1. add a new conf in your a2billing

add a new conf like [agi-conf2] in a2billing.conf, make sure you have the changed the following options:

; Manage the answer on the call

answer_call = NO
play_audio = NO
use_dnid = YES
number_try = 1
say_balance_after_auth = NO
say_balance_after_call = NO
say_rateinitial = NO
say_timetocall = NO
cid_enable = NO
cid_auto_assign_card_to_cid = NO

anyway, disable all prompt & announcement

2. add new dialplan in asterisk extensions

by default, sip peer generated by a2billing will use context a2billing, so we add

[a2billing]
; for asterbilling booth
exten => _X.,1,DeadAGI,a2billing.php|2

3. add costomer in a2billing

then we add a customer in a2billing, make sure you enabled sip or iax account, then click the “generate” button and click “reload” link

also u may want to set this customer as “postpay” and a big number for the limit coz you would not charge customer in a2billing, just make sure this customer could make calls with no problem

4. set your ip phone

go to “List Sip-friend” or “List iax-friend” get the username/secret for your phone, then try make a call, if everything goes well, u should make a call successfully

5. add clid in asterbilling

go to asterbilling and create clid using the username(if there’s callerid defined for this customers, use callerid instead) in sip-friends

6 login as groupadmin/operator and enjoy

• reseller rate: the rate admin sell to reseller
• callshop rate (group rate): the rate reseller sell to callshop (group)
• customer rate: the rate callshop sell to customers

Rates in asterBilling could be inherited, for example, here’s two records in resellerrate

dialpreifx = 0086
number length = 0
connect charge = 0.2
init block = 60
rate = 0.2
billing block = 60
resellerid = 0

dialpreifx = 0049
number length = 0
connect charge = 0.4
init block = 60
rate = 0.4
billing block = 60
resellerid = 0

Because we dont specify which reseller is this rate for (resellerid = 0), this rate could be used for all resellers.  So what if some resellers want to change this rate rather than use this “default” rate? quite simple, just add another rate for the reseller:

dialpreifx = 0086
number length = 0
connect charge = 0.2
init block = 60
rate = 0.2
billing block = 60
resellerid = 1

so for this reseller (resellerid=1), when customer dial a number begin with 0086, it will use this new rate, we  can call it “overwrite”, but for other resellers who dont set their rate, it would use the one admin setted.

Just like reseller rate, group rate could also be inherited.

A:
dialpreifx = 0086
number length = 0
connect charge = 0.2
init block = 60
rate = 0.2
billing block = 60
resellerid = 1
grouprid = 1

B:

dialpreifx = 0086
number length = 0
connect charge = 0.4
init block = 60
rate = 0.4
billing block = 60
resellerid = 1
grouprid = 0

C:

dialpreifx = 0086
number length = 0
connect charge = 0.4
init block = 60
rate = 0.4
billing block = 60
resellerid = 0
groupid = 0

so rate C is a rate for all reseller and all group,  rate B is for all groups in reseller 1, rate A is only for group 1.

Through inherit rate, admin could be much easier to control the rates, like just set one rate for all resellers, and adjust some when they require some difference, also reseller could just set one rate for his callshops, and only do minor change to provide different rate plan.

benefits of asterBilling hosted callshop solution:

• reseller, callshop, customer three level billing
• all web based
• high performance
• all asterisk system compatible

here, i’ll introduce u how to build a hosted callshop solution using asterisk and asterbilling.

1. step1, install asterisk

2. step2, set trunk and dialplan in asterisk

edit /etc/asterisk/sip.conf and add your trunk there

then set dialplan, go to /etc/asterisk/extensions.conf and add a context there

3. step3, install asterBilling

4. step4, check asterbilling.conf.php

We need to modify asterbilling config file to meet our system, so check the “asterbilling.conf.php” in asterbilling folder, find section “sipbuddy” change context to be “context = from-booth”, so the sip peer generated by asterbilling will use context “from-booth” for outbound calls.

* if you are using freepbx, you can use “context=from-internal” here, then it you can set outbound in your freepbx and all booth will use that.

By default, asterbilling will generate all sip peers to the file “/etc/asterisk/sip_astercc”, you can change to other name if you want, or leave it blank if u dont want asterbilling generate the sip peers

also we need to include the conf file in sip.conf so that asterisk could load peers asterbilling generated

modify /etc/asterisk/sip.conf and add

#include sip_astercc.conf

5. step5, set resellers and groups

6. step6, add clid as reseller

7. step7, set rates

asterbilling provides three level billing:

rate to reseller: the rate you sell to resellers

rate to callshop: the rate resellers sell to callshops

rate to customer: the rate callshops sell to customers

8. step8, login as groupadmin/operate check callshop interface

9. step9, check reports