The underlying charging system is essential for liberating the new monetization sources service providers crave to recoup investments in 5G infrastructure and compensate for stalling growth in traditional consumer revenues. This was recognized from the start and a radical overhaul of charging came with the 3GPP Release 15, introduced in September 2018. But, as with other aspects of 5G infrastructure, the underlying standards provide just a blueprint for implementation and there are significant differences between vendor offerings, with plenty of scope for adding value. Under 5G, the charging mechanism has itself become an element of competitive differentiation and also more divorced from the rest of the infrastructure as a component that can be offered independently, even without deploying Open RAN.…