Telephonic communications – With usage measurement
Patent
1997-01-30
1998-10-13
Kuntz, Curtis A.
Telephonic communications
With usage measurement
379114, 379121, 379144, H04M 1500
Patent
active
058224114
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to telecommunications services and apparatus, and more especially to arrangements for charging for telecommunications services. It is applicable both to telephony based services and to others such as broadband services.
DESCRIPTION OF PRIOR ART
Telephone calls and other telecommunications links tend to be charged on a time of day/duration/distance basis where the fee levied is dependent upon the time of day the call is made, the duration of the call and the distance between the parties involved in the call. A number of telephony services are now available which make use of variations to this basic theme through a variety of means. These include called party charging, split called/calling party charging or premium rate charging (where an additional fee is charged on top of the basic "normal" call charge and credited to the called party). Use of these mechanisms has enabled the creation of a number of services both in the UK and elsewhere.
However, the arrangements employed hitherto lack flexibility. For example, premium rate calls employ the same pence per minute rate throughout the duration of calls. This means that one can find operators of recorded information services artificially increasing the duration of a call (by giving the information out more slowly than is necessary) in order to recoup the charge they consider appropriate for a particular piece of information. This means that the service operator needs more equipment and lines and of course it is wasteful of his customers' time.
US Pat. No. 5,148,474 discloses a method of conducting a business wherein a party calls for a service or product, and after identification, requests a service or product from the called provider who establishes a rate for compliance. The caller responds by making or completing a conference call (also known as three-way calling) to a designated number, which responds by activating an announcement system and playing a brief warning message stating the rate that the caller is being charged. The provider hears this message and uses it as confirmation that the caller has dialled the requested number to establish a three-way conference call. The announcement system now remains silent, and the only function of the third line of the conference call is to provide automatic billing for the time during which the services are provided. In other words, the agreed charge is made to the caller by means of a separate billing the conference call, and the provider receives the charge by subsequent transfer of funds from the network operator. The provider has to replicate this arrangement for each different charge rate.
European Patent Application No. 9131123888.9 (Publication No. 0 491 497) discloses a call billing method which enables a service provider (also known as a sponsor) to specify call billing information to the network on a call-by-call basis. A caller dials a published number for a service provider, and this is received by an action control point (ACP) which interrogates a network control point data base to convert this to a routing number which is then forwarded to a terminating toll switch for completion of the call to the provider. When the provider answers the call the action control point starts timing the call.
As part of the call setup procedure, the terminating toll switch sends to the provider a signalling message including the caller's identification. Following a successful credit check, the provider outputs a menu of available services and the caller makes a selection by, e.g. touch tone entry at the caller's telephone. After receiving the caller's response, the provider selects appropriate billing parameters for the call, and supplies the caller with the requested service.
Before terminating the call, the provider sends a signalling message (Sponsor Specified Caller Rate Information) to the terminating toll switch containing call identification information, timing information and rating information, and the terminating toll switch, in turn, sends a signalling messag
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Reinig et al, "Intelligent Networking Inpacts on Account Management", GLOBECOM '92--IEEE Global Telecommunications Conference, vol. 2/3, Dec. 1992, Orlando, Florida, pp. 1022-1026, XP 000357711.
Anderson John R.
Swale Richard P.
British Telecommunications public limited company
Kuntz Curtis A.
Tieu Binh K.
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