2011-1Q: EUP: Bandwidth Purchase

A new feature has been released that allows Operators to set up the End User Portal (EUP) to allow their customers to purchase additional bandwidth.

On systems where SAND (Subscriber Auto Notification/Disconnection) is enabled, over usage of bandwidth results in the customer being disconnected or throttled. The option to buy additional bandwidth gives customer possibility to reconnect their service right away without needing to wait until the end of the month / week.

Feature is configurable and has to be enabled on the global WISP Settings page. To access this page click “settings” tab and “Modify WISP details >>” link (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1. Modify WISP details

Under “End User Portal Settings” section there are three options to set (Fig. 2):

    1. “Network – Purchase Bandwidth” - flag to turn on page to purchase bandwidth in EUP.

    2. “Network – Purchase Bandwidth Payment Options”

      1. a) “Charge Next Invoice” – purchased bandwidth will be added to the next invoice

      2. b) “Pay Now” – custom invoice will be generated, customer will be forced to pay the invoice immediately

      3. c) “Both” – both a) and b) options available in EUP and the customer can choose

    3. “Network - Max Purchase Bandwidth [GB]” - specifies upper limit of bandwidth that can be bought by customer (default is 100 GB)

Note that Operator must have payment gateway added to the SIMPLer database in order to have “Pay Now” option available.

Fig. 2. Network – Purchase Bandwidth

In order to buy specified amount of bandwidth, “EUP available” products must be created. In order to mark product to be available in EUP set the “EUP available” flag on product details. It is also possible to give product more detailed description that will be presented to customer (Fig. 3).

"EUP Tied to Product"" This option allows for the EUP additional bandwidth product to only show on customers EUP accounts that are subscribed to one or more of these selected products.

Fig. 3. “EUP available” flag and “EUP Product Description” input field

If feature is enabled in EUP it is reachable from Network section of main menu, and from the “Purchase More Bandwidth” link under the current CAP and usage details (Fig. 4).

The webpage to buy additional bandwidth will be presented to customer (Fig. 4). Customer has an option to select product from product list and buy appropriate quantity of products. Note that it is impossible to buy less than required bandwidth and more than Max Bandwidth specified under global WISP settings. If the operator enabled both methods of payment (“Charge Next Invoice” and “Pay Now”), the customer can select the most appropriate way to charge their account. The first option will just add one-cycle overage subscription to the customer's account which will be added to the next invoice when invoice generation process occurs. The second method creates a custom invoice that should be paid by customer immediately. If it is not paid, the invoice will remain unpaid on customer account (with bandwidth added), but customer will not be reconnected to the normal service until they pay all outstanding invoices that were purchased in EUP.

Fig. 4. End User Portal “Purchase Bandwidth”

Updated: 05-July-2021

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