Billing/LCR for FusionPBX 1.3.2 Released

For a long time, I have been working on the Billing/LCR for FusionPBX in-app software. I have been forgetting to do some posts when a new version was released, so this post will cover new things from 1.3.0 to 1.3.2.

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 1.3.2 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: LUA LCR Engine

FreeSWITCH comes with mod_lcr, which is being used in versions up to 1.2.3. Because of the way mod_lcr is coded, it comes with some limitations that make it harder to use it. Some of them:

• All information must come in one query, not impossible but it makes you create some very long queries with a lot of INNER JOINS and nested SELECTS that overload your database.
• Explicitly exported variables are a requirement. If you don't really know what variables are going to be exported to leg-b, then mod_lcr is not for you.
• Mixed NANP (aka NPA-NXX) and flat-rate carrier's list are not possible. If you are in the USA, you will find that carriers who provide NANP rate lists are way cheaper than those who provide flat-rate. However, only rates in flat-rate cover A to Z. Therefore, you can't enjoy the best of both worlds.

LCR: Anti Call Center Features

If your business is not a call center, the LCR has some techniques to insert ring-back delays. The idea here is that if your customers misbehave, they should misbehave in your PBX rather than in the carriers that may surcharge you. This behaviour is totally configurable.

Billing: New Profit Modes

You can decide if you want to route a call now only if there is a profit or not.

Billing: Deals

This is a big deal! You can now configure deals that involve a bunch of minutes to some specific prefixes to a special rate. For example, you could do some deals such as Free 100 minutes of each billing cycle to France (33).

Billing: Callback Payments

You can code plugins to do some system callbacks when a customer sends a payment.

Billing: Pricing Analysis

You can analyze the pricing to a specific

Billing: Balance Transfer

Under some conditions, you are allowed to move the balance from one customer to another.

What New Features are Coming?

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

• More payment plugins.
• More options for the anti-call center behaviours.
• Ability to label those carriers that are short-call friendly. This is handy if you want to allow call-center traffic and pass it only to specific carriers.
• Ability to tag carriers and use those tags to select your carriers.
• Speed tuns.
• Default pricing list options.

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.