[PHREAKNET-20] Billing based on individual CLLI zip codes
The current billing system uses the zip code assigned to a given user and / or the zip code assigned to a given Asterisk installation to generate billing charges based on the known 1977 rate table provided by the "phone thing" advertisement (linked in the relevant billing documentation on PhreakNet/) Of importance here is that this billing scheme has different values for ranges between 1-30 miles, which coincides well with the range of a modest metropolitan area.
This spawns a concept that a larger Asterisk installation on PhreakNet (one with many office codes) would naturally be simulating a larger urban and suburban area and those offices codes would, in reality, be located many miles away from one another.
The current billing system, however, applies just one zip code to the entire Asterisk install, thus putting all office codes on that install into effectively the same physical location.
The idea is that to better take advantage of the current rate-step billing system having such rate steps that are rarely used having an option to base the billing on the the zip code of an individual CLLI, taking real distances into account and making billing more dynamic for PhreakNet users living in these areas.
While purely a novelty change, it may spur more creativity in office code selection and creation as the network grows and potentially special interest groups common to a particular geographic area join and create their own spaces on the network.
I realize fully this has its greatest impact with localized areas who have a large number of calls being made to various answering numbers over a multiple CLLI based slice of the network, but the inspiration this can provide may well help the network continue to grow with more more creative diversity than ever.
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8/26/2023 5:52 PM — KurisuYamato
An additional aspect of this which will be of benefit to the overall user experience is that with offices having specific zip codes the location of the office may be better represented; a zip code in a suburb of Memphis, for example, might display as "Bartlett, TN" rather than "Memphis, TN" on the bill statement, adding some diversity to the field of locations called, and making dialing random codes a bit more, for lack of a better phrasing, fun.