Telecommunications – Radiotelephone system – Usage measurement
Reexamination Certificate
1999-03-17
2001-12-04
Maung, Nay (Department: 2744)
Telecommunications
Radiotelephone system
Usage measurement
C455S406000, C455S409000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06327466
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to setting the charge rate in a wireless pay phone.
2. Description of the Related Art
Today it is becoming increasingly common to use wireless pay phones in various vehicles, such as trains, boats or buses. It becomes difficult to set the charge rate of calls or other services if a vehicle in which a pay phone is located travels over a broad area, for example, in several different countries or, more generally, in several areas that affect charge rates, which are specified by call tariffing. The originating zone of a call made with a roaming wireless pay phone may also change from time to time, which should also be taken into consideration in setting the charge rate. A user naturally expects the pay phone charge rate to be similar to that of his or her own mobile phone for a given call or service. A provider of a pay phone service also benefits if the ratio between the pay phone charge rate and the actual charge rate of a call or service is always nearly the same or at least under the control of the provider.
No reliable and flexible solution currently exists for setting the charge rate in a wireless pay phone that takes into account the originating zone and destination zone of a call. Until now, the charge rate has been primarily set based on the selected phone number or service number. It has also been possible to take a pay card used to operate a pay phone into account in setting the charge rate. For wireless phones where the originating zone of a call does not change and the operator is therefore always the same, the charge rate may be set by using a net tariffing service, such as AoC (Advice of Charge) for GSM phones and Q1Q2 for NMT phones. However, it is difficult to use a net tariffing service if a pay phone roams and the net and operator changes, because uninterrupted availability and reliability of the service cannot be guaranteed.
The charge rate of a roaming pay phone has been set by loading a charge rate table into the phone. The charge rate table is based on either the charge rate of the predominant call originating zone or an average charge rate of the area in which the vehicle travels. In order to ensure that the right charge rates are applied, a new charge rate table should be loaded into the pay phone each time it enters an area with different tariffing for calls originating in that area, which may be a different country. The provider of the service should replace the table, and this in itself is difficult to arrange. It has been suggested that a new charge rate table could be loaded by means of a radio interface using a short message service or a modem. The quantity of information may be from a few kilobytes to 10 kilobytes, which would require a considerable amount of time to transfer. For example, 10 kilobytes is equivalent to 100 messages in a typical short message service, which would require at least 6 minutes to send. At least one minute of air time would be needed to send this information by modem. If it is arranged so that a new table is loaded in conjunction with certain handovers, this would result in a considerable number of extra data transfers, because handovers occur often in a moving vehicle.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
For simplicity, the present application mainly speaks of a “call” and a “phone number” in referring to, for example, of “the destination zone of a call” and of “the definition of a destination zone based on a selected phone number.” Here a “call” also refers to other services that may be used by means of a pay phone, and which require making a “call” to a certain “phone number”, which here may also be a service number.
The purpose of the present invention is to provide a method and arrangement for setting the charge rate in a wireless pay phone, while avoiding the above-mentioned problems and making it possible to set the right charge rate in a wireless pay phone in all situations.
The method according to the present invention for setting the charge rate in a wireless pay phone, which method defines the destination zone of a call, is characterized in that it comprises defining the location of the pay phone, defining the originating zone of the call based on said location, and setting the charge rate based on at least said originating zone and destination zone of the call.
In one embodiment of the method, the charge rate for a pay phone is set using a tariffing algorithm.
A tariffing algorithm may specify several charge rate classes, whereupon a charge rate is set by finding a charge rate class corresponding to the originating zone and destination zone. In one advantageous embodiment, parameter values corresponding to charge rate classes are specified, and the parameter values set a charge rate corresponding to a charge rate class.
Setting of a charge rate class may be affected not only by the originating zone and destination zone, but also by the day of the week and/or hour of the day, or by a pay card used in a pay phone.
The arrangement according to the present invention for setting the charge rate for a pay phone, which includes a mobile phone part essentially comprising a mobile phone that operates in a mobile station system, and a pay phone part comprising pay phone functions, including analysis of a selected phone number to define the destination zone of a call, is characterized in that the mobile phone part and pay phone part cooperate for making location information maintained in the mobile phone part available for use by the pay phone part, the pay phone part defines the originating zone of a call based on the location information, and the pay phone part includes a tariffing algorithm implemented therein, which sets the charge rate based on at least the originating zone and destination zone of the call.
In one embodiment of the arrangement, the tariffing algorithm comprises a first part that sets a distance class based on the originating zone and destination zone, and said algorithm may also comprise a second part that sets a charge rate class based on at least the distance class, and a third part that specifies several charge rate classes and corresponding parameter values, which set a charge rate corresponding to a charge rate class.
The method and arrangement according to the present invention can be used to flexibly set a charge rate with sufficient correctness and fairness even for wireless pay phones that roam over large areas. The solution according to the present invention also utilizes as little memory space of the pay phone as possible.
The present invention and certain of its embodiments are described in more detail in the following, with references to the enclosed drawings.
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Finnish Office Action (and English translation thereof).
PCT International Search Report.
Maung Nay
Nokia Mobile Phones Ltd.
Perman & Green LLP
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