Telephonic communications – With usage measurement – Call charge metering or monitoring
Reexamination Certificate
1998-04-16
2001-07-17
Kuntz, Curtis (Department: 2643)
Telephonic communications
With usage measurement
Call charge metering or monitoring
C379S112030, C379S114030, C379S114030, C379S144020, C379S133000, C455S405000, C455S406000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06263056
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
A. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of processing telephone calls where the called party is a cellular subscriber or a paging system subscriber. More particularly, the invention relates to methods of call processing to provide enhanced billing, routing, and messaging services.
B. Description of the Related Art
Cellular system subscribers typically are charged a fee for use of the cellular system, regardless of whether the cellular subscriber initiates or receives the call. Similarly, paging system subscribers are charged a fee for paging calls received. Subscribers may not have control over who calls (or pages) them, other than to keep their phone number out of the public domain. However, maintaining an unlisted number has disadvantages, and may not be practical for a business setting. Consequently, systems that require the calling party to pay, known as Calling Party Pays (CPP) and Paging Party Pays (PPP) systems, have been implemented to charge a calling party for the entire call rather than to charge the cellular/paging subscriber for calls incoming to the subscriber. That is, with CPP/PPP services, the land-line user calling a cellular or paging user will pay the land-line usage as well as the air time charges associated with the call.
After an end-user dials the cellular/paging subscriber's telephone number, the end-user is prompted with an announcement indicating they will be billed for the call. At such time, the end-user has the option of continuing the call and being billed for the call, or hanging up if they do not want to incur the charges.
The prior art systems have limited features, and are unable to charge the calling party under certain circumstances, such as when calls are initiated from payphones, hotels, etc. These are commonly referred to as “leakage calls” originating from “leakage sources.”
1. The Digital Phone Network
FIG. 1
depicts a typical prior art Advanced Intelligent Network (AIN) used for call processing and routing. A calling party using telephone subscriber unit
10
conveys dialing information to its End Office
20
(EO), also known as a Service Switching Point (SSP)
20
. The SSP
20
routes the call to the called party's SSP
30
that routes the call to the called party's telephone subscriber unit
40
. The calling party's SSP
20
obtains the necessary information used to route the call to SSP
30
via a Signaling System
7
network (SS
7
), which includes a Signaling Transfer Point
50
(STP) and a Service Control Point
60
(SCP). Typically, the SCP
60
has access to an External Data Base
70
(EDB) containing various network and subscriber data. As is well known in the art, the SS
7
Network is hierarchical, with the STP
50
having a routing function to direct SS
7
communications to the appropriate SCP
60
.
In the AIN network, call routing is performed using SS
7
. As is well known in the art, SS
7
is generally made up of i) transport protocols known as Message Transfer Parts
1
-
3
(MTP) and the Signaling Connection Control Part (SCCP), and ii) user parts such as Transaction Capabilities Application Part (TCAP), Telephone User Part (TUP), and ISDN User Part (ISUP), which use the lower level MTP and SCCP capabilities. TCAP provides a way for an application at one node in the network to access a database at another node or to invoke the execution of a procedure at another node. Further information about SS
7
may be found in T. Russell, “Signaling System #7,” McGraw Hill (1995), the teachings of which are incorporated herein by reference.
Routing within an AIN network is performed based on dialed digits in the form of area code, exchange prefix, and line number, NPA-NXX-XXXX. The area code is referred to as a Numbered Plan Area (NPA) and the exchange prefix is referred to as NXX. The subscriber line number XXXX are digits seven through ten. Alternatively, the numbering format is often given as NXX-NXX-XXXX, where N can be any number 2-9, and X can be any number 0-9. Throughout this specification NPA-NXX will be used to refer to the area code and exchange prefix of a phone number.
In the AIN network the EO is typically a class
5
switch. The tandem switch is of class
4
, meaning that switching is performed between two trunk lines and subscribers are typically not serviced directly. In the AIN network, cellular and paging service switches are typically connected to a tandem switch. The NXX numbers assigned to the cellular providers are associated, or “homed,” to the class
4
tandem switches. The class-
5
SSPs are configured to route cellular and paging calls directly to the tandem.
2. Calling Party Pays
In prior art CPP systems (FIG.
2
), SSP
20
routes cellular (or paging) calls from the calling subscriber unit
10
to the Tandem
80
based on the dialed NPA-NXX information. Based on the called party number, tandem
80
launches a TCAP query to the SCP
60
to determine if the particular cellular or paging provider offers CPP services. In addition, the tandem queries SCP
60
using the calling party's Automatic Numbering Identifier (ANI) to determine the billable status of the calling number based on its Charge Party Station Type (CPST).
The CPST is also referred to as “ANI II.” Some standard ANI II Codes are given: ANI II Code
00
is used to designate standard billable calls with no special attributes; ANI II Code
27
identifies a line connected to a pay station which uses network provided coin control signaling; ANI II Code
29
is used to identify lines serving a confinement or detention facility that are intended for inmate/detainee use and require outward call screening (e.g., 0+collect only service); ANI II Code
70
identifies a line connected to a pay station (including both coin and coinless stations) which does not use network-provided coin control signaling.
If the SCP
60
determines that the called subscriber does not have a CPP option, the SCP
60
instructs the tandem to route the call as normal to the Mobile Telephone Switching Office
90
(MTSO) for transmission to the subscriber unit
100
. If, on the other hand, the SCP
60
determines that the cellular subscriber
100
(called party) has a CPP option, and the calling subscriber unit
100
is of billable status, the SCP
60
instructs the tandem
80
to route the call to the MTSO
90
and to create a billing record in an Automatic Message Accounting (AMA) data base
1
10
to record the charge to the calling party for the air-time associated with the call. If the SCP
60
determines that the calling subscriber
100
is not of billable status, then the SCP
60
nevertheless instructs the tandem
80
to route the call to the MTSO
90
. The tandem
80
regards the call as leakage and may route the non-billable call to the MTSO
90
over a separate pre-designated trunk
120
, wherein the use of that trunk indicates that the call has not been billed to the calling party. The cellular provider may then treat the call as “leakage” and not bill it, or the provider can charge the cellular subscriber for the air-time.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The process described herein allows a cellular or paging system to provide enhanced Calling Party Pays (CPP) or Paging Party Pays (PPP). The enhancements enable the system to 1) bill calls originating from traditionally non-billable sources, 2) route incoming calls to voicemail if the caller does not wish to incur the additional charges, 3) allow the caller to complete the call and charge the cellular (or paging) subscriber for additional air-time usage when the caller enters a PIN or security code, also referred to herein as a billing override code, and 4) allow the caller to block CPP/PPP charges from being billed to the calling party.
An object of the method described herein is to allow the cellular or paging service provider to recover the costs of calls originating from leakage sources by routing leakage calls to a billing service, such as a credit card billing service. The method involves the steps of receiving information containi
Blumenschein Gordon Lynn
Donoso Carlos
Gruchala Carol Shifrin
Marshall Douglas
Sosa Roger Albert
Ameritech Corporation
Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione
Kuntz Curtis
Tran Quoc
LandOfFree
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