WO1998039910A1

WO1998039910A1 - Dynamic split billing of telephone calls

Info

Publication number: WO1998039910A1
Application number: PCT/US1998/002493
Authority: WO
Inventors: Hosagrahar V. Jagadish; Inderpal S. Mumick
Original assignee: At & T Corp.
Priority date: 1997-03-07
Filing date: 1998-02-09
Publication date: 1998-09-11

Abstract

A telephone call placed by an originating subscriber to a terminating subscriber is billed by first connecting the telephone call between the originating subscriber and the terminating subscriber. A signal initiating split billing is received, then a signal indicating a billing portion is received. Both the originating subscriber and the terminating subscriber are billed for at least a portion of the cost of the telephone call, based on the indicated billing portion. The billing portion may be specified as a percentage, a monetary value, or a time period. Split billing may be initiated by the originating subscriber in the situation in which the terminating subscriber was responsible for the entire cost of the call prior to split billing being initiated. Split billing may be initiated by the terminating subscriber in the situation in which the originating subscriber was responsible for the entire cost of the call prior to split billing being initiated.

Description

DYNAMIC SPLIT BILLING OF TELEPHONE CALLS

Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to the processing of telephone calls,

and in particular, to the billing of the costs of such calls.

Background of the Invention

The cost of a telephone toll call placed between telephone

subscribers is typically billed to the subscriber originating the call

(originating subscriber). It is well-known to shift the entire cost of a call

to the recipient of the call (terminating subscriber). For example, collect

calling allows a caller to shift the cost of individual calls to the

terminating subscriber, with the permission of the terminating subscriber

given on a call-by-call basis. Another example is Inward WATS or

"800" number service, in which the cost of all calls placed to a particular

number are shifted to the terminating subscriber.

It is known to shift a portion of the cost of a call on a predefined

basis. For example, in the Telephone Call Billing System of Patent No. 5,381,467 to Rosinski et al., at least of portion of the period cost

associated with at least one of the indivisible time periods of a toll call is

assigned to both the terminating and originating subscribers. The

apportionment of the basic cost of a call is automatically authorized

according to a predetermined agreement as to the sharing of each of the

call's period costs. An authorization signal is required in order for cost

sharing to occur. In one embodiment, the authorization signal is

automatically generated, if the originating subscriber meets

predetermined criteria with respect to each call. In another embodiment,

the authorization signal is developed in response to actions taken by the

terminating subscriber after call setup by, for example, keying

predefined codes via telephone keyboard. Thus, the terminating

subscriber is given the option of accepting a predefined portion of the

cost of a call, or allowing the originating subscriber to pay the entire

cost of the call. This prior art system does not provide a subscriber with

the capability to define a cost sharing arrangement after the call has

been connected. In addition, this system only provides cost sharing when the subscriber that would not normally be charged for the call is

the terminating subscriber

In the telephone billing method of Patent No. 5,146,491 to Silver

et al., a toll-free number is provided to a customer to access a provider

in a toll-free call from an originating customer telephone number. The

originating customer telephone number is received in response to the

toll-free call. The toll-free call is converted to a billable call during or

after the toll-free call and the billable call is billed to the originating

customer telephone number. This method provides the capability to

charge goods or services that are purchased by the originating customer

to the originating customer's telephone bill. The monetary amounts

charged to the customer depend on the items purchased, not on the

actual cost of the telephone call. It does not provide cost sharing of the

cost of the telephone call.

It is desirable to provide the capability to define an arrangement

for sharing the cost of a telephone call after the call has been connected.

Likewise, it is desirable to provide cost sharing capability to the

subscriber that would not normally be charged for the call, regardless of whether that party is the originating subscriber or the terminating

subscriber.

