This section describes the steps by which the IDI platform selects the appropriate rate detail to assign a cost to a usage record. These steps are performed for both retail and wholesale pricing plans to calculate the retail and wholesale costs.
Step 1 - Get the Service Number, Customer, Distance Type
When a call is rated, the originating number, terminating number, and usage type are read from the Usage Detail Record (UDR) and used to determine the service number, customer, and distance type. For international usage, dialed digits are evaluated to determine the country, region, and city code.
Step 2 - Establish the Pricing Plan Search Order
The IDI platform finds all pricing plans assigned to an account at the account level and puts them in a search order according to pricing plan group (or pricing plan category) and processing order. Plans belonging to the highest ranking group are searched first, starting with the highest ranked plan in the group. Again, a lower number translates to a higher rank. If no plan in the group covers the usage type, the next group is searched, and so on. After establishing search order for account-level plans, the process is repeated for service-level plans.
Step 3 - Find the Rate Detail
The IDI platform searches the pricing plans to find the Rate Plan Detail that matches the distance type, rate method, and location. First, The IDI platform searches for the distance type starting with the closest distance and working toward international. When a distance type match is found, The IDI platform searches for the applicable rate method, starting at the most specific and working toward the most general until a match is found. The Default rate detail is used if none of the evaluations produces a match.
If a match is not found (and Default is not used to cover locations not specifically defined for the distance type) The IDI platform proceeds to the next pricing plan and follows the same path.
Step 4 - Calculate the Charge for the Call
Once a matching rate detail is found, the IDI platform calculates the charge for the usage record using the initial and additional per-second values, the rate periods (day, evening, and night), time of day groups, and type of day (for example, weekday, holiday, and so on). Cost is computed based on rate time periods.
If a usage record overlaps two rate periods, each part of the usage is rated based on the appropriate time-of-day rate.
Step 5 - Write the Call Detail to the Database
The IDI platform writes the rated usage record to the appropriate usage database.
Notes:
The algorithms used to find international distance types are not the same as those used for domestic distance types.
If a pricing plan cannot be found that covers the usage type, The IDI platform writes the usage record to Unbillables.