LCR or FusionPBX/CoolPBX Manual - Configuring your First Carrier

Go to the LCR menu, and click on the + button to add your first carrier.

Where:

• The name is just human-readable. The name must not have any spaces.
• The number of channels is the number of simultaneous calls this carrier allows. Those carriers who claim to be unlimited lie about that. There is always a number, they may not know it. If you don't know this number place a reasonable number of simultaneous calls you have been able to route in the past. This number is used for pricing calculations (if you plan to use the Billing for FusionPBX/CoolPBX app).
• The priority specifies the weight a carrier must have. This number is absolute. Zero means maximum priority. If you do not plan to take advantage of this feature, leave a 4, this way you will have space for changes. This parameter forces the selection of first the carriers with the lowest value regardless of their pricing.
• Since the COVID pandemic, many carriers have gotten creative on how to surcharge for their services. The cancellation ratio is a perfect example. If your carrier surcharges you because of an excess of cancelling calls, this parameter will help you to avoid surcharges. Use 100 if your carrier doesn't bill or this; for example, if your carrier surcharges you if 10%+ of your calls are cancelled, set a 90.
• By definition, a short call is any call whose length is less than 6 seconds. Many carriers surcharge because of this. If your carrier is short-call friendly (aka call center), set this to false. This will help the LCR to decide if it should put a carrier within the selection pool depending on your calling behaviours.
• Some carriers can not transmit faxes. If you are having issues transmitting faxes, use the fax-enabled label. It will tell the LCR to take to this specific carrier when it detects it is being used to send out a fax
• The tags label is to tag your carriers. This allows you to split the traffic depending on the values you put there. Tags are one-word and comma-delimited.
• Enable this carrier if you want it to be used or not.

Click on the Save button when you are finished. You are still not done.

Linking your Gateway to your Carrier

Edit your new carrier, you will see more options. You must already have configured your gateways. This manual doesn't cover that part since this is a native part of FusionPBX/CoolPBX and it is not a specific LCR capability.

Click on the + button on the Carrier Gateways section.

You will get a linking page like this.

Where:

• The prefix dropbox will have your configured gateways. Select the one that belongs to this carrier. If you need to add a prefix, click on the triangle after selecting the carrier and append it.
• The suffix box is there in case your carrier asks for any. Usually, this is blank.
• The priority is useful to use one specific gateway from one carrier before another. For example, some carriers have POPs across the globe, so it is wise to give priority to those who are closer to you.
• The codec box accepts the codecs (comma-delimited) of the codecs that this carrier will accept. Usually, this has a blank value. If you need this, beware that your FreeSWITCH must have transcoding enabled.
• The enable box allows you to use this specific gateway.

Adding Your First Buying Rate

 Click on the + close to the LCR Buying price label. You will see the following screen.

Where:

• The origination digits box is used when some carriers apply different rates to the same destination based on the source. This is very common in some European carriers, where they have different rates if the caller ID number comes from outside Europe. If you are not using this feature, keep it blank.
• The digits box is what you need to fill in to specify the destination. Please note that LCR uses the best possible match. This means that if you have one rate with digits = 1, and a second rate with digits = 1613, if you call 1613XXXXXXX the 1613 rate will apply, but if you call 1514XXXXXXX, the 1 rate will apply instead.
• The call direction dropbox is always set to outbound. Inbound and local values are meant or very special use cases we won't cover here.
• The rate box specifies how much this carrier is billing you per minute. Please specify the currency. Multi-currency capabilities are only available if the Billing for FusionPBX/CoolPBX is installed. This box is also described as the talking rate in some places.
• The connection rate box specifies how much the carrier is billing you per minute when it connects. Usually, this value is the same as the rate box.
• The connect increment and talking increment are specified in seconds. They specify when to charge the connection rate and when to charge the talking rate. For more details about the relationship between these values, please read the article about charges in telecom in this blog.
• The intrastate and intralata boxes are only needed if your carrier gives you these specific values. Leave them blank if you don't have these values.
• Lead strip and trial strip boxes specify the number of characters it should strip before routing. Usually, this is blank.
• Prefix and suffix boxes are used to pre-append and append a string to the destination number before routing. Usually, this is blank. If your carrier requires a prefix or suffix to route, don't use this box. Set that value in the Carrier-gateway section.
• The starting date and ending date boxes specify the dates the rates are valid. These values are compared against the local time of your server.
• The quality, reliability and CID boxes are not used. They will be in future versions.
• The enable box allows the current rate to be eligible.
• The description box is for a human tag.

Mass Rate Importing

Please use a CSV file with the following headers:

• description,
• digits,
• connect_increment, if not specified then it will be the same as talk_increment
• talk_increment,
• rate,
• connect_rate, if not specified then it will be the same as the rate
• intrastate_rate, if not specified then it will be the same as rate. Only useful for the USA.
• intralata_rate, if not specified then it will be the same as rate. Only useful for the USA.
• currency, [3 chars]
• lcr_direction, [inbound, outbound, internal]
• date_start [optional, if not specified then current date and time]
• date_end [optional, if not specified then it will be 2099-12-31 06:50:00]
• lcr_profile [use default if you do not know what to do, check lcr.conf.xml]
• lead_strip,
• trial_strip,
• prefix,
• suffix, and
• random

Numbers must use a dot as a decimal point. Strings must use double quotes (").

Note: the import script is very memory-hungry, it is recommended to split your CSV file.