Glossary

Product terminology

Account number — A stable reference the operator sets for a subscriber. It appears beside the subscriber and works in search, imports and payments.

Active session — A RADIUS accounting session that is still open. It is separate from the account’s active, paused or blocked state. A session counts as stale after 4 missed usage reports.

Binding — A device’s MAC address tied to a reserved IP on one router. It uses the Hotspot access path.

Captive portal — The Hotspot web page where people buy packages, log in, use vouchers or receipts, start trials and read terms.

Collection — Customer money received through a managed wallet. Not every payment method funds a wallet.

Disbursement / payout — Money sent from an account to an outside recipient through a supported provider.

FUP — Fair Usage Policy. A data limit on a package that throttles or blocks use once it is reached. PPPoE alerts can fire at 50%, 80%, 95% or 100% of the limit.

Gateway — A configured provider or manual method for payments, SMS, email or WhatsApp. There are 30 payment gateways across 72 countries.

Hotspot — Network access through the captive portal. It is common for prepaid packages, vouchers and Wi-Fi customers.

Invoice — An itemized amount due from a subscriber, with a due date, status, payments and activity.

MikroTik — A router running RouterOS. Centipid Billing usually sets it up as a NAS.

NAS — Network Access Server. The router that signs subscribers in, counts their usage and gives them access.

PPPoE — Point-to-Point Protocol over Ethernet. Fixed-line access where the subscriber signs in with a username and password.

RADIUS — The protocol that checks subscriber logins, applies their plan, and records their sessions.

Receipt — The reference or document for a recorded payment. A provider reference can exist before the payment is confirmed, so read the status too.

Settlement — The provider or bank finishing a money transfer. It can happen later than the payment shows in Centipid Billing.

Subscriber — An ISP customer’s access account. There are 3 types: Hotspot, PPPoE and Binding.

ISP account (workspace) — A separate workspace with its own subscribers, settings, network, billing and branding.

Voucher — A code that gives whoever redeems it a Hotspot package. Codes are up to 32 characters.

Voucher agent — A separate seller account. It holds prepaid float and receives voucher batches.

Walled garden — Sites people can reach before they log in to the Hotspot. Payment pages usually need to be in it.

Withdrawal — A protected request to send wallet funds to a mobile-money number. Each one is UGX 500 to UGX 5,000,000.