Telephonic communications – With usage measurement – Call charge metering or monitoring
Reexamination Certificate
2002-03-04
2004-05-25
Barnie, Rexford (Department: 2643)
Telephonic communications
With usage measurement
Call charge metering or monitoring
C379S114010, C379S114150, C379S114160, C379S114170, C455S406000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06741687
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to telecommunications systems and, more particularly, to a method and system for providing account balance or prepaid communication service.
2. Description of Related Art
For many years, the telecommunications industry has recognized the need to provide a mechanism for restricting or otherwise managing use of communication services based on a measure of subscriber account balance. In systems providing account balance services, a subscriber may first establish a prepaid account with a service provider and then pay for a duration of communication services on the communication network by adding money to the prepaid account. An account balance typically represents a measure, such as time or monetary value, of communication services that a subscriber is authorized to use. As the subscriber uses the service, the carrier may then continuously monitor and decrement the balance of the prepaid account. When the balance drops to a low threshold level, the service provider may notify the subscriber and allow the subscriber to add more money to the account. Further, once the account is exhausted, i.e., the balance drops to zero, the service provider may refuse to provide additional services to the subscriber or charge the subscriber for an excess use. Other arrangements are also possible.
Offered for years in both landline and wireless systems, prepaid service has been viewed as a tool to attract “credit challenged” consumers, that is, potential customers with poor credit histories or who otherwise lack adequate credit references. In addition, prepaid services appeal to consumers who do not want to be burdened with contracts and bills, who want to maintain fixed budgets, or who simply wish to remain anonymous. For example, travelers who require a temporary phone service can benefit from prepaid services in the form of a rented wireless phone that has been activated with prepaid minutes. Similarly, a pre-activated wireless phone with initial prepaid minutes can be given, sold or rented through various channels, including supermarkets and convenience stores.
The concept of account balance services, however, encompasses more than just traditional prepaid communications. In general, an account balance service can involve establishing or applying any type of account balance that serves as an actual or suggested limit on use of communications services. The account balance could represent a time limit such as minutes of use, or a monetary limit such as dollars of use, for example. Further, the account balance that defines the actual or suggested limit on use need not necessarily come from a prepayment by a subscriber or other party. Rather, the account balance could simply represent an assigned limit on use, which the subscriber may or may not be allowed to exceed.
In order to provide account balance services, a telecommunications network should include some mechanism to track the start and stop of calls, to monitor and adjust a subscriber's balance during a call, and to maintain control in order to facilitate an appropriate response to a low or zero balance.
FIG. 1
illustrates a wireless telecommunication network
100
in which account balance services are provided according to one existing embodiment. As shown in
FIG. 1
, network
100
includes a first client device
102
, which communicates over an air interface
106
, an intermediate base station
104
, and a communication link
108
with a Base Station Controller (“BCS”)
152
. According to the embodiment illustrated in
FIG. 1
, first client device
102
may be a cellular telephone, for instance. BSC
152
is in turn coupled via a communication link
154
to a mobile switching center (“MSC”)
110
, which serves to connect calls between various points in network
100
. As shown in
FIG. 1
, MSC
110
is connected by a voice data link
112
to a public switched telephone network (“PSTN”)
114
, which provides a path through which MSC
110
may connect calls with a remote MSC
118
and in turn with a second client device
126
. MSC
118
is interconnected via a BSC
164
and an intermediate base station
122
to second client device
126
.
Exemplary network
100
includes a signaling subsystem, which may be a packet-switched SS7 signaling system, for instance. At the core of the signaling network, there is a signal transfer point (“STP”) backbone network
134
, which may consist of one or more signal transfer points and associated signaling paths. STP network
134
carries out-of-band signals that are used to control the switches and to set up and tear down the circuit between the calling party, such as first client terminal
102
, and the called party, such as second client terminal
126
. As illustrated in
FIG. 1
, MSC
110
and MSC
118
are coupled to STP network
134
via signaling paths
128
and
132
, respectively. For instance, Signaling System 7 (“SS7”) may be used as a signaling system.
STP network
134
is coupled to a centralized service control point (“SCP”)
142
via a signaling path
140
. SCP
142
contains control information and call processing logic to assist MSC
110
. For example, SCP
142
may provide routing instructions to MSC
110
. In exemplary network architecture
100
, an Intelligent Peripheral (“IP”)
162
is coupled to STP
134
via a signaling path
160
, and MSCs
110
and
118
, or HLR
138
and SCP
142
may communicate with IP
162
via STP
134
. IP
162
can be arranged to provide assorted services, including tone generation, voice recognition, playback, compression, call control, recording, and DTMF detection and collection. IP
162
may also include an intelligent voice response unit (“IVRU”) to facilitate various interactions with users. In such an embodiment, IP
162
may be linked to one or more MSCs via one or more voice trunks, such as a voice trunk
130
illustrated in
FIG. 130
for MSC
118
. It should be understood that MSC
110
may have a voice trunk to the IP
162
as well. Typically, IP
162
does not have call control logic embedded and must be instructed to perform each operation under the control of SCP
142
using a Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (“TCP/IP”), for instance.
Exemplary network
100
further includes a Home Location Register (“HLR”)
138
coupled by a signaling path
136
with STP network
134
. HLR
138
serves standard functions in the wireless network such as managing service profiles and authenticating subscribers or mobile stations. HLR
138
may be located on an SCP operated by the home service provider of record for a given subscriber. In addition, network
100
may include a Visitor Location Register (“VLR”), which stores service profile information for mobile stations being served by the carrier-operating SCP
142
.
To manage account balances, network
100
further includes a calculation engine (“CE”)
146
. Calculation engine
142
is a programmed computer running an application to manage subscriber account balances. In
FIG. 1
, CE
146
is coupled to SCP
142
via a link
144
. Link
144
may be a wide area network such as the Internet, and SCP
142
and CE
146
may communicate over link
144
by a TCP/IP interface.
In one arrangement for providing account balance services, a prepaid subscriber may originate a call from first client device
102
by sending dialed digits to MSC
110
. Upon receipt of the dialed digits, MSC
110
may request instructions from SCP
142
by sending to SCP
142
an origination request message including the dialed digits and a mobile station identifier of first client device
102
. Upon receipt of the dialed digits, SCP
142
may determine that the subscriber is the account balance service subscriber, and, further, that IP
162
needs to play an announcement of the subscriber's available balance. Therefore, SCP
142
may request from IP
162
a routing number for routing the call from MSC
110
to IP
162
. IP
162
may respond by allocating a temporary number to one of its ports and returning that number to SCP
142
. SCP
142
may then
Barnie Rexford
Sprint Spectrum L.P.
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