Business models for local mobile services enabled by convergent online charging

Local mobile services are personalized, context-aware services, which are offered by a "local" service provider via the infrastructure of a mobile network operator (MNO). These service providers are typically small enterprises, focussing on certain user communities and their communication interests. For classical mobile telecom services like Voice and SMS, business models are currently operator-centric. For a new kind of blended, personalized, and context-aware services, business models have to be adopted considering additional actors. Concerning the payment for using such services, convergent online charging and billing mechanisms seem to be well suited. We suggest a design based upon international standards and implemented as Web Services, such that they are fully applicable in SOA-based environments.