 During the last few modules, we have looked at the way through which different services can be provided. These services are provided by the network service providers and the operators. However, from the good governance point of view, certain recommendations were considered if you recall ex ante and ex post through which the government ensures that the services which are offered are at the right price, are meeting the national goals and objectives and the satisfaction of the end users is also achieved. However, we need to look at the service offering viewpoint from the telecom service provider's viewpoint as well. There are interesting aspects which need to be looked at. In this module, followed by subsequent modules, we are going to look at the charging and rating requirements for next generation networks. This would include charging known as the tariff plans and then we'd look at how the fair market price is evaluated and how the tariffs are balanced according to the fair price. First of all, the most important thing is that whatever service is to be offered has to be high quality. Given a high quality service, whether it is in communications as such or it is the stored media, the service provider has to win the hearts of the end user. So it has to emerge as a brand name. It has to be so trustworthy that the user does not switch or does not move on or migrate to another service provider. So the most important goal is that the service should be charged for the service only and it should also be made vivid and transparent to the user so that the user develops a kind of trust. So the charging of the service as is actually requires the tariff, the billing plan and the corresponding rate adjustment to be such which is relatively simpler for an end user to understand. So it means from the service provider's viewpoint, overthinking in terms of coming up with creative tariff plans might lead to unfairness because the terms of reference and the conditions might not be understandable by the end user. So this can actually put off or alienate the customer. So the concept of tariff plans is the billing or the charging of the service at a price which is fair. Now the fair market price is determined by the demand and supply relationship. It means for a wide range of services starting from the most basic to the most advanced service, the customer should actually be taken into confidence that the price that he's being charged is the fairest. So the customer would actually start developing a relationship which in long term would move from getting mere communication connectivity to more advanced services such as the content can then be provided by the service provider. Actual physical goods can be obtained or delivered to the end user through the service provider and certain certain ancillary services can also be provided by the service provider only after the customer develops mutual trust which is based on long term interaction and of course billing. In order to ensure that the tariffs are fair, the service providers have to make sure that the earliest adopters or the oldest customers are the happiest because one disgruntled customer can take a hundred new customers away. So it means the earliest adopters need to be kept satisfied foremost and they actually have to be given some kind of brand ownership. This customer based brand ownership actually means that the customers actually take pride in belonging to a certain service provider. Now for the new services which certainly would require new billing, charging and tariff plans, both the old customers and the new customers have to be taken into account. The behavioral differences between the old customers and the new customers are essentially going to be there. The old customers might be having a traditional thinking about how a service should feel like whereas the new customers which could be from generation X or the millenials would be interested in other aspects of services which might not be noticeable or even innocuous to the previous users. It means the promotions or the offerings have to be done in such a way that the old customers and the new customers can be simultaneously engaged. The payment methods also have to be made flexible depending upon the particular market segment which a network service provider is targeting. In order to do that, various other aspects of services and the tariff, respective tariff have to be considered.