A2Billing

A2Billing is a Softswitch used for terminating and billing calls for a range of technologies, such as VoIP, GSM and the PSTN, and providing a variety of telecoms services. It is an Open Source LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP) application licenced under the Affero General Public License.
A2Billing is designed to provide billable telecoms services, which allow the management, accounting and billing of a range of telecoms products such as VoIP services and calling cards. It was created in 2005 by Arezqui (Areski) Belaid of Star2Billing which is the company that supports the A2Billing project and provides the consultancy, support and development.
Applications
A2Billing is aimed primarily at small and medium sized telecoms companies who want to provide real-time billable telecommunications services, such as ITSP’s providing VoIP for residential, business, and wholesale operations or calling card and callback services.
A2Billing can be blended with other Open Source software to provide a variety of different types of solutions, some of the more popular are listed below :
* Calling Card Solutions, which are used by calling card business IVR, AAA, carrier reconciliation, and card management.
* Multi-Tenant PBX systems used for landlords in hosted office suites who want to provide virtual IP-PBX systems along with receptionist services.
* Hosted PBX or IP-Centrex systems, used to provide remote hosted PBX services to businesses with an internet connection.
* Wholesale VoIP Termination, SIP proxies can be used to load balance calls across multiple instances of Asterisk and A2Billing for a high capacity VoIP termination and billing system.
* Residential VoIP Software, combining A2Billing, Asterisk and an RTP Proxy for NAT traversal.
* Special Applications, where companies have blended software together to build bespoke applications, such as call-taker platforms for one to one expert advice or real-time translation services.
A2Billing is also one of the major components of the Village Telco Project, by providing the billing component that allows entrepreneurs to set up and operate a telephone service in a specific area.
Features
As a mature Open Source project with active community support, A2Billing has a large number of features a small subset of which, are listed below:
* Customer Management and CRM
* Invoicing, refills, payments and general accounting
* Supports online payment gateways such as Paypal and Moneybookers
* Supports prepaid and postpaid payment modules
* Complex rating rules depending on origin and destination
* Different types of authentication such as PIN, caller ID and IP Address
* Follow me
* Speed dials
* Detailed CDR reporting and analysis
* Mass Mailing
* Rate Simulation
* All protocols supported that are supported by Asterisk such as SIP, IAX, H323, and analogue or digital PSTN lines
* Codecs supported are those supported by Asterisk, which include as a minimum, Ulaw, Alaw, and GSM
For a more comprehensive list of features, refer to
Major Releases
A2Billing was initially developed as a calling card platform, but has latterly been developed to support ITSP services as well.
* 1.1 - December 2005 - initial release.
* 1.2 - June 2006 codenamed Chameleon, rewrite of the interface, callback added, multi-language support.
* 1.3 - July 2007, codename Yellowjacket, added online invoicing, payment gateway integration, Free calls and minutes packages, as well as new reporting alarms.
*1.4 - July 2009, Overhaul of the User Interface, Commission Agent functionality added, configuration settings and calls in progress controlled by database, Asterisk realtime supporting distributed systems, and hooks to incorporate a SIP proxy such as OpenSIPs, trouble ticket tracking, routing DID internally for on-net calls. Star2billing S.L. formed to provide support and installation services.
* 1.5 - January 2010 - codenamed Lignum Vitae, A2Billing celebrates its fifth anniversary, overhaul of framework and development of agent interface and functionality.
* 1.6 - February 2010 - codenamed Hickory, new Iridium credit card payment gateway, Russian language added, improved dashboard to provide more key performance indicators..
* 1.7 - April 2010 - Codenamed Larch, added new speed dial features, Calling Card locking system for greater security, customised signup fields.
* 1.8 - October 2010 - Callback enhancements to support Mobile or Cellphone diallers, support for PHP 5.3. A Leg billing to allow DID to be charged by the minute, in addition to the termination cost.
* 1.9 - March 2011 - Codenamed Cuprum, Enhancements to A-Leg billing, major security enhancements.

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