Summary of the Invention

The present invention is a method and system for billing a

telephone call which provides a subscriber with the capability to define

an arrangement for sharing the cost of a telephone call after the call has

been connected. It provides cost sharing capability to the subscriber that

would not normally be charged for the call, regardless of whether that

party is the originating subscriber or the terminating subscriber

A telephone call placed by an originating subscriber to a

terminating subscriber is billed by first connecting the telephone call

between the originating subscriber and the terminating subscriber. A

signal initiating split billing is received, then a signal indicating a billing

portion is received. Both the originating subscriber and the terminating

subscriber are billed for at least a portion of the cost of the telephone

call, based on the indicated billing portion. The billing portion may be specified as a percentage, a monetary

value, or a time period. Split billing may be initiated by the originating

subscriber in the situation in which the terminating subscriber was

responsible for the entire cost of the call prior to split billing being

initiated. Split billing may be initiated by the terminating subscriber in

the situation in which the originating subscriber was responsible for the

entire cost of the call prior to split billing being initiated.

Brief Description of the Drawings

The details of the present invention, both as to its structure and

operation, can best be understood by referring to the accompanying

drawings, in which like reference numbers and designations refer to like

elements.

Fig. la is a block diagram of one embodiment a telephone call

billing system, in which the present invention may be implemented.

Fig. lb is a block diagram of the telephone call billing system of

Fig. la, showing AMA records according to the present invention. Fig. 2a is a flow diagram of the operation of a dynamic split

billing process according to the present invention.

Fig. 2b is a flowchart depicting the steps involved in a

procedure that a billing analysis system may use to perform dynamic

split billing processing for each call, according to the present

invention.

Fig. 3 is a block diagram of another embodiment of a telephone

call billing system, in which the present invention may be

implemented.

Fig. 4 is a block diagram of another embodiment of a telephone

call billing system, in which the present invention may be

implemented.

Detailed Description of the Invention

Referring to Fig. la, there is shown a block diagram of a

telephone system in accordance with one embodiment of the present

invention. There is shown a calling telephone 102, a called telephone

104, a telephone network switch 106 and a Call Detail Database (CDD) 108. An Automatic Message Accounting (AMA) record,

represented by a block 110, is also shown. As indicated by the figure,

a billable call may be initiated at telephone 102 and routed through

switch 106, e.g., an AT&T 4ESS ) switch, to telephone 104. The

switch generates AMA record 110, which includes the information

necessary to rate the call. The AMA record is passed to CDD 108. It

should be noted here that there are an abundance of protocols and

transmission media that may be used for passing the data from the

switch to the CDD. For example, suitable protocols include the well

known File Transfer Protocol (FTP) and Transmission Control

Protocol/Internet Protocol; and suitable transmission media include

twisted shielded pair wires, fiber optic lines, coaxial cable, and

wireless links. Moreover, these protocols and media are suitable for

use in all data transfers and queries hereinafter described.

In any event, once the AMA record has been passed to the

CDD, it is available for use in pricing the call. To this end, the AMA

record is passed to a billing analysis system 112, which may be a

general purpose computer capable of running the software necessary to implement the invention. The billing analysis system applies any

subscriber specific billing parameters to the AMA record to produce a

processed AMA record. It then passes both the AMA record and the

processed AMA record back to the CDD for storage. A method for

passing the data back to the CDD is disclosed in co-pending,

commonly assigned, US Patent Application Serial No.: 08/607,983 -

entitled "Compression and Buffering of a Stream with Data Extraction

Requirements" - which application is incorporated herein by reference.

The billing analysis system performs its functions the instant the

switch passes the AMA record to the CDD (i.e. it performs call

pricing in real-time). In order to achieve real-time processing of

AMA records the invention must overcome two primary obstacles.

First, the subscriber specific data is fragmented across multiple

business units, with no cohesive notion of an integrated subscriber

profile. This situation is depicted in Fig. la, which shows several

subscriber profile databases 114, 116 and 118. As shown in the

figure, the invention overcomes this obstacle through the use of an

integrated subscriber profile database located within the billing analysis system. Software tools update the integrated subscriber

profile database in response to updates of the individual subscriber

profiles 114, 116 and 118 so that the integrated database always

contains current information on all subscribers.

