Allowances

In the hierarchy of components that make up propositions, allowances are the base level. Allowances inform the real-time network In the context of CMP, the infrastructure on which usage of registered customers will be measured – this could be a mobile phone network, broadband network or other non-telecommunications network. what to grant a subscription A billing entity that incurs a charge. Examples include a network attached device whose usage you want to measure and charge for, or a monthly software subscription in terms of inclusive voice, text, data or cash. To do this, allowances in CMP Converged Monetisation Platform. The MDS Global product that supports customer care and billing for digital service providers. are linked to equivalent allowances configured in the Online Charging System (OCS).

The different types of allowances are:

• Voice minutes
• Text
• Data
• Cash (Money) - Cash is a special type of allowance used to top up a balance in the OCS. This type of allowance can only be configured on a top up package.

Special types of allowance include the following:

• Rate - the rate plan that is to be assigned to the subscription on connection and tariff change in the OCS.

• Balance - the money balance that is to be assigned to the subscription on connection in the OCS.

Allowances can be for a set amount of the above, for example 50 GB data, or unlimited, for example unlimited texts.

Allowances have the following attributes:

• Recurring - an allowance that repeats or renews periodically, for example 100 voice minutes every month.

• Recurring Frequency - the frequency with which an allowance renews, for example once a month.

• Proratable - the allowance can be proportionally distributed when provisioned onto a postpaid subscriber The end user of a network. to align to their billing period.

• Rollover - unused recurring allowances can be carried over into the next time period.

• Shared - the allowance can be shared between subscribers under the same account In the Cloud Monetisation Platform, a billing entity that can be used to manage payments on one or more subscriptions or payments for services. An account can hold details such as payments or invoices. or agreement In the Cloud Monetisation Platform, the entity that holds the instructions for generating the bills for one or more subscriptions. including the addresses and how often the bill is generated..

• Prepaid - the allowance can be part of a prepaid product.

Allowances are used to provision propositions - they set up packages with voice minutes, texts, data and other allowances. They are linked to packages. The packages to which an allowance can link depends on the package classification - base, bolt-on An addition to a subscriber's main plan or product; also sometimes called an add-on. or top-up.

For more information on packages and types of packages, see Packages.

Subscribers can:

• Transfer allowances

  Both recurring and non-recurring allowances can be transferred from one subscription to another, if the subscriptions are both connected. This can take place via a self-care app, for example, using RESTful web services Web services that are based on Representative State Transfer (REST) architecture principles, and are therefore designed to work best on the Internet, being lightweight, maintainable, and scalable. CMP provides RESTful web services to access much of CMP functionality.. The transferred allowances are visible for the donor and recipient in AgentView The graphical user interface of the CMP that is typically used by Customer Service Agents to access CMP customer and billing data. In versions prior to CMP 8.0, this was called the CMP GUI.. There is no change to the expiry date of a transferred allowance. Unlimited allowances cannot be transferred.

• Transform allowances

  Available allowances can be converted to other types of allowance for the same subscription. For example voice can be converted to data. The conversion calculation handled by the calling application, for example a self-care app, which informs CMP. CMP passes the information to the Online Charging System (OCS). The donor and recipient allowances are adjusted by RESTful web services. The transformed allowances are displayed in AgentView.

  Recurring and non-recurring allowances can be transformed. The subscription must be connected. Unlimited allowances cannot be transformed.

• Share allowances

  In Business Configuration A module in the CMP Administation console that provides for viewing and modification of business and user applicable system configuration., an allowance can be configured as Shareable. When this allowance is allocated to a bolt-on package, the package becomes shareable because a package cannot contain a mix of allowance types. For more information, see Shared Packages.

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