In HsM customers can be assigned a free-service-period for each effective service area. The free-service-period settings used to determine which service will be available free of charge for a specific device and are for example used in service requests.

The possibility to manage free service periods for a customer is bound to the capability DEVICE_SERVICE_REQUESTS. The effective free service period settings of a customer can be viewed by users with VIEW_CUSTOMER permission. Free service period settings can be modified by users with the permission EDIT_SERVICE_SETTINGS .

The free service periods that are configured for a customer are propagated down the reseller relationship. I.e. the effective free-service period settings of a customer are those of the closest customer on the inclusive reseller relationship path. If the free service period is set for at least one service area on a customer, then inheritance is broken. Service areas for which no free service period is defined will be considered as having no free service period.

The free service period is a time-span given in months, allowed values are between 1 and 120 months.

The list of full free service periods for a customer can be externally managed (i.e. via the synchronization API) or can be managed from within HsM. I.e. either all free service periods are externally managed or all are internally managed; if a customer's free service periods are externally managed no free service period can be edited in HsM and no new free service period can be added for this customer within HsM.

If a service area is deleted all free service periods that are bound to that service area will also be deleted.