The volume of subscriber and telephone call data makes it

difficult to store, rate, and query call data in real-time. To surmount

this obstacle the invention accumulates summary information as each

individual call (AMA) record is received and rated in real-time. It is

generally desirable for a telephone network to maintain a subscriber's

current bill. Thus, one type of accumulated summary information may

be current bills for each network subscriber. Nevertheless, it may be

useful to accumulate other types of summary information for particular

subscribers. The nature of the accumulated summary information for

a particular subscriber depends upon the services subscribed to by that

subscriber. For example, a subscriber may subscribe to a plan in

which calls made during the hours between 5:00pm and 9:00am

receive a 10% discount; in which case it is useful to maintain a summary field containing the number of minutes of calls that the

subscriber has made during the discount period.

In any case, the summary information is stored in a Summary

Database (SD) 113 that is located within the billing analysis system.

Thus, in this embodiment, AMA records and processed AMA records

are stored in the CDD, while summary information is stored in the

SD. It should be noted that many alternative storage schemes may be

employed without departing from the spirit of the invention. For

example, in one alternative scheme, AMA records are stored in the

CDD, summary information are stored in the SD, and processed AMA

records are stored in both the CDD and SD.

The processing involved in dynamic split billing is shown in Fig.

lb, which, as an example, shows the present invention implemented in

the telephone billing system of Fig. la. The present invention may be

similarly implemented in the telephone billing systems shown in Figs. 3

and 4.

A subscriber places a call from calling station 152. Each call is

routed through a network switch 156, which generates a corresponding AMA record 160. The AMA record includes an indication of a primary

subscriber for the AMA record and the call information needed to

determine the cost of the call. Typically, the primary subscriber is the

subscriber who would pay for the call if split billingis not invoked. The

AMA record also includes split billing information 161, which

includes an indication of the secondary subscriber and the split portion,

which is the portion of the cost of the call that the secondary

subscriber will pay. The split portion may be indicated in several

ways, such as a maximum monetary value, a percentage of the cost of

the call, or by a number of minutes of the call.

The present invention handles split billing for both inbound and

outbound services. In outbound service, the originating subscriber is

initially responsible for the cost of the call. The terminating subscriber

may initiate split billing if desired. The originating subscriber is

indicated as the primary subscriber in the AMA record. The

Automatic Number Identification (AM) is used for this purpose. In an

ANI system, the number of the telephone station from which a call is

initiated is determined and used to identify the party who initiated the call. The terminating subscriber is indicated as the secondary

subscriber in the AMA record. The dialed number is used for this

purpose.

In inbound service, the terminating subscriber is initially

responsible for the cost of the call. The originating subscriber may

initiate split billing if desired. The terminating subscriber is indicated

as the primary subscriber in the AMA record. The dialed number is

used for this purpose. The originating subscriber is indicated as the

secondary subscriber in the AMA record. The ANI is used for this

purpose.

The AMA record is passed to CDD 158, making the record

available for call pricing. The AMA record is passed from CDD 158 to

billing analysis system 162, which determines the cost of the call.

Billing analysis system 162 determines a total cost of the call based on

the call information in the AMA record. Billing analysis system 162

also determines the portion of the total cost of the call that is to be paid

by the secondary subscriber, based on the information in split billing

information 161. Billing analysis system 162 then generates processed AMA record 163, which includes the charges for the call that are to be

billed to the primary subscriber, and processed AMA record 164, which

includes the charges for the call that are to be billed to the secondary

subscriber. The AMA records are generated based on each subscriber's

profile in the subscriber profile databases connected to billing analysis

system 162, such as subscriber profile database 165. AMA records 163

and 164 are then passed back to CDD 158, where they are stored until

billed to the subscriber.

