Flexible and pre-integrated
Prepaid and Charging
The Enea Aptilo SMP prepaid functions allow CSPs to control the user experience through product definitions with time and data quota enforcement.
It can act as a standalone prepaid system for Wi-Fi services and optionally check out and handle quotas from third-party prepaid (PPS) / online charging (OCS) systems. The tight integration with our Wi-Fi Policy function allows unprecedented creativity in defining new differentiated services. Don’t miss to explore Enea Aptilo Wi-Fi SMP and all its functions.
Explore our Prepaid and Charging Functions
Prepaid Billing for Wi-Fi Service
We support all prepaid charging models for Wi-Fi, and our flexible system makes it easy to create one not yet invented.
Examples of charging models supported:
- Volume-based charging
- Duration-based charging
- Time-of-day and day-of-week charging with a differentiated rating
- Prepaid charging of ad-hoc users
- Start cost and minimum charges
A multitude of payment options, including credit cards, vouchers, swish, premium SMS, and more, can be executed through the native payment support in the built-in the captive portal in the Aptilo Service Management Platform™ or through integration with external systems.
Voucher Code login
When the end user enters the voucher code on the captive portal, the credentials are authenticated, and the service characteristics associated with the voucher code is implemented and enforced by the Enea Aptilo SMP.
The end-user can login using predefined vouchers, that translates into a time and/or data limit that the end user is allowed to use. Typically, these accounts use randomized codes as the username and are produced using the optional Voucher Generator feature (learn more under online payment) or the Aptilo SMP GUI, available to the System Administrator only.
Wi-Fi Account Life Cycle Management
Handle accounts through all stages from sign-up, first log-in to top-up.
Signup before Login
When the account is created, two important times will be set based on the settings in the product:
- Valid From
- Valid Until
The first login to the account must happen between these times. A purge-delay time is also set. When the validity of the account has ended, the account will be automatically purged (deleted) after this time.
Valid Usage Time at First Login
A valid usage time after the first login can be set. Within this time, the user can be limited in data usage and time. Example:
- A user gets a maximum of 300 MB of data, valid for 30 min after the first login.
- A user gets a maximum of 1 hour of access, valid for 1 week after the first login.
- A user gets 300 MB of data or a maximum of one hour of total access, valid for 1 day after the first login.
Top-Up Due to Quota Depleted
When the bought credits (time and/or data) have been depleted, the user is blocked from access until a top-up has been done. This is also true before the valid usage time has arrived.
The top-up can be defined to refill the quota and optionally also to prolong the account’s valid use time. The account will be purged from the database when the valid use time + purge-delay-time has passed.
Top-Up Due to Valid Use Time Has Passed
When the current time has passed the valid use time, the user is blocked from access until a top-up has been done. This is true even if there are remaining quota on the account.
The top-up descriptor can be defined to extend the valid use time and optionally to refill the quota.
The account will be purged from the database when the valid use time + purge-delay-time has passed.
Flexible Deployment Models
We have designed the Enea Aptilo SMP for complete flexibility in how it interacts and co-exists with existing PPS systems. The customer can choose and balance the level of intelligence deployed in SMP versus a third-party system. End-users can sign-up for service and perform top-ups through our captive portal, which also includes the possibility to integrate with external portals of choice.
Hybrid deployment
In a hybrid deployment, the Enea Aptilo SMP checks out quota from the third-party PPS system and handles the quota management for the end-user sessions in the Wi-Fi network. Most of the intelligence resides in SMP, which can check out additional quota for the session and redirect users to a captive portal when they have depleted their allocation. Our system will also return the remaining quota to the third-party PPS system when the user session is over.
The quota can be data-volume-based or credits-based (money), in which case the Aptilo system is used to apply the rating for the session according to the different charging models.
There are several good reasons why an operator with an existing PPS system would go for a hybrid deployment. The operator may launch a new type of service or access network, such as Wi-Fi, and the existing PPS system may not have the functionality or gateway support needed. The operator may also want to keep the transaction volume as low as possible in the existing PPS system and find our prepaid system more cost-effective.
Time of Day Rating
Schedules can be used to define different time intervals, e.g., business hours and weekdays.
A schedule can be defined with the following parameters:
- Start date – if omitted, indefinite (forever)
- End Date – if omitted, indefinite (forever)
- Time Interval 00.00-23.59
- Weekdays Monday-Sunday
Schedules can be applied together with rating descriptors to achieve a time-of-day and day-of-week differentiated rating.
Different quality of service (QoS) profiles can be applied to different schedules to, e.g., provide a differentiated bandwidth for residential and business users at different times of the day.
