Telephonic communications – With check operated control – Other than coin
Reexamination Certificate
1999-03-17
2001-04-24
Le, Huyen (Department: 2743)
Telephonic communications
With check operated control
Other than coin
C379S114030, C379S121020, C379S143000, C455S406000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06222915
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The method according to the present invention relates to the provision of telecommunications-based services rendered via calling card systems in accordance with requests for the services by the customers.
RELATED TECHNOLOGY
In contrast to chip-based telephone cards and credit card solutions, calling card systems, described, e.g., in “Calling Card Features and Technical Implementation”, Telekom. Praxis [Telecommunications Practice] 12/97, pages 17-27, typically do not require any actual plastic cards for proper functioning. The calling card system works on the basis of numeric strings which include a card number (PAN) and a personal identification number (PIN) and which, for instance, can be keyed in from memory at any touch-tone telephone. With the aid of the numeric string, the telephone customer identifies himself/herself in the database of the system computer as an authorized user of the system. Calling card services for the first time allowed cashless calls to be made at one's own expense from any telephone all over the world, just as if one were dialing from his or her home telephone. Fundamental and independent service functions of a calling card system can be classified as follows:
a) making cashless phone calls on a worldwide basis using personal user codes (PAN and PIN), and by an individual debiting of charges to the corresponding customer card account;
b) making cashless phone calls on a worldwide basis and using an amount of money previously stored in the system (prepaid calling);
c) making cashless phone calls worldwide by using main cards and secondary cards (corporate cards) and by cost assignment to fixed cost sections (cost-section calling);
d) making cashless phone calls worldwide for young people using the “call home” function (family calling card system); and
e) providing service functionalities, such as electronic telephone mailbox (voice mail function).
These individual services typically are regarded as services that are independent of each other and can, therefore, be offered to the customer as single services only. As such, the configuration of the customer's terminal equipment, for example a phone, is not taken into consideration. For voice-controlled systems (such as voice-activated telephone-based system), interactive communication between the customer and the calling card system is restricted to a few single control words in a language. Conversions, for example converting voice to writing (subsequently output, for example, per fax), are not yet possible with known presently-used methods. All existing services have been implemented on closed, individually assigned platforms, which do not permit any expansion in the form of new services or any new ways of conversion.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides a method for a calling card system which allows the customer a diversified and expandable access to telecommunications-based services, especially in the case of complex service requests. Starting out from a customer's request for services, the aim of the calling card system of the present invention is to successively offer the customer all service components which the user needs to fulfill his or her service request. This can occur in a single telephone call. In addition, a customer authorization control and a plausibility check are to be performed before the requested service is provided.
The present invention provides a method for providing telecommunications-based services, where the access to the service provider is realized, on the basis of cards, via a calling card provider. The user interface between the telecommunications terminal of the customer and the various calling card services of the calling card provider is effected over information input/output modules. The customer—after having dialed the call number/service number of the calling card service—is connected, via a module “telephone interface with calling line identification (Caller ID)”, to the information input/output modules, and interactive communication with the customer is started via the information input/output modules. The method is characterized in:
that after recognition of a first valid information input from the customer, a connection is set up via a control module to a database in which data on the types of calling cards approved within the scope of services offered by the calling card service, including the access authorization (PAN and PIN) to the calling cards and to the services admitted for the type of card concerned, are stored and logically interconnected;
that the customer is prompted, via the information input/output module, to input data required to identify the customer to the calling card service, in accordance with the calling card used;
that the customer, after having been successfully identified, is prompted, via the information input/output module, to input the information about the service requested by him/her;—that based on the PAN of the customer's calling card, it is checked whether the service requested by the customer is admissible in connection with the calling card used by him/her;
that if the service requested by the customer is permitted, appropriate services and/or service combinations in conjunction with suitable information input and output media are determined via a second database in order to fulfill the customer's service request, the second database containing data on services and/or service combinations which are logically interconnected with a conversion matrix containing known information input and output media and all combinations of information input and output media which can be derived from the information input and output media known, including the configurations of terminal equipment relating to the services and/or the service combinations;
that the services and/or service combinations, ascertained on the basis of the customer's service request, in conjunction with the information input and output media determined in this respect, are subject to a plausibility check to verify whether the desired service and/or the requested service combination is supported by the information input/output module available at the customer and the calling card of the customer, whether the desired service and/or the requested service combination is suitable for solving the customer's problem, and whether the desired service and/or service combination is admitted within the scope of the calling card system, that
a) in the event of the plausibility check yielding a negative result, a decision feedback is transmitted to the information input/output module, which outputs stored information about the problem that has occurred to the customer, and that the customer is prompted to correct the data pertaining to his/her service request, and that
b) in the event of a successful plausibility check, the service and/or service combination required for solving the customer's problem is generated and automatically connected through to the customer and is, thus, made available to the customer to meet his/her service request.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5621787 (1997-04-01), McKoy et al.
patent: 6118860 (2000-09-01), Hillson et al.
patent: WO97/22217 (1997-06-01), None
Mueller Christel
Runge Fred
Trinkel Marian
Wetzel Romeo Peter
Ziern Thomas
Deutsche Telekom AG
Kenyon & Kenyon
Le Huyen
Tieu Binh K.
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