Services > Emergency Credit

Emergency Credit

HiTec’s Emergency Credit Solution is a USSD Value Added Service Solution for enabling prepaid subscribers to borrow credit from the operator on emergency cases. Subscribers will get the opportunity of accessing their emergency credit account when they run out of credit and need to make a phone call or send a few SMS. The service can be limited to provide only one loan at a time per subscriber. In this way the subscriber must recharge his prepaid account for paying back the loan before asking for another emergency service.

Market Drivers

The Emergency Credit VAS was designed with the purpose of:

•  Generating a new revenue source for Operators
•  Increasing mobile subscribers’ satisfaction
•  Stimulate credit consumption

Emergency Credit Enquiry:

When a subscriber asks for emergency credit:

• The system checks the subscriber’s balance status to verify if the balance is lower than a maximum value configured in the system.
• The system checks the white/black list of the service to find out if the subscriber is authorized to ask for the “loan”.
• If the subscriber is authorized to used the service, its profile is checked to see which loan amounts are available
• The subscriber chooses for a loan amount and the credit is automatically credited in his or her prepaid account.

Emergency Credit Payback:

The system is continuously monitoring the prepaid tickets in order to detect when a subscriber with an active loan recharges his or her account. Ehen this happens:

• - The loan amount is automatically debited from the prepaid account
• - A fee can optionally be charged for using the service.

The underlined parameters can be easily configured.

How it Works?

The USSD menus for this service are shown below:

When a transaction is finished, its result is also notified via SMS.

Messages Configuration

The texts to be included in the USSD messages/menus can be configured. Texts can include system variables such as $amount, $fee, etc.

Tickets & Logs

Each emergency transaction can issue a ticket with service-related information. These tickets correspond to successful transactions performed by the system. Tickets are registered in a file (per day/hour) and published in a configurable TCP port. Besides, logs are automatically generated.
Analyzing this information, different statistics can be obtained such as:

• - service traffic
• - borrowed amounts

Solution Infrastructures

USSD Gateway

The Emergency Service is a USSD service, being a delivery guaranteed solution, fast and highly interactive. Therefore, a USSD Gateway must be installed into the Operator’s facilities.
USSD technology is a capability built into the GSM standard for transmitting information over the signalling channels. In this way, USSD allows high speed interactive communications between the subscribers and applications across a GSM network.

Prepaid Interface

An interface with the prepaid platform is needed for:

• - Checking the account’s balance
• - Crediting a prepaid account
• - Debiting a prepaid account
• - Monitoring prepaid tickets

Database

Each confirmed transaction will be stored in a relational database. Also, the system’s management information (configuration, amounts, transaction limits, etc.) will be stored.