Summary

This supplement is intended to assist telecommunication carriers in the development of efficient processes that might be used to resolve disputes 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 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 of 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 committed 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, knowledge, 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 worldwide 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 standards that could be included in bilateral agreements between the partners.