Virtual subscribers
Tariscope that is a call accounting and billing system contains a feature that is named 'virtual subscribers'. What is it and for which purposes it can be used?
"Virtual subscribers" are pseudo-subscribers, which can be assigned to a route (a group of lines) or an IP gateway connecting your telephone system with some communication operator.
Tariscope performs a call rating only if calls were made from or to a subscriber whose data are in the Tariscope database. In the case of transit calls, as a rule, there are no such subscribers and, accordingly, such calls are not rated. But if you still need to rate them, the virtual subscriber will come in handy. The entire cost of calls passing through a route or gateway will be charged on the subscriber and transit calls will also be charged.
Consider a different situation. For example, the PBX has 3 routes, each of which is connected to various telecom provides. And you want to know at any moment: how many calls and what call types passed on a route, how much they cost, what kind of telephone traffic prevails: incoming or outgoing, etc. Answers to such questions can be relevant both for corporate users who use the Tariscope Enterprise edition and for telecom providers who use the Tariscope Provider edition. This information can be obtained, for example, from a report on routes. But again, if transit calls pass through the routes, then these calls will not be rated without virtual subscribers, and the report will contain data that will not include the cost of transit calls. The use of virtual subscribers is the most correct way to solve such a task.
The feature of "virtual subscribers" can be especially actual for transit telecom operators or telecommunication operators offering services of a virtual PBX. Because Tariscope allows users to simultaneously calculate the cost of calls at two different rates, you can immediately get the cost of calls that subscribers must pay and the cost at which it is necessary to carry out mutual settlements with another telecom operator.
When creating a virtual subscriber, please note that its use corresponds to 100 subscribers of a Tariscope Enterprise license or 100 phone numbers of a Tariscope Provider license.
Creating Virtual Subscribers
To create a virtual subscriber, in the Tariscope program, go to the Subscribers configuration page. On the toolbar, click on the New subscriber icon. The New subscriber window appears where you should specify a subscriber name which allows you to understand who is this subscriber. For example: Route to the AAA provider.
Make other settings: set a rate plan, the rates of which will be applied to this subscriber, and if necessary, specify the date that this subscriber is considered as. It does not matter what type of subscriber will be assigned to him. You do not need to specify phone numbers and other parameters that are necessary for a real subscriber.
To specify that this subscriber is a virtual one, select the Details tab and turn on the Virtual subscriber switch as shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1
Save these data.
Go to the Routes and gateways configuration page for PBX. If you already have previously set route / gateway data, select the desired route / gateway from the list of routes / gateways and click on the Transit call tariffication icon on the toolbar. The Transit call tariffication window appears, the example of which is shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2
In the Virtual subscriber list, select the virtual subscriber who was created on the previous step.
Click Save.
This completes the entire configuration for the virtual subscriber. All new calls on the route (gateway) will be charged to this subscriber. If necessary, you can re-rate the already available calls data so that the cost of calls will be also charged to the virtual subscriber.
If you are using the Tariscope Provider edition, then find the created virtual subscriber in the accounts and select the month. The call charges for this month will be displayed. If you need to estimate the costs for a route/gateway for a period shorter than a month, then in the call view, filter the data for the required period for this virtual subscriber and group the data for this subscriber. It is also possible to generate a report by routes.
