Telephonic communications – With usage measurement – Call charge metering or monitoring
Reexamination Certificate
1997-09-04
2002-02-05
Kuntz, Curtis (Department: 2643)
Telephonic communications
With usage measurement
Call charge metering or monitoring
C379S114030, C379S114050, C379S114190, C705S023000, C705S037000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06345090
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to a telephone calling system and, more particularly, to a method and system for receiving and processing offers from a calling party to place one or more telephone calls in accordance with restrictions defined by the calling party.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
With the long distance telephone market becoming nearly saturated with supply, competition among long distance carriers for new business has increased dramatically. On average, over two hundred million (200 million) long distance calls are placed each day in the United States. When profits per subscriber are considered, it is clear why long distance carriers are so aggressive in their pursuit of new accounts. While reputable long distance carriers will spend large amounts of money to legitimately acquire each new account, some carriers will nonetheless change a customer's long distance carrier without the customer's permission, in a process referred to as “slamming.”
Once a long distance carrier has made the initial investment to provide a network offering sufficient quality and capacity, the incremental profit to complete each additional call has been estimated to be as high as ninety eight percent (98%). Accordingly, long distance carriers are constantly searching for new techniques and promotions to encourage new accounts. For example, as an added incentive to open or maintain an account, many long distance carriers offer reward programs, such as the True Rewards™ program offered by AT&T, that provide subscribers with discounts and free gifts. In addition, many long distance carriers offer cash incentives to encourage a potential new customer to switch long distance carriers. For example, many long distance companies will mail a check to a potential customer to encourage that customer to switch his or her long distance carrier. If a potential customer cashes the check, the endorsement on the check also serves as an authorization to change the customer's long distance provider. In addition many long distance carriers offer various promotions and marketing campaigns to encourage long distance usage, such as MCI's “Friends and Family”™ promotion and Sprint's “Ten Cents Per Minute”™ promotion. Although such programs help to attract new accounts and build customer loyalty, most consumers are not particularly “brand” conscious when it comes to telephone service, and cost is often the prevailing factor.
Although the costs associated with long distance calls have dropped and are expected to continue dropping dramatically in the United States and other countries as the result of increased competition, the cost of a long distance call remains sufficiently prohibitive to discourage many people from placing as many long distance calls as they would like. In addition, most callers are typically unfamiliar with the rate structure associated with placing calls to various geographical areas at various times of day. Thus, the inability to identify and control the cost of a long distance call has further contributed to the reluctance of many people to place more long distance calls.
While many large customers, such as corporate customers, often have sufficient leverage to negotiate their long distance rates with a long distance carrier, or to permit carriers to bid for their account, it is impractical, given current telephone systems, for long distance providers to individually negotiate long distance rates with the average consumer. In addition, many large customers have accounts with a number of different long distance carriers, and employ “least cost routing” technology in their proprietary private branch exchange (PBX) switches or other customer-premises equipment. This technology enables them to select the most cost-effective carrier on a per-call basis using stored rate information. Again, such a cost-reduction solution is not available to the average consumer, who typically has only one long distance provider.
In addition, a number of systems have been proposed or developed to permit carriers to submit bids for telephone calls. U.S. Pat. No. 5,606,602, entitled “Bidding for Telecommunications Traffic,” to Johnson et al., discloses a system that permits carriers to bid on telecommunications traffic. In the disclosed system, each carrier submits a bid informing a central bidding moderator of the rate the carrier is willing to offer subscribers for a connection between two points at a specific time. The bid information is then compiled by the bidding moderator and sorted based on the identified connection points. In addition, the sorted bid information is then transmitted to distributed processors at each participating switch location and to all network management centers. A subscriber can then select a carrier to place a particular call from the sorted bid information.
Recently, the Phonemiser™ and Rate Hunter™ systems have been developed to permit a calling party to contact the system and identify the telephone number of a party to be called. The respective systems then use stored rate information to identify the long distance carrier offering the most cost-effective rate to complete the call. Once found, the call is handled by the identified cost-effective carrier. The Phonemiser™ and Rate Hunter™ systems utilize stored rate information to select a particular carrier, and do not facilitate real-time negotiation with individual long distance carriers. In addition, the Phonemiser™ and Rate Hunter™ systems do not permit the call to be completed in accordance with restrictions specified by the calling party.
As apparent from the above deficiencies with conventional telephone calling systems, a need exists for a system that processes offers from a calling party to place one or more telephone calls in accordance with restrictions defined by the calling party. A further need exists for a caller-driven system that permits a long distance carrier to complete a telephone call at a price set by the calling party, typically below the carrier's published rate. Yet another need exists for a system that permits long distance carriers to stimulate sales of excess network capacity, without compromising their published rate structure.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Disclosed is a conditional purchase offer (CPO) management system for receiving and processing CPOs for telephone calls from calling parties. The CPO management system processes the CPO to determine whether one or more long distance carriers, referred to herein as an “interexchange carrier” or “carrier,” is willing to accept a given CPO and complete a telephone call in accordance with restrictions defined by the calling party. If accepted, the CPO management system binds the calling party on behalf of the accepting interexchange carrier, to form a legally binding contract. According to an aspect of the invention, a calling party can submit a CPO for an individual telephone call, a package of calls to one or more called parties, or for a contract to provide telephone service for a predefined period of time. The conditions defined by the calling party may include the telephone number to be called, the maximum price, one or more preferred carriers, if any, as well as any time limitations, such as a particular time-of-day or minimum call duration.
The CPO management system is interconnected with one or more calling parties and one or more long distance carriers, referred to as interexchange carriers, who may route a call to a desired called party. A calling party, desiring to call a called party, may submit an offer to the CPO management system for one or more telephone calls in accordance with restrictions defined by the calling party. Preferably, the calling party initially dials the telephone number assigned to the CPO management system to provide the CPO management system with the terms of the CPO. Alternatively, the calling party can initially contact the CPO management system by means of online access or e-mail using the Internet. Once the calling party contacts the CPO management system, the call
Schneier Bruce
Sparico Thomas M.
Walker Jay S.
Kuntz Curtis
Morgan & Finnegan L.L.P.
priceline.com Incorporated
Tieu Binh K.
LandOfFree
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