A2Billing – assigning an inbound number to a customer

Assigning an inbound number to a customer is fairly easy to achieve in A2Billing. Once assigned the customer can use the web interface to change the destination of that inbound number.

First you are going to need an inbound number from a DID/DDI provider. I’m going to use DIDX.net in this example.

We need to set the SIP URI destination for the inbound number with our DDI provider. In the DIDX control panel I’ve set the destination of a London DDI  (country code 44 / city code 20) to my demo server –

Next, in FreePBX on the livedemo server, we are going to create an inbound route that checks for the number specified in the SIP URI and passes that call through to A2Billing –

(The availble custom destinations need setting up like this first – http://sysadminman.net/blog/2009/integrating-freepbx-with-a2billing-621)

Now, in A2Billing, we are going to create the inbound number. There are various options for doing this such as importing from a CSV or linking to DIDX.net, obviously handy if you’re creating lots of DDI numbers.

There are also options for how the outbound leg of the call is charged, if at all. If the customer needs the number forwarded to a regular PSTN number and you select ‘dialout rate’ for the billing method then the customer will be charged based on their assigned call plan. It is also possible to charge a monthly amount for the DDI number.

Another option is to forward the call to a VOIP device, maybe a PBX if providing wholesale services or a SIP handset if providing end-user services. One thing it’s not easy to do in A2Billing is charge a per minute rate when forwarding the call as a VOIP call.

Create the number in A2Billing –

Now we’re going to assign that DDI to a customer and set the destination. In this exampe we are forwarding the inbound number to a UK mobile number. Note that VOIP_CALL is set to no. Also, the customer must be assigned to a Call Plan that allows them to call a UK mobile number as they will be billed for this leg of the call –

The customer is now able to see the inbound number in the A2Billing customer interface, and also change the destination –