Billing/LCR for FusionPBX 1.2.2 Released

For a long time, I have been working on the Billing/LCR for FusionPBX in-app software.

The LCR software has the main objective to help you to save money by selecting automatically the cheapest route depending on your destination. However, LCR is more than that. LCR allows you to have smart fault tolerance, it will always try the first best option, then the second-best option which is not always the same.

The BIlling software allows you to bill for your PBX use. You will be able to bill by the minute, by the call or a combination of both. It also allows you to deal with different currencies and

I am very proud to present version 1.2.2 with the following outstanding changes. 

Before I forget, you can download it from OKay's download area, or if you are a CentOS user, you can get the RPMs which does the installation process really easy.

Outstanding Changes

LCR: FAX Carriers

Some carriers are not very good for FAX, maybe they only offer codec g.729 or they don't support T38. Whatever is the reason, you may want to still use the LCR to get the best rate. When a carrier is labelled as FAX enabled, all the calls that are marked with the variable for_fax = 1 or for_fax = true will be routed exclusively through those carriers. Non-fax calls will be as usual; they can be routed through any carrier.

LCR: Importing Using the CLI

Some carriers have a huge rating list. If you import using the web interface, you may have the 504 gateway error, or 503 out of memory. This is because the script delays too much to be done or your system runs out of memory. Anyway, you can now use the same script within the command line to import massive CSV files. The format remains the same.

LCR: Better CSV Support

Some bug fixes were squashed regarding importing CSV files.

Billing: New FreeSWITCH Variables

Usually, the LCR is the one that passes billing information to the billing module. The billing has become more independent on this part, and now you can set the lcr_[user_]* variables within a dialplan.

Billing: Enhanced XML Importer Requirements

Billing 1.2.2 requires the Enhanced XML Importer 1.2.2.

What New Features are Coming?

Although I can't promise that this will happen for sure. I have the following features in my sight:

• IntraLATA Support for the LCR. Most carriers give you a flat rate to a given destination regardless of the caller ID. However, some other carriers are able to give you lower rates depending on the caller ID (also know as IntraLATA). This is very common in the USA. The idea is to let the LCR for FusionPBX to use IntraLATA and a flat rate rating list mixed, so you get the best of both worlds.
• Different currencies for different carriers. Have you found a very cheap carrier that gives you prices in another currency different than the USD? If the answer is yes, at this moment you can't load its rates right away, you would need to convert the rates to USD (or the default rate of the other carriers) in order to let the LCR do a fair comparison. Because the rate of the currency versus the USD is variable always and because the VoIP profits are less than cents you can't afford always to absorb the variance on some currencies; therefore, this workaround would fail. The idea here is to allow the LCR to evaluate correctly the rate by converting it in real-time.
• WHMCS Hookups: if you like me love WHMCS, you will realize that it is all about hookups to push information to external systems. The idea here is to allow WHMCS to push information into the FusionPBX to let it know about purchases and payments done.
• More payment plugins.
• Packages support. The idea here is to allow you to do some crazy packages like 5$ monthly for the first 100 minutes to the USA or Canada.
• Balance transfer. Line some other companies, the idea here is allowing your customers to gift some balance to others.

If you feel you need some of this or another new capability, don't hesitate on contacting me, you could sponsor one and speed up the process.

P.D. Don't forget to support the open-source funding.