The Moscow-based company provides modular billing software that's designed for affordability, flexibility and performance.

by Jeff Goldman [July 2, 2008]

The Russian billing software company NetUP Inc. was founded back in 2001 by a group of recent graduates of Russia's Moscow State University. "The late '90s was the time when the Russian telecoms market grew very fast, and there were a lot of small telecoms," recalls Konstantin Emelyanov, head of the company's international projects department. "Also, all ISPs of that time preferred to charge clients by traffic volume, and there were no billing systems for these small ISPs with low enough cost and capable of calculating traffic—but the demand was great."

Meanwhile, Emelyanov says, IP networks were growing quickly in the university dorms, first for gaming and exchanging files, and eventually for Internet access. "A dorm is a perfect place to deploy an IP network," he says. "The distances are very short, and the number of users is high. And there was a team of capable students who built and maintained these networks, purchased equipment from abroad, and developed some local resources, as well as the billing system… money was required to build and maintain the networks, and this is how the first versions of the billing system appeared."

NetUP +7-495-543-9220 sales@netup.biz

Emelyanov says the current version of NetUP's billing software, UTM 5 (for Universal Tariff Machine), is now being used in more than 2,000 installations worldwide. "UTM is not just billing—it does not simply issue invoices—it does much more," he says. "It interfaces to networking equipment directly, on the lowest possible level. It collects bandwidth usage data, blocks and unblocks Internet access, it can do dynamic bandwidth shaping—it even has its own RADIUS server responsible for authorization, authentication and accounting. It completely manages internet access."

Modular flexibility
The software, Emelyanov says, is designed to support a wide range of different service offerings. "UTM 5 is good for Internet access over leased lines, ADSL, wireless networks, dial-up, and VoIP," he says. "VoIP gateways can be connected via the RADIUS protocol, or call data records can be received from files—so it's also possible to use UTM 5 for PBXes."

The system is flexible because it is modular. The Basic Module includes all functionality required for straightforward ISP billing. The DynaShape Module supports bandwidth management, the Hotspot Module supports prepaid cards for hotspot access, the VoIP Module supports a wide range of call rates for VoIP, the PBX Module can be integrated directly with a number of different PBXes—and the RADIUS Module acts, logically enough, as a RADIUS server.

Overall, Emelyanov says, the system's key strength lies in its performance. "The central part of the system is the core developed in C / C++," he says. "It's an optimized, multithread server application perfect for multiprocessor and multi-core platforms."

A key feature: the ability to support real time, usage based billing. "UTM 5 can receive detailed traffic statistics via the Netflow v5 protocol from Cisco's routers and other routers supporting this technology," Emelyanov says. "Also, sFlow, SNMP, and RADIUS protocols are supported. It can block internet access, or limit the client's bandwidth, by sending commands to the firewall."

Pricing and support
For deployments of up to 1,000 subscribers, all pricing, which starts at $1,500 for the Basic Module, is listed on the company's website. "For larger deployments, the prices are proportional to the number of clients," Emelyanov says. "The overall price also depends on the modules required. It's possible to use only the Basic Module to account for traffic in local area networks—RADIUS server, telephony module, and other modules can be purchased in addition."

Every purchase comes with four months of technical support and updates. Additional support options include standard technical support with a 24-hour guaranteed response time, or advanced technical support, which includes priority response, phone support and support for third party software.

The company also offers a full data import and installation service. "Our engineers can convert data from any format to a UTM 5 MySQL or PostgreSQL database," Emelyanov says. "If a database is corrupted, we can recover it, even in case of partial data loss."

And despite UTM 5's origins in Russia, Emelyanov says the company has done its best to make the application as flexible as possible for deployments worldwide. "Document templates are customizable, multiple currencies and multiple languages are supported…there are no aspects that would make it inappropriate for U.S.-based ISPs," he says. "We have installations in the U.S. and in many other countries—Australia, Thailand, India, Africa, Europe, and Canada."

— End