Accounting Authority
Accounting Authority
MCS has been licenced as an Accounting Authority (AA) since 2001 by the Singapore Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) with an Accounting Authority Identification Code (AAIC) RS06. MCS is also duly registered as an AA with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).
An AA is a clearing house where the bills from the different Land Earth Stations (LESs) are processed and combined into one easy-to-read bill for the User (Ship/Land Mobile Earth Stations). An AA acts as an intermediary between the customer and the various LESs that provide communication services.
An AA must be appointed if your ship is outside the fixed or cellular coverage, i.e. when the ship is not able to call through by these means, or when the quality or level of service of these means is undesirable.
An AA is required to take care of the bills of a ship or land mobile, as it moves from one location to another.
After a Mobile Earth Station (MES) makes a call through an LES, the LES Operator (LESO) identifies the AAIC for that MES, and subsequently sends the charge for the call to the AA. If an MES incurs call charges with several LESOs, each LESO passes details of its charges to the AA. The AA consolidates all the charges into a single bill which it then submits to the MES customer for settlement.
Arrangements will be made by an AA with the relevant Point of Service Activation (PSA) to reflect their AAIC as that for their ship or land mobile. The PSA concerned will commission your ship or land mobile and inform Inmarsat London accordingly. Inmarsat London will then broadcast the updated information to all the service providers (i.e. Land Earth Stations) in the world, so that the bills for the mobile stations will be correctly dispatched and settled.
As an ITU-registered AA, MCS undertakes to assume full financial responsibility for settling all maritime accounts incurred by the vessels.
Though MCS is authorised as an AA by most flag-state countries, we are currently only accepting applications for appointment of AA from the following countries:
- Singapore
- Hong Kong
- Tuvalu
- Kiribati
- Niue
- Nauru