PRPAID — EDIFACT Pre-paid Account Maintenance Message (D.16B)

The PRPAID message conveys the maintenance operations of a pre-paid account between a service operator (telecoms, energy, transport) and a payment-service provider or distribution partner: provisioning, top-up, adjustment, closure, tariff updates. It hardens the lifecycle traceability of pre-paid accounts without going through classic invoicing schemes. This page summarises the segment structure as published by UN/CEFACT for directory D.16B.

Purpose

The PRPAID message conveys the maintenance operations of a pre-paid account between a service operator (telecoms, energy, transport) and a payment-service provider or distribution partner: provisioning, top-up, adjustment, closure, tariff updates. It hardens the lifecycle traceability of pre-paid accounts without going through classic invoicing schemes.

This page focuses on the structure published by UN/CEFACT for directory D.16B. The segments listed, their status (M / C), position and repetition factor are extracted from the official file prpaid_c.htm hosted on service.unece.org.

Segment structure

The PRPAID D.16B message has 42 header entries, 0 detail entries and 0 summary entries (segments and groups combined). Groups are shown in bold and their members are indented by actual nesting depth.

Header

Detail

No segment in this section.

Summary

No segment in this section.

Changes vs D.96A

Top-level differences between D.96A and D.16B for the PRPAID message (segments directly inside header / detail / summary, ignoring nested groups). The comparison is indicative: a given tag may have evolved inside nested groups without showing up in this synthesis.

Segments added vs D.96A

• GEI in the header section (status M, repeat ×1) — not present at the top of the corresponding D.96A section.
• UNS in the header section (status M, repeat ×1) — not present at the top of the corresponding D.96A section.

Segments removed vs D.96A

• GIS in the header section — present in D.96A but missing in D.16B at the same level.

Structural example

Minimal example of an PRPAID D.16B message with mandatory segments only. The goal is to show the exact version declared in UNH (PRPAID:D:16B:UN) — not to replicate a full business case (see the PRPAID D.96A page for an annotated example).

UNB+UNOC:3+5410000000123:14+5410000000456:14+260514:1430+CTRL016001'
UNH+1+PRPAID:D:16B:UN'
BGM+481+PRPAID-2026-TOP-0091+9'
GEI+1+11'
RFF+ACK:ACCT-PP-FR-784512'
DTM+137:202605141430:203'
NAD+SE+5410000000123::9'
NAD+SU+5410000000456::9'
DOC+325+TOPUP-2026-0091'
MOA+9:50.00:EUR'
UNT+10+1'
UNZ+1+CTRL016001'

Common errors

• Misaligned UNH tokens — The UNH+...+PRPAID:D:16B:UN token must reflect exactly the directory in use — a mismatch between the UNH release and the release agreed with the partner is rejected by every strict validator.
• Wrong UNT segment count — The value after UNT+ must include UNH and UNT themselves. By far the most common sender-side error, regardless of the directory in use.
• Stale code lists — Between D.96A and D.16B, several code lists received new qualifiers (DTM status, RFF qualifier, NAD codes…). Reusing an older directory’s code tables triggers warnings or even rejections depending on the partner’s strict-conformance mode.

Related messages

Other versions of this message available on ediverse.io: PRPAID D.96A, PRPAID D.10A, PRPAID D.21B, PRPAID D.24A.

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