In-session rate switching is supported in the Enea Aptilo SMP without terminating an ongoing user session. The in-session rating switch is triggered when the client requests more quota.
Multi-Bucket Support
It is possible to use two or more credit buckets per account. The credit buckets are given priority so that the highest priority bucket will be used first. When this is empty, the next bucket will be consumed, and so on.
A typical use case is a user that is given a specified amount of free data volume, and that also has a paid data allocation that will be used whenever all the free data volume is consumed.
Another use case is when a user from a captive portal can select which credit bucket will be consumed after the login. This allows the user to make optimal use of, e.g., different time-of-day-based rating schemes.
Bucket Auto-Refill
Credit buckets can be configured for automatic refill per a configurable schedule.
A typical use case is a user that is given a specified amount of free data volume per period (e.g., one day, a week, or a month). At the beginning of each new period, the free bucket allowance is refilled. The refill method can be configured to either overwrite any remaining credits or add the new credits on top of any remaining balance.
Here are some examples how this can be used:
- A user automatically gets a refill of 5 GB every month, and the quota is added to any existing quota.
- A user gets a maximum of 100 MB for 1 hour every 24 hours. The new quota removes any remaining quota.
The auto-refill function also works with dual buckets. Typically, a free bucket/quota will be used first, and when this is consumed, the user can continue using the paid bucket/quota from there on. The paid bucket is typically refilled using any supported online charging method from the captive portal, such as through a credit card, a premium SMS, on the hotel room bill, etc.
Fair Use Policy Control
The Fair Use Policy control (FUP) feature implements a limit to the amount of data that an end user can consume during a specified period. The FUP feature tracks the accumulated usage and uses this number to apply either a different (typically lower) quality of service (QoS) profile or disconnect the user from the service when the usage has gone above a configured limit.
The FUP feature can be configured with a periodic reset of the accumulated usage.
An example of a use case is when a user account shall be allowed 1 GB of data usage per month. If the usage goes beyond this level within the month, the session is throttled down in speed until the start of the next month. At the end of the month, the counting reset for all users, so throttled users will get full speed again.
Integration with Post-paid Billing Systems
The Aptilo system can create CDRs (Call Data Records) and send them for processing to external billing systems. It can also perform proxy accounting to a billing system in real-time.
Vouchers can be used for Wi-Fi services that users pay for and free Wi-Fi services.
Voucher Generator
The Enea Aptilo SMP Voucher package allows the system administrator or location administrators associated with the customer to pre-generate a batch of vouchers that can be used by end users that want to get access to their Wi-Fi service.
It supports the multitenancy architecture in Enea Aptilo SMP Venue Wi-Fi Manager, allowing an operator to provide individual voucher generators to their B2B customers.
A typical use case is, for example, a receptionist that creates Vouchers, prints them, and hands them out to visitors at the location. The system can be configured so that the receptionist can only access the voucher generator and no other part of the administration interface. This will make administration easier and more straightforward. Optionally created Vouchers can be exported to a CSV file for later processing.
Over The Counter (OTC)
The OTC portal package provides a web-based portal for the easy creation and delivery of vouchers “over-the-counter.” The Over-The-Counter (OTC) portal is designed so that anyone without Enea Aptilo SMP administration skills can create a voucher and hand it out directly to customers. Vouchers can be generated as an individual voucher or in batches of up to 500 vouchers. The vouchers are associated with a product in the Enea Aptilo SMP that sets the service criteria. Different products can be designed for different type of voucher products.
The voucher admin can choose to print vouchers and hand them out to users or send them as a one-time code to users via e-mail or SMS (only individual vouchers can be sent via SMS). A typical use case is a receptionist that creates Vouchers, prints them, and hands them out to visitors at the location or sends them to the user via email or SMS.
Payment can be executed through the payment options in Enea Aptilo SMP.
Payment for the vouchers can also be provided through the options used to charge for other products or services sold over the counter where this portal is in use, e.g., through cash or local mobile payment options. In this scenario, payments are not managed by the Enea Aptilo SMP.
Credit Card Payment
The optional credit card payment module supports payment through PayPal or PayEx. The feature provides payment gateway functionality and processes end-user credit card transactions so that the service administrator does not have to configure or maintain an external credit card payment gateway. Other payment providers can be added as a custom deployment.
The Credit Card payment option requires the customer to have a valid merchant account with either PayPal (www.paypal.com) or PayEx (www.payex.com).
PayPal Account Payment
This optional feature provides payment gateway functionality and processes end-user payment transactions using the end user’s PayPal account.
The PayPal payment option requires the Customer to have a valid merchant account with PayPal (www.paypal.com).