What is in a rate sheet
- Prefix. The digits at the start of the number that identify the destination, such as a country or a mobile range.
- Destination. The name of the place or network that prefix belongs to.
- Rate. The price per minute, in a stated currency.
- Effective date. When the rate starts. A price rise usually comes with a notice period.
- Billing increment. How the duration is rounded, written as first interval and then next interval, such as 1/1, 6/6 or 60/60.
- Connection fee (optional). A fixed charge per answered call.
Longest prefix wins
When a call is rated, the system picks the longest prefix that matches the dialled number. All the figures below are illustrative.
| Prefix | Destination | Rate per minute |
|---|---|---|
| 44 | United Kingdom, other | 0.0100 |
| 447 | United Kingdom, mobile | 0.0250 |
| 447700 | United Kingdom, a special range | 0.0900 |
A call to 4477001234567 matches all three, but the longest match is 447700, so it is rated at 0.0900. If that line is missing from the sheet, the same call is rated at 0.0250 and you may be selling it for less than it costs.
How billing increments change the bill
The same 61-second call bills differently under each increment.
| Increment | How it works | 61-second call is billed as |
|---|---|---|
| 1/1 | Billed per second | 61 seconds |
| 6/6 | Minimum 6 seconds, then in blocks of 6 | 66 seconds |
| 60/60 | Minimum 60 seconds, then in blocks of 60 | 120 seconds |
Buying at 1/1 and selling at 60/60 earns extra margin on short calls. Buying at 60/60 and selling at 1/1 loses margin on them. Always compare the increments on both sides, not only the price.
Margin in one line
Margin is the sell rate minus the buy rate. With an illustrative sell rate of 0.0300 and a buy rate of 0.0240, the margin is 0.0060 per minute, which is 20 per cent of the sell price. Check it per prefix, because a good average can hide prefixes that lose money.
Least-cost routing in plain words
Least-cost routing (LCR) sends each call to the cheapest carrier that still meets your quality targets for that prefix, such as a minimum answer rate and call duration. A cheap route with poor quality costs more in failed calls and unhappy customers than it saves.
Safe habits for rate updates
- Import into a preview, not straight into production, and read the impact before you apply it.
- Check increases and decreases separately. Increases need a notice period.
- Look for loss-making prefixes, where the buy rate is higher than the sell rate.
- Schedule the change for its effective date, not for when you upload the file.
- Keep the previous version, so you can roll back if a carrier sends a bad update.
- Convert currencies at a known daily rate and keep the rate used.
How SSONE manages rates
Billing Rate Manager handles source rate plans (per customer, with effective-date scheduling and versioned changes) and destination rate plans (per carrier, with prefix-based pricing that is ready for least-cost routing). It imports CSV and Excel sheets with carrier-format templates and a dry-run preview, exports customer-ready rate sheets, supports several currencies with daily FX feeds, and has an AI assistant for margin analysis and anomaly detection.