Telecommunications – Radiotelephone system – Zoned or cellular telephone system
Reexamination Certificate
1999-09-20
2003-09-09
Trost, William (Department: 2685)
Telecommunications
Radiotelephone system
Zoned or cellular telephone system
C455S441000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06618594
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to wireless communication systems and, in particular, to a system and method for over-the-air user zone assignments for wireless telephone systems.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Wireless communication networks which provide mobile telephone and other related services to customers across a broad frequency spectrum are well known. One example of a cellular telephone network having radio transmissions in the microwave band of between approximately 800 MHz and 2.2 GHz is shown in FIG.
1
. The prior art cellular telephone network of
FIG. 1
includes a mobile telephone switching center (MSC)
10
and a plurality of cell site transceivers
12
A through
12
C. The cellular transceivers transmit radio signals to and receive radio signals from one or more mobile units
14
that move about a cellular service area
16
. A mobile unit
14
can be a wireless voice telephone or data receiver that can be permanently installed at a fixed location within a vehicle, or portably carried by a person. Each cellular transceiver
12
is able to broadcast and receive the radio signals within a geographic area
18
, referred to as the cell site coverage area. Together the areas
18
comprise the entire cellular service area
16
.
Telephone calls to a mobile unit
14
can originate from another mobile unit or a land-based telephone via the public switched telephone network (PSTN)
20
. This is accomplished by receiving a call request at the MSC
10
. In turn, the MSC
10
instructs the central call processor
22
to begin call processing. The central call processor
22
transmits the signal to each of the cellular transceivers
12
, causing the transceivers to transmit a page signal to the mobile unit
14
.
The cellular service area
16
within which the mobile unit
14
can operate is referred to as the home area. For billing purposes, a mobile unit
14
is typically associated with a defined home area
16
. Within the home area
16
, calls and/or data can be placed to or received from the mobile unit
14
for a predetermined fee arrangement with the communication service provider. For areas outside of the home area
16
where cellular transceivers are present, voice and/or data transmissions are still possible to the mobile unit, however, additional fees are typically associated with such transmissions. These are commonly referred to as “roaming” charges or out-of-network fees.
There are several drawbacks associated with having predefined home areas. For example, a user may live in a border region served by two adjacent carriers. In such case, approximately half of the user's telephone transmissions may occur within one zone and half may occur in the other area, resulting in “roaming” charges for half of the user's telephone calls. To remedy this, the user may contract for services within both adjacent areas, however this may necessitate having two mobile units for a single user and, possibly, two service provider contracts. It would therefore be preferable if a user could define its own desired user area.
In addition, there are many areas
18
within mobile communication networks with under-utilized transmission bandwidth. Presently, there is no known method of dynamically making this bandwidth available to potential mobile communications users. To take advantage of the available bandwidth throughout a mobile communications network, it would, therefore, be desirable to offer such geographically defined regions to potential users of such services.
Alternatively, it would be desirable to allow users to request access to a mobile communications network at a location remote from their own user area. For example, while traveling, a businessperson could request mobile communication services in the city or region of travel. In response, the provider of the mobile communication services could offer the user geographic zone and pricing information to make use of available communication services. If more than one service provider was in the region, competing bids for such services could be provided. Thus, a service provider with more available bandwidth in the user requested region could likely provide a lower bid for the services desired. One advantage to such a system is that the user has flexibility in defining the desired user zone. Another advantage is that service providers can maximize network utilization and create additional revenue.
The present invention overcomes the drawbacks associated with present wireless communication systems by providing a method and system for user-defined user zones.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5295180 (1994-03-01), Vendetti et al.
patent: 5428666 (1995-06-01), Fyfe et al.
patent: 5559520 (1996-09-01), Barzegar et al.
patent: 5758288 (1998-05-01), Dunn et al.
patent: 6058305 (2000-05-01), Chavez, Jr.
patent: 6198930 (2001-03-01), Schipper
patent: 6243572 (2001-06-01), Chow et al.
Myers Theodore James
Walsh Patrick Jay
Ameritech Corporation
Mehrpour Naghmeh
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