Telephonic communications – With usage measurement – Call charge metering or monitoring
Reexamination Certificate
1999-10-20
2002-03-26
Tieu, Binh (Department: 2643)
Telephonic communications
With usage measurement
Call charge metering or monitoring
C379S114030, C379S114050, C379S120000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06363141
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of Invention
The present invention is directed to a method and apparatus for automatically processing charges for a telecommunication communication.
2. Description of Related Art
Presently, existing systems generate bills for telecommunication communications based on predetermined bill structures. A billing system must be extensively retooled to accommodate a new telecommunication service. This retooling must be done to allow a billing system to recognize when a received billing record is for a communication to the new service. This retooling must also be done to allow a billing system to generate appropriate sections in a bill for new services.
The retooling can be especially problematic when a new service is only being offered on a trial basis or for a limited time. The limited nature of the new service may not warrant the expense and time of retooling the billing system. Possible solutions have included issuing special calling cards or billing customers' credit cards for the special service. These solutions are not optimal because they require a customer to keep track of numerous bills for communication services. Thus, there is a need for new technology to automatically generate bills or sections on bills for communications to new special services that may be offered on a trial basis.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention provides an apparatus and method for the automatic processing of charges for a telecommunications communication. The type of communication is automatically determined from a received record. Based on the determined type of communication, information indicating attributes of the communication is retrieved from the record. A bill is then generated that includes at least one new section that is generated exclusively from the information retrieved from the record. The new section includes information about communications to new services. Accordingly, the existing billing system does not have to be extensively reconfigured when a new special service is offered on a trial basis.
These and other features and advantages of this invention are described in or are apparent from the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5805680 (1998-09-01), Penzias
patent: 6011837 (2000-01-01), Malik
patent: 6266401 (2001-07-01), Marchbanks et al.
AT&T Corp.
Oliff & Berridge
Tieu Binh
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