SPCM for Subscription Manager
The Subscription Policy and Charging Manager (SPCM) allows for the management and configuration of subscriber plans (data/voice/sms) in the Tango iAX™ Subscription Manager. Notification messages can also be managed and configured in multiple languages. The main function of the SPCM is to manage subscriber plans (which can be purchased by the subscribers) and to notify the subscriber via SMS.
| A self‐care HTTP API allows subscribers to purchase and manage multiple plans. |
Plans
The Tango iAX™ Subscription Manager allows subscribers to purchase Voice/SMS and Data plans. The following sections describe some of the features of the plans. Subscribers can add/ delete and manage their plans using the SPCM menu on the iAX™ Subscription Manager UI.
Core plans
Core plan has the following attributes:
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Core plans cannot be deactivated
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Core plans are automatically activated on purchase
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Core plans must be recurring
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There cannot be more than one core plan (may be none)
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Core plans can be chargeable or non‐chargeable
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The precedence of a core plan is always lower than an add‐on plan
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Core plans will not appear on the self‐care list of plans that are available to be purchased
Recurring plans
A recurring plan is a plan that is automatically recharged and the usage is reset after the validity period has expired. Recurring plans continue to be recharged automatically, until cancelled by the user. This is in contrast to single‐use plans which are no‐longer available once they have been exhausted. Monthly recurring plans also allow you to set a day‐of‐month for plan renewal. This allows you to set a specific day in the month for the plan to renew, e.g. on the 1st of every month.
| If the plan is set to renew on the 29th, 30th or 31st, and the current month has fewer days in the month, then the renewal will happen on the last day of the month. |
Add-on plans
Add‐on plans can be purchased as a supplement to the core or recurring plans at any time for an additional charge. This allows the subscriber an additional specified quota for a limited time period. An add‐on plan can also be assigned as a bonus plan to a subscriber whereby the subscriber gets the bonus plan on initial sign‐up.
Plan Categories
Plan categorisation allows you to define categories of subscribers which are permitted to purchase certain plans. The subscriber categories may be based on billing type (prepaid/postpaid), subscriber class (e.g. standard/premium) or IMSI range (e.g. MVNO brand).
Plan lifecycle
This section describes the lifecycle of a plan in the Tango iAX™ Subscription Manager platform.
Active plans
The active plans are the plans that have currently been purchased by the subscriber. A subscriber can have multiple active plans. The following rules apply to determine which plan is used when a subscriber has purchased multiple plans:
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When a plan is defined, it is assigned a precedence value. This plan information is passed by the SPCM to the Tango PCRF which then prioritises the rules accordingly.
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If the plans have equal precedence, the plan activation date is taken into account, where the oldest plan is used first, followed by the next oldest plan, etc.
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Add‐on plans always have a higher precedence than core plans and will be used first.
Deactivated plans
An active plan can be deactivated and subsequently reactivated by the subscribers via their self‐care application. The following rules apply to deactivating/activating plans:
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All plans, except for Core plans can be deactivated. If a time‐based plan is deactivated, the expiry period of the plan is extended by the length of time the plan was deactivated for.
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All plans can be set to deactivated at purchase time, so that they can be later activated via self‐care or on the PMI.
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When a plan is deactivated, the subscriber will not be able to access any services using that plan. However, services may be available if the subscriber has another active plan.
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Each plan (except Core plans) has a configurable maximum number of deactivation.
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Each plan (except Core plans) has a configurable maximum deactivation time, e.g. 2 weeks. The plan will automatically be activated after this time period has elapsed.
Plan Rules
The following set of rules set out the criteria that is used to control the creation and use of plans in the Tango iAX™ Subscription Manager platform.
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Before a subscriber uses the network for the first time, they are asked to purchase a plan. If the subscriber does not want to purchase a plan, they can select the pay-per-use option.
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When a new subscriber purchases a plan via self‐care they are automatically provisioned on the system. If multiple plans are active.
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When a subscriber, who is not currently provisioned on the system, purchases a plan via self‐care, that subscriber is automatically provisioned.
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All plans have a time limit. The timer is started when the plan is activated.
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When an active plan has been exhausted, the next active plan is used. If no active plan is available, the subscriber is notified and the charging automatically switches to pay per use.
Plan Catalogs
The plan catalogs feature of the Subscription Manager allows you to group plans into catalogs which can then be used for categorisation.
You can assign key values or attributes to each plan catalog which are used as criteria to determine if that catalog will be included in a particular subscriber category, e.g. subscribers from the “prepaid subscriber” category will only be allowed to purchase a plan that is included in the “prepaid” plan catalog.