A flow diagram of the operation of a dynamic split billing process

is shown in Fig. 2a. The process begins with an originating subscriber

placing a call to a terminating subscriber (step 202). The secondary

subscriber in the call, which is the terminating subscriber in outbound

service and the originating subscriber in inbound service, initiates split

billing (step 204). Split billing may be indicated by entering a first

touch-tone code into the keypad of a telephone station, or by

transmitting the touch-tone code from a computer, or a signaling code

from a PBX. The code is received by network switch 156, which

typically indicates receipt of the first touch-tone code by transmitting an audio prompt, such as a tone or voice message, to the secondary

subscriber. The secondary subscriber then indicates the portion of the

call for which he will pay (step 206). The portion may be indicated by

entering a second touch-tone code into the keypad of thetelephone state,

or by transmission from a computer or PBX.

Network switch 156 then generates an AMA record 160,

including the primary subscriber, call information and split billing

information including the secondary subscriber and the split portion

(step 208). The AMA record is passed to the CDD (step 208). The

billing analysis system then performs the processing necessary to bill

both the primary subscriber and the secondary subscriber for their

respective portions of the cost of the call (step 210).

Fig. 2b shows, in flowchart form, a procedure that a billing

analysis system may use to perform dynamic split billing processing

for each call. In the following description of the flowchart references

will be made to the embodiment shown in Fig. lb.

Upon receiving an AMA record, such as 160a from CDD 158,

the first step billing analysis system 162 takes is to rate the total call (step 252). It then determines the portion of the total call that is to be

paid by the secondary subscriber from the information in split billing

information 161 (step 254). The portion to be paid by the primary

subscriber is the remainder of the cost of the call. This is also

determined (step 254). It must then match the rated call to the

subscriber so that subscriber specific parameters can be applied to the

call (step 256). Several well known techniques can be used to match

the rated call to the subscriber. One such technique uses Automatic

Number Identification (ANI). In an ANI system, the number of the

telephone station from which a call is initiated is determined and used

to identify the party, the originating subscriber, who initiated the call.

The terminating subscriber may be identified based on the dialed

number. Accordingly, in the Fig. lb embodiment, the number of a

telephone, such as 152 or 154, may be determined and passed to the

billing analysis system along with the AMA record. The billing

analysis system may then cross-reference the number to the subscriber

profile containing the subscriber specific data to be used for the

current call. Once the appropriate profiles have been determined, the billing

analysis system applies the subscriber specific data contained in the

profiles to the rated call to produce a priced call value for the primary

subscriber's portion of the call and for the secondary subscriber's

portion of the call (step 256). Each priced call value may be added to

the respective subscriber's previous balance to create a new balance,

or "current bill" for each subscriber (step 258). Finally, the priced

call value (processed AMA record) for each subscriber is stored in the

CDD, and the current bill (summary information) for each subscriber

is stored in the SD (step 262). As described in relation to Fig. la, an

alternative scheme is to store both the priced call value and current bill

- collectively termed "the priced call data" - in the SD; in which case,

step 262 would involve storing the priced call value and the current

bill in the SD.

As an optional step in the procedure of Fig. 2b, the billing

analysis system may adjust charges for old calls to reflect certain types

of billing plans, such as usage based discount billing plans (step 260). Referring now to Fig. 3, there is shown an alternative

embodiment of a telephone system in accordance with the present

invention. The subscriber profiles are not shown, but are similar to

those shown in Fig. lb. As shown in the figure, a call may be

initiated at a first telephone 302 and directed to a second telephone

304. The call is routed by a network switch 306, which generates an

AMA record 310 for the call. The AMA record is passed to a billing

analysis system 312 which applies subscriber specific parameters to the

AMA record to produce a processed AMA record. The AMA record

and processed AMA record are then passed to a CDD 308 for storage.

Like the billing analysis system of Fig. lb, the billing analysis

system of Fig. 3 includes a SD 313. The billing analysis system of

Fig. 3 also includes an integrated subscriber profile - although, it

should be noted that for simplicity of presentation the individual

subscriber profile databases are not shown in Fig. 3, nor in the figures

that follow. Also, like the billing analysis system of Fig. la, the

billing analysis system of Fig. 3 accumulates summary information as

each individual call record is received and rated in real-time, the summary information being stored in the SD 313. As in the prior

described embodiment, alternative schemes may be employed for the

storage of the AMA records, processed AMA records, and summary

information.

