CABS Billing

What is CABS?

Carrier Access Billing System. CABS is the toll charges and the network access charges detail messages and minutes of use to generate access bills to other Local Exchange Carriers or to Inter-exchange Carriers.

For example, let's say that VZ provides me with local dial-tone service to my land-line phone and Qwest is my Long Distance (LD) provider. There is a PIC code in VZ's switch that directs all 1+ dialed calls to route to Qwest's tandem switch. If you call me, then VZ will bill Qwest a small amount of money for terminating your call to my phone. Telephone carriers keep track of this sort of inter-carrier billing by using the Carrier Access Billing System (CABS), and the carrier (ie. Qwest in this example) is identified in the CABS system by their four-digit Carrier Identification Code (CIC). VZ makes extra money by charging a network access fee; a fee that the FCC caps for VZ connecting you to your LD carrier.

There are a bunch of CABS vendors (see BillingWorld), like CHR / Martin Group.

Clients use the following companies: TeleSphere Service Bureau (a Broadsoft-based VoIP Provider) offers CABS service; Creative Support Solutions that not only does CABS Billing but Collections too.