What’s new in MR124

Admins can now configure PortaBilling faster using the built-in AI assistant. Instead of searching through documentation, admins can simply type their question in the PortaBilling web interface. The AI assistant provides a direct answer based on the official PortaOne documentation, whether the question is asked in plain or technical language. It detects the system version and offers clear step-by-step instructions with links to relevant documentation pages. Each admin can view only their own chat history.

This feature makes daily tasks quicker, especially for new admins who are still learning the system.

The AI assistant is available out of the box and requires no setup.

• The assistant is available to the service providers with an active PortaCare subscription.
• All requests to the AI assistant are sent through the API gateway hosted by PortaOne. The API gateway is a secure cloud service that sends admins’ questions to the AI assistant and returns the answers. For the AI to work, access to the gateway IP address must be allowed in the service provider network.
• The service provider’s server with an admin web interface must be accessible from the IP address of the API gateway. The address is listed in the PortaSwitch Installation guide.

Admins can find accurate information faster, clarify specific questions directly within PortaBilling, reducing the time spent resolving routine issues.

• The built-in AI assistant uses information from the latest LTS (Long Time Support) release documentation on docs.portaone.com. If you use MR124, the assistant will provide answers based on the documentation for MR120.
• It runs on an OpenAI Responses API.

• Use of the AI assistant is subject to a Fair Usage Policy. The number of requests is limited for each user.

You can now preview invoices to see what the customer’s charges would look like when the billing period ends. An invoice preview shows the pre-calculated invoice amounts without affecting actual billing and customer balance. This lets your finance and customer service teams:

• Verify that product charges, discounts, invoice-preprocessing rules, and taxes are applied correctly for large or strategic customers – and fix any issues before the billing period ends.
• Validate how mid-period changes (e.g., new subscriptions, plan upgrades, or cancellations) will appear on the customer’s invoice.
• Upon request, inform customers about their upcoming charges.

Such invoices are marked with a “Preview” watermark, so they cannot be mistaken for real invoices.

This feature is available via the Add-on Mart and requires subscription to the corresponding Add-on Mart module.

• Service providers can detect and resolve billing issues in advance, reduce disputes, and give customers an accurate estimate of upcoming charges.
• Customers gain transparency into charges and avoid surprises on the actual invoice.

CloudPBX admins, call center admins, and supervisors can now manage voicemail and fax messages of all extensions in the customer portals (e.g., in the Cloud PBX Self-Care Portal).

They can listen to voicemail and read fax messages, check their details, download voicemail recordings, delete messages, and mark them as read or unread.

It helps ensure that important messages intended for extensions aren’t missed and can be reviewed, downloaded, or followed up on without requiring access to each device. For example, the supervisor or admin can quickly prioritize requests that need immediate attention and delegate or instruct call center agents accordingly.

This enhancement was extended with customer access to personal voicemail and fax messages.

CloudPBX admins, call center admins, and supervisors can manage all voicemail and fax messages in one place, making it easier to track missed calls and respond promptly.

You can now connect PortaBilling to external systems and, based on these integrations, embed custom panels or step-by-step forms directly into the reseller, distributor, and representative portals. This empowers your sales agents to handle complex workflows (e.g., onboard new subscribers) that integrate with external systems (e.g., SIM provisioning platforms) through guided steps in a single place.

These custom panels or step-by-step forms are implemented as UI plug-ins. They connect PortaBilling to external systems through middleware that works via the API.

Previously, UI plug-ins were available only in the admin web interface.

For service providers:

• Reduce mistakes by sales agents, which means fewer escalations to the service provider’s team.
• Attract more sales agents and grow the customer base.

For sales agents: Process more customers per day thanks to simplified workflows (sales agents can support a growing customer base without extra workload).

PortaSwitch uses TLS certificates to secure web access, SIP over TLS calls, and Diameter connections. Certificates are typically issued by a certification authority after validating the service provider’s domain ownership, and then applied to PortaSwitch servers. Certificates are always issued with a validity period, and so must be renewed regularly – for example, the popular Let’s Encrypt service, which provides free certificates via a simplified procedure, sets validity to 90 days.

Previously, renewing a certificate required restarting the component that used it, which could cause a short service interruption. With this enhancement, renewal is performed on the fly and no longer requires restarting web servers, SIP, and Diameter services. This eliminates downtime for:

• Access to web interfaces
• Authorization and charging via the Diameter protocol
• Voice calls

As a result, engineering teams no longer need to schedule maintenance windows, and end users experience no interruptions – web access, calls, and internet sessions remain active while certificates are renewed.

Keep the system secure while avoiding service disruptions.

The certificate renewal without downtime is supported:

• For web servers – starting from MR120 (also in MR115).
• For Diameter service – starting from MR122 (also in MR120).
• For SIP service – starting from MR123 (also in MR120).

PortaBilling now supports integration with Africa’s leading mobile operator, MTN,  enabling service providers to deliver VoLTE (Voice over LTE) and VoWiFi (Voice over Wi-Fi) services to residential and business customers.

The connectivity between the MTN’s network in the Republic of South Africa and PortaBilling is established via the Diameter (Ro) interface and enables user authentication, session authorization, and accounting. It supports charging for outgoing VoLTE and VoWiFi calls.

MVNOs/MVNEs that launch their service on MTN’s network can offer call services to their subscribers.

See the configuration details here.

The pages for customers, accounts, resellers, and distributors have been redesigned so that the admins can view and manage these entities faster:

1. Now, admins can specify search criteria and view search results on a single dedicated page. For example, the search panel is combined with the Customer list panel to show more data about each customer, without horizontal scrolling.

   

2. While editing a record, admins can see all available submenus at once. No additional clicks are required for admins to view them.

   

3. Tabs replace submenus and are now placed more compactly, which removes the need for vertical scrolling or hovering.
4. Tabs now fit the screen, allowing more menu items to be displayed at once. No extra clicks and scrolling while editing a record.

   

This enhancement speeds up navigation and avoids confusion between search and create panels.

• Now, you can view statistics on the SIP services you provide in your local time zone for either the last 24 hours or 7 days. This helps admins gain a better understanding of call activity and call registrations.

  

  To check the date and time of the last measurement, you should now use the collapsed view.

  

• Load graphs now display connection load in 5-minute intervals by default, offering a more accurate reflection of how connection load varies over time.