AT&T Broadband has awarded Convergys Corp. two separate contracts to
handle billing for the MSO's cable-telephony operations.
While the deals represent a big shot in the arm for Convergys, they could
hurt Colorado-based rival CSG Systems International Inc., which has a
long-standing billing relationship with the nation's largest cable operator.
CSG currently handles AT&T Broadband's video billing and a good portion
of its high-speed-data service billing. CSG officials were not immediately
available for comment.
Under terms of the first agreement, Convergys will handle outsourced billing
for AT&T Broadband's residential phone customers. The MSO will tap
Convergys' 'Integrated Communications Operations Management System (ICOMS)' in a
number of its phone markets later this year.
In the second part of the deal, AT&T Broadband will use Convergys' ICOMS
to bill commercial business phone customers for a five-year term, beginning
later this year.
Financial terms of the agreements were not disclosed.
AT&T Broadband 'needed a billing and customer-care partner with a
solution that could support our aggressive growth plans,' executive vice
president of engineering and telephony operations Greg Braden said in a press
release.
The operator surpassed its goal to acquire 500,000 cable-telephony
subscribers by the end of 2000.
Convergys had also been the telephony-billing partner of MediaOne Group Inc.
before it merged with AT&T Broadband last year.
AT&T Broadband's decision to use a company other than CSG for telephone
billing has been on the horizon since October, when both companies agreed to
dismiss a demand for arbitration, resulting in a number of amendments to CSG's
and AT&T Broadband's
'Master Subscriber Management System Agreement.' In
one amendment, CSG waived its exclusivity rights pertaining to residential
wireline telephony.
