A2Billing – assigning an inbound number to a customer

Assigning an inbound number to a customer is fairly easy to achieve in A2Billing. Once assigned the customer can use the web interface to change the destination of that inbound number.

First you are going to need an inbound number from a DID/DDI provider. I’m going to use DIDX.net in this example.

We need to set the SIP URI destination for the inbound number with our DDI provider. In the DIDX control panel I’ve set the destination of a London DDI  (country code 44 / city code 20) to my demo server -

Next, in FreePBX on the livedemo server, we are going to create an inbound route that checks for the number specified in the SIP URI and passes that call through to A2Billing -

(The availble custom destinations need setting up like this first – http://sysadminman.net/blog/2009/integrating-freepbx-with-a2billing-621)

Now, in A2Billing, we are going to create the inbound number. There are various options for doing this such as importing from a CSV or linking to DIDX.net, obviously handy if you’re creating lots of DDI numbers.

There are also options for how the outbound leg of the call is charged, if at all. If the customer needs the number forwarded to a regular PSTN number and you select ‘dialout rate’ for the billing method then the customer will be charged based on their assigned call plan. It is also possible to charge a monthly amount for the DDI number.

Another option is to forward the call to a VOIP device, maybe a PBX if providing wholesale services or a SIP handset if providing end-user services. One thing it’s not easy to do in A2Billing is charge a per minute rate when forwarding the call as a VOIP call.

Create the number in A2Billing -

Now we’re going to assign that DDI to a customer and set the destination. In this exampe we are forwarding the inbound number to a UK mobile number. Note that VOIP_CALL is set to no. Also, the customer must be assigned to a Call Plan that allows them to call a UK mobile number as they will be billed for this leg of the call -

The customer is now able to see the inbound number in the A2Billing customer interface, and also change the destination -

Related posts: Part 6 – Create a customer in a2billing on ElastixGetting started with A2Billing – Part 4 Creating a customer and making a callUsing A2Billing to account for extension calls in Elastix

FreePBX vs A2Billing

When you start looking at control panels for Asterisk it can be difficult to decide what you should be using – FreePBX or A2Billing.

While they are both web GUIs for setting up Asterisk, they are used for different things and which one to choose depends on your needs.

Here is a brief description of both to help you decide -

FreePBX

Used for setting up extensions and trunks for inbound and outbound callsIncludes lots of features of a traditional PBX – voicemail, IVRs, ring groups, queues etc.Includes Call Detail Records (CDR) that logs all calls, their destination and duration

A2Billing

Used for billing for callsCan be used to charge for calling card, sip user or regular outbound callsThe heart of A2Billing are the rate cards that include the per minute cost for all destinations allowed to be calledLeast cost routing with multiple rate cards with the cheapest route being chosenAdmin and customer interfaces

So FreePBX is used to setup Asterisk with the features of a ‘traditional’ PBX and A2Billing focuses on billing for different types of calls.

It is also possible to combine the two and use A2Billing to account for outbound calls for extensions setup within FreePBX.

A2Billing is more complicated to setup than FreePBX. While it’s possible to setup an extension and trunk in FreePBX and start making calls very quickly there is quite a learning curve with A2Billing. Managing rate cards which hold all destinations and their cost can be quite complex.

All VPS templates offered by SysAdminMan include FreePBX – SysAdminMan, Trixbox, Elastix and PBX-in-a-flash

The following two templates include A2Billing – SysAdminMan and Elastix

Related posts: Least Cost Routing (LCR) with Asterisk and A2BillingA2Billing 1.4 development UK VPSUsing A2Billing to account for extension calls in Elastix