Calling Card
- Samir Doshi
- Tushar Devani (Unlicensed)
- Devang Nathwani (Unlicensed)
How the calling card works?
- Calling card is one kind of prepaid calling system in which customers can buy a printed card from the market or from the internet. along with the card, they will get the account number and PIN number.
- Users can do top up to their account and dial the access number then they have to authenticate by the account code and PIN number. Users have to enter the destination number and if destination number rates are available then it will allow them to make calls and call cost will be deducted from the customer account balance.
Steps to setup Calling card
First, create a customer on the ASTPP system with some proper information. Make sure in ASTPP system customer itself a calling card users. It has "Bulk Create" Features to create multiple customers at the same time with a single click.
While you creating customers please fill in proper information with some available balance.
Configure the appropriate rate groups for calling card customers.
Rates should be configured with dial plan-related settings should be there with proper information
Menu Location : inbound → Access Numbers
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Access Number | Add the number that you want to create |
| Description | Add a description for your reference |
| Country | Select the country |
| Status | Active/Inactive |
Menu Location : Configurations → Settings → Calls.
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Pin retries | This setting determines the number of allowed PIN (Personal Identification Number) retries before the system takes a specific action, such as blocking further attempts. |
| Rate Announcement | Specifies whether rate announcements will be enabled/disabled. Rate announcements typically inform the caller about the applicable call rates. |
| Card Input Timeout | Defines the maximum time allowed for entering a calling card number. |
| Dial Input Timeout | Sets the maximum time allowed for entering a dialing destination. |
| General Input Timeout | Establishes a timeout for general input, possibly including PIN entry, dialing, or other user inputs. |
| Welcome File | Refers to the audio file played to users when they access the system. |
| IVR Count | The number of Interactive Voice Response (IVR) menus or prompts a caller can navigate through. |
| Balance Announcement | Specifies whether to enable or disable announcements of the account balance after a call. |
| Card Retries | Similar to Pin Retries, this setting defines the number of allowed retries for entering a calling card number. |
| Pin Input Timeout | Sets the maximum time allowed for entering a PIN. |
| Pinless Authentication | If enabled, allows users to make calls without entering a PIN through a pinless authentication process. |
| Timelimit Announcement | Specifies whether to enable or disable announcements indicating the remaining call time. |
| Access Number Call Flow | Specifies the call flow for accessing the system. In this case, "Direct Dial" suggests that users can directly dial the destination number after accessing the system. |
Each configuration has its importance so please be sure before you make any kind of changes. As an admin, you must be sure before making any kind of changes to global parameters. It may affect widely on entire calling card system flow.
Workflow of calling card system
Customers will get the calling card from the market or the internet.
Along with the card, the customer will get the account code and PIN for the authentication.
Users can get the access number details from the website and they will dial the number for the calling.
IVR will play the Welcome file to the customer.
IVR will prompt for the authentication; to do authentication, he/she needs to enter the account code and pin number.
If PIN-less authentication is enabled then IVR will prompt for the authentication for the first successful call only. once the user has been authenticated it will store the CLI for the next reference.
PIN-less mode from next time IVR will do CLI based authentication for the white list CLI only.
If PIN-less mode is disabled then the user has to authenticate every time using account code and pin number.
After the authentication, IVR will prompt available credit to users. (This one is configurable features. so admin can easily enable or disable this service)
Then IVR will prompt to enter the destination number
Based on the destination number IVR prompt for the remaining minutes (This one is configurable features. so admin can easily enable or disable this service)
Based on the configured routing strategy system will dial the destination and connect users to the destination.
Once the call has been hangup it will do the billing and charge to the customer and log the CDRs
Calling card IVR flow
