10.1 Billing and Tariffs

The Billing and Tariffs menu describes tariffs offered by network providers. The tariffs are then used for deducting free minutes and SMS messages for virtual ports. In future, the menu should facilitate accounting and least cost routing.

Provider

Add a provider in the left menu column. The item is just a group including all call billing rules.

Context menu options:

  • Add – add a provider.
  • Rename – rename the selected provider.
  • Delete – remove the selected provider.
  • Default – reset the pre-defined provider.

Credit List

You can enter any number of credits for each provider and describe each credit with a different set of properties.

Context menu options:

  • Add – add a credit.
  • Rename – rename the selected credit.
  • Delete – remove the selected credit.

Destinations/Time Conditions

You can add a destination and time condition to each credit in this section. Destination means the target network to be dialled.

Context menu options:

  • Add – add a destination.
  • Rename – rename the selected destination.
  • Delete – remove the selected destination.

Tariff setting – set or change the time condition for the selected destination.

Tariff Description

Context menu options:

  • Add – add a row to the destination describing table.
  • Delete – remove the selected description table row.

Column description:

  • Note – for information only.
  • Minimum charged time [s] – set the minimum call cost. If a call is answered, these seconds are charged to the calling subscriber regardless of the duration of the call. Typically, this value is set to 60 s.
  • Charge to [s] – set the call billing interval after the Minimum charged time elapses.
  • Valid to [s] – set the end of the interval to which a row applies. For example, if you set 360 s, the row will be used for the first 6 minutes only and then the next row will be applied. If you set 0, the row is valid without limitation.
  • Tariffication pulse time [s] – set the tariff pulse sending frequency for the DDS1-supporting devices. Tariff pulses are not sent by default (value 0).

The arrows next to the window are used for modifying the row sequence.  

Prefix List

Here you can manage the prefixes that relate to the selected destination and credit. If one of these prefixes is dialled via a specific virtual port and the time condition is met, the rules for this credit are used for billing.

Context menu options:

  • Add – add a row to the prefix table. Matching prefixes are highlighted.
  • Delete – remove the selected prefix table row.

Column description:

  • Prefix – display the prefixes that are assigned to the selected credit destination. If * is included, the rule applies to all prefixes.