Fig. 4 shows another embodiment of a telephone system in

accordance with the present invention. The subscriber profiles are not

shown, but are similar to those shown in Fig. lb. In the Figure 4

embodiment, as in the previous embodiments, a call initiated at a first

telephone 402 may be directed to a second telephone 404 through a

network switch 406, which generates an AMA record 410. However,

in the Fig. 4 embodiment the AMA record is passed to a Rating

Complex (RC) 412. The RC is a unit which performs the functions of

the CDD and billing analysis system, and may therefore be

characterized as a combined CDD and billing analysis system. As

shown in the figure, the RC may include a SD 413 for storing the

summary information separately from the AMA records and processed

AMA records. As in the prior described embodiments, alternative schemes may be employed for the storage of the AMA records,

processed AMA records, and summary information.

It should be noted that although all three embodiments discussed

above depict a call as being initiated from a first telephone and

directed to a second telephone, it is possible that calls may be initiated

by, and directed to, many different types of communication devices.

For example, a call may be initiated by a fax machine and directed to a

personal computer. Moreover, a call may be initiated by a single

communication device and directed to multiple communication

devices. For example, a call may be initiated by a fax machine and

directed to multiple independent personal computers. For purposes of

this description, each instance of a single initiating call being directed

to a different terminating device will be considered an independent

call.

Although specific embodiments of the present invention have been

described, it will be understood by those of skill in the art that there are

other embodiments which are equivalent to the described embodiments.

Accordingly, it is to be understood that the invention is not to be limited by the specific illustrated embodiments, but only by the scope of the

appended claims.

Claims

1. A method of billing a telephone call placed by an originating

subscriber to a terminating subscriber, comprising the steps of:

connecting the telephone call between the originating subscriber

and the terminating subscriber;

receiving a signal initiating split billing;

receiving a signal indicating a billing portion; and

billing the both the originating subscriber and the terminating

subscriber for at least a portion of the cost of the telephone call, based

on the indicated billing portion.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the billing portion is specified as

a percentage.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the specified percentage is less

than 100%.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the specified billing portion

equals 100%.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the billing portion is specified as

a monetary value.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the billing portion is specified as

a time period.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein split billing is initiated by the

originating subscriber.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the terminating subscriber was

responsible for the entire cost of the call prior to split billing being

initiated.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein split billing is initiated by the

terminating subscriber.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the originating subscriber was

responsible for the entire cost of the call prior to split billing being

initiated.

11. A system for billing a telephone . call placed by an originating

subscriber to a terminating subscriber, comprising the steps of:

a switching device connecting the telephone call between the

originating subscriber and the terminating subscriber;

a first receiver, coupled to the switching device, receiving a signal

initiating split billing;

a second receiver, coupled to the switching device, receiving a

signal indicating a billing portion; and

a billing device, coupled to the second receiver, billing the both

the originating subscriber and the terminating subscriber for at least a

portion of the cost of the telephone call, based on the indicated billing

portion.

12. The system of claim 1 1, wherein the billing portion is specified as

a percentage.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the specified percentage is less

than 100%.

14. A system for billing a telephone call placed by an originating

subscriber to a terminating subscriber, comprising the steps of:

means for connecting the telephone call between the originating

subscriber and the terminating subscriber;

a means for receiving a signal initiating split billing, coupled to

the connecting means;

a second means for receiving a signal indicating a billing portion,

coupled to the switching device; and

means for billing both the originating subscriber and the

terminating subscriber, coupled to the second receiver, billing each

subscriber for at least a portion of the cost of the telephone call, based

on the indicated billing portion.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the billing portion is specified as

a percentage.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the specified percentage is less

than 100%.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the specified billing portion

equals 100%.

18. The system of claim 14, wherein the billing portion is specified as

a monetary value.

19. The system of claim 14, wherein the billing portion is specified as

a time period.