Committee USER GROUP (USER) by the Specialist
Task Force (STF) 375. Several documents provided by European Telecommunications regulatory bodies have been
used to develop the present document. They are detailed in TR 102 847 [i.3].
It is important to understand that conformity assessment takes place in the wider environment of accreditation principles
as defined in European Community regulation No 765/2008 setting out the requirements for accreditation and market
surveillance relating to the marketing of products and repealing Regulation (EEC) No 339/93 [i.2].
Introduction
A significant difference rate between theoretical and actual bills has been identified by several parties in the current
metering and billing processes operated by service providers.
Several service providers, administrations and users associations have intended to reduce this difference rate in
implementing rules in order to make users more confident in the reliability of their bills.
Nevertheless, due to the complexity of this issue and in absence of any available formal standard in this area, the current
practices are hindered by significant limitations. The purpose of document TS 102 845 [1] is to fulfil the gaps of the
current practices in order to provide a reference that can be used for a continuous and trustworthy checking-up on
metering and billing processes. Such a checking is expected to contribute to a continuous quality improvement of
metering and billing processes.
In order to provide evidence that metering and billing verification is conducted according to TS 102 845 [1], it will be
usefull for a service provider to have its verification process audited by an independent party, that will formally assess
the conformity of its checking-up on metering and billing with the technical specification. The purpose of present
document) is to define when, how and by whom the conformity assessment audit shall be conducted. Such a conformity
assessment is expected to contribute to an increased trust by service providers, customers, regulators and other
stakeholders that metering and billing processes are reasonably monitored.
ETSI

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5 ETSI TS 102 846 V1.1.1 (2010-06)
1 Scope
The present document details the specific requirements an independent party should comply with, in addition to the
generic standard ISO/IEC 17065 [2] to assess conformity of the checking-up on metering and billing processes with the
requirements defined in TS 102 845 [1].
2 References
References are either specific (identified by date of publication and/or edition number or version number) or
non-specific. For specific references, only the cited version applies. For non-specific references, the latest version of the
reference document (including any amendments) applies.
Referenced documents which are not found to be publicly available in the expected location might be found at
http://docbox.etsi.org/Reference.
NOTE: While any hyperlinks included in this clause were valid at the time of publication ETSI cannot guarantee
their long term validity.
2.1 Normative references
The following referenced documents are necessary for the application of the present document.
[1] ETSI TS 102 845: "User Group; Quality of ICT Services; Requirements and Method for checking
Metering and Billing systems".
[2] ISO/IEC CD 17065: "Conformity assessment -- Requirements for certification bodies certifying
products, processes and services".
[3] ISO 19011: "Guidelines for quality and/or environmental management systems auditing".
2.2 Informative references
The following referenced documents are not necessary for the application of the present document but they assist the
user with regard to a particular subject area.
[i.1] List of members of European Cooperation for Accreditation.
[i.2] European Community regulation No 765/2008 setting out the requirements for accreditation and
market surveillance relating to the marketing of products and repealing Regulation (EEC) No
339/933.
[i.3] ETSI TR 102 847: "User Group; Quality of ICT Services; Standardization and regulation
references in the Metering and Billing area".
[i.4] Directive 98/34/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 June 1998 Laying down a
procedure for the provision of information in the field of technical standards and regulations and of
rules on Information Society services.
ETSI

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6 ETSI TS 102 846 V1.1.1 (2010-06)
3 Definitions and abbreviations
3.1 Definitions
For the purposes of the present document, the following terms and definitions apply:
accreditation body: organization that has the power to accredit a conformity assessment body
audit team: group of auditors appointed to provide conformity assessment of metering and billing system checking
activities with a technical standard
auditor: person who is competent to carry out audits
billing verification body: organization that has skills and methods to conduct the checking-up on metering and billing
processes of a service provider
NOTE: The Billing Verification Body can be internal (i.e. a department of the service provider) or external (i.e. a
specialized company to which the service provider has outsourced the checking-up on metering and
billing).
billing integrity principles: principles that must be fulfilled to state that the billing activity of a service provider is
correct
checking-up on metering and billing: activities used to verify how strongly a service provider metering and billing
activities complies with billing integrity principles
conformity assessment: activities concerned with determining directly or indirectly that relevant requirements are
fulfilled in billing and metering checking
conformity assessment body: organization that has skills and methods to conduct conformity assessment audit of the
metering and billing checking process of another party
customer: user who is responsible for payment for the electronic communication services
electronic communication: service that helps people communicate
independent observer: entity which can evidence two characteristics: independency and externality
NOTE: In the context of the present document, the independency clause means that the entity in charge of
checking has some level of independence from the entity in charge of operating metering and billing
within the service provider. The externality means that the checking entity does not have to understand all
the complexity of the information systems and network components involved in the metering and billing
of a service provider.
metering and billing: activity, within a service provider, which aims at charging a customer either by producing an
invoice or by decreasing a prepaid account
service provider: organization that provides electronic communications services to users and customers
NOTE: The Service Provider conducts the metering and billing processes for its services.
tariff information: set of principles defined by a service provider to price the electronic communications it offers to its
customers
NOTE: Tariff information includes the definition of unit price (price for a unit billed quantity) and valuation
methods (set of mathematic methods allowing to transform raw quantities into a billed quantities).
tariff plan: set of principles defined by a service provider to price the electronic communications service it offers to
one customer
NOTE: Tariff plan is a sub set of Tariff Information.
ETSI

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7 ETSI TS 102 846 V1.1.1 (2010-06)
3.2 Abbreviations
For the purposes of the present document, the following abbreviations apply:
AB Accreditation Body
BVB Billing Verification Body
CAB Conformity Assessment Body
E
...