Definition
Plan packaging rewrites an operator base tariff as a house-brand data plan. It sets the name, the tier, the price, the operator mapping, and whether the plan is on the shelf. The margin is the packaged price minus the operator cost. The packaged plan is what plan subscription and plan change use.
What is packaged
- Plan information: Name, description, data tier (for example 1 GB or 10 GB), plan cycle (monthly, quarterly, or yearly), and price.
- Operator mapping: A link to the operator tariff plan through operator mapping, so plan provisioning can call the operator API.
- On and off the shelf: A plan can be taken off the shelf. It can no longer be ordered. Plans already ordered are not affected.
Packaging for more than one operator
The same plan can map to different tariffs at China Mobile, China Unicom, and China Telecom. At subscription, the tariff follows the operator on the SIM. Packaging is where the IoT Cloud Platform joins the operator to its own plans, and it decides whether data billing and the bill are accurate.
Packaging and margin
The margin is the packaged price minus the operator cost. The enterprise sets the price for the market, the channel, and the competition. Operator mapping keeps the house plan lined up with the operator tariff, so plan provisioning calls the right API. The packaged plan is used for plan subscription and plan change. A new plan, or a price change, updates the mapping and is tested for provisioning and billing.
Packaging and billing
Packaging sets the plan cycle, the data tier, and the billing mode (prepaid or postpaid), so the data billing engine can rate the plan. The packaged plan can also set overage billing: after the allowance is gone, keep rating by usage or suspend. The same plan can map to several operator tariffs, and subscription picks the one for the operator on the SIM. This is how the IoT Cloud Platform joins the operator to its own plans, and it decides whether the bill and operator reconciliation match.
Packaging and the agent price list
A packaged plan is what an agent buys from the agent price list at the agent price, and what a C-end user orders in plan subscription. Packaging has to match operator mapping and the data plan configuration. A new plan or a price change updates the agent price list and is tested for plan provisioning and data billing. Packaging is the product step on the IoT Cloud Platform. The margin is still the packaged price minus the operator cost.
Where the shelf name and the operator tariff are each written
Plan packaging turns an operator tariff plan into a house product that can be put on and taken off the shelf. The product needs a name, a data tier or a duration, a cycle, a retail price, a billing mode, and at least one operator mapping. The name is what users and channels see. The code is what provisioning and reconciliation use. If either side is missing, the plan cannot be sold yet. Selling price minus operator cost is the margin. Cost comes from the tariff in the contract, not from the retail price itself. A plan can go on the shelf for an internal test without a cost price, but it has to be marked not for sale to customers, so a zero cost is not treated as a high margin. In SimtoLink plan packaging, putting a plan on or off the shelf only controls whether new subscriptions and changes can select it. An instance already in use continues through its original cycle. Taking it off the shelf does not immediately suspend SIMs that are in service.
If one product covers several operators, a missing carrier cannot be sold that carrier’s SIMs
One house plan can correspond to different codes at several operators. The range that can be sold equals the operators whose mapping is complete and whose test has passed. If a number range belongs to an operator that is not configured, the subscription list does not show that plan. The data tier has to match the total returned by each operator. China Mobile at ten gigabytes and China Unicom configured at one gigabyte cannot share the name “ten-gigabyte monthly bundle.” Whether the cycle is a calendar month or thirty days is written on the product. Do not rely on the operator’s default, or the expiry dates of SIMs on the two networks will differ. If overage, suspension, and first-use start follow the product rather than the SIM product type, choose them at packaging time, so a plan of the same name does not behave differently in different projects with no explanation. An agent price list refers to the packaged product. If the product leaves the shelf or changes tier, the price list expires with it or gets a new version. An old purchase order still uses the version from when it was placed.
A price change and a tier change should not be one overwrite
Adjusting only the retail price should not change the mapping or the data tier. Adjusting the data tier should create a new product or a new version, so orders in flight still point at the old tier. Changing ten gigabytes to twenty gigabytes in place leaves an order that is paid but not yet provisioned unsure which tier to write, and a SIM already provisioned no longer matches the product description. A price effective time applies to new orders. It does not rewrite invoices backward. If a promotional price has an end date, the product has to say whether renewal after that date uses the original price or continues the promotion. Copying an old plan at packaging time easily copies a test code into the formal product. Before go-live, use a checklist: name, tier, cycle, mode, each operator’s code, retail price, and whether it can be sold. If the checklist is missing a code, the button cannot open it for sale to customers. Test subscriptions by internal staff use a product marked as a test, so test traffic does not enter the formal reconciliation sample. If a test product is referenced by a formal channel price list by mistake, the shelf check should fail outright, rather than waiting until the first production SIM is provisioned and then removing it from the bill by hand.