What belongs in a prepaid airtime supplier SLA?
A supplier can meet a monthly uptime target and still leave your tills without airtime on a busy Friday. Ask what the agreement covers, when availability is measured, how to escalate an unresolved order and what happens if the supplier misses a commitment.
SLA areas to define
| Area | Put in writing |
|---|---|
| Scope | Accounts, products, channels and service hours |
| Measurement | Metric, period, data source and exclusions |
| Support | Severity levels, contact route and update cadence |
| Orders | Evidence and escalation for pending or disputed outcomes |
| Review | Reporting, service review and corrective actions |
By Freepaid · Published
Define the service being measured
Specify the account, products and ordering channel covered. Clarify whether the commitment applies to the supplier platform, a fulfilment partner, network dependencies or some combination. Measure whether staff can open the ordering system separately from whether the orders they place actually complete.
Ask how planned maintenance is announced and how incidents are classified. Define whether measurement is continuous or limited to stated operating hours. If your business depends on a sales counter, service coverage during its operating period may matter more than an all-day average. Put the time zone and reporting period in the agreement so both parties read measurements the same way.
Set useful support expectations
Use scenarios to establish what counts as a routine question, a blocked operation or a potentially duplicated transaction. Agree the support contact, case reference, required evidence and update process for each. Acknowledgement is not resolution. State these expectations separately. Avoid promising response times for dependencies outside the supplier’s control unless the supplier accepts that responsibility in writing.
If an order gets stuck, agree who checks it and when your staff can expect an update. Staff should retain the internal reference and supplier reference, query the original transaction, and avoid creating a second order until the first outcome is known. The SLA can define escalation ownership and status updates without guaranteeing an outcome the supplier cannot control.
Specify measurement and remedies
For each metric, agree the numerator, denominator, data source, exclusions, reporting frequency and dispute period. If the supplier reports service availability, identify how partial failures or scheduled maintenance count. Ask what happens when a commitment is missed: corrective action, service review, credit, termination right or another remedy. Have procurement and legal reviewers confirm that wording is enforceable and appropriate to the commercial relationship.
A monthly score alone may hide short events that disrupted a shop’s busiest hour. Ask whether incident-level records can be supplied. Conversely, one difficult transaction should not be confused with a broad service statistic. Keep service reporting and individual order reconciliation as separate controls.
Example service map
A retailer could need different handling for two situations: a cashier unable to reach the ordering portal during trading hours, and a bookkeeper finding a mismatch in the monthly report. The retailer should ask the supplier to define the support route, evidence and update owner for each. Set a target for each case based on how long your team can wait and what the supplier agrees to in writing.
Before signing, confirm that service commitments match the selected product and channel. Record how changes to the catalogue, partner route or support contacts will be communicated. Keep the approved SLA with the purchase record and schedule a review after a material incident or renewal.
For business purchasing context, see Freepaid bulk airtime. Confirm current commercial and service terms directly.