The FCS Billing Group’s stakeholders, which include the UK’s major billing vendors and representatives from several large communication providers, voted unanimously in a recent meeting to pass version 3.0 of the Standard CDR Format which will be released in July 2015. Version 3.0 will co-exist with the existing version 2.0 for twelve months at which point version 2.0 will be withdrawn.
The update comes following a review of the Standard CDR Format, first introduced in January 2013, which identified a number of items that could be enhanced to provide additional benefits for the channel. One such enhancement is the inclusion of new fields to separate Access and Service charges for non-geographic call services in response to Ofcom’s new regulations for how these services should be billed to consumers. Version 3.0 will also feature an improved range of fields for holding data on calls made using hosted and IP telephony.
Tony Cook, Chairman of the FCS Billing Group said, “Our enhancements to the Standard CDR Format mean that it will now hold an even greater range of data and can also cater for Ofcom’s new requirements around non-geographic services. The fact that some of the channel’s largest suppliers have now decided to adopt the format is extremely encouraging. We hope that other leading carriers and producers of wholesale CDRs will follow suit and embrace the UK CDR Standard which is available to download from the FCS’s website.”
Chris Pateman (pictured), FCS CEO said “I am delighted that the specialist FCS Billing Group is ahead of the game in planning and producing an updated version of the Standard that will assist those who adopt it in dealing with the changes coming into effect on 1 July.”