WO2003009574A1

WO2003009574A1 - Calling party pays additional charges

Info

Publication number: WO2003009574A1
Application number: PCT/GE2001/000002
Authority: WO
Inventors: Teimuraz Tchkadua
Original assignee: Teimuraz Tchkadua
Priority date: 2001-07-20
Filing date: 2001-08-15
Publication date: 2003-01-30
Also published as: GEP20022747B

Abstract

A method of calling-party-paid telecommunication is provided. According to the method, the calling party who initiates a call to the subscriber is advised that a surcharge will be incurred for completing the call and the call is completed if the calling party accepts the surcharge and is billet by the surcharge. This time, the called party is credited with a portion of the surcharge. Another aspect of the method contemplates an opportunity of placing a credit by the subscriber by dialing an access code and, subsequently, the amount of credit when he/she receives prompt for the credit amount from the operator.

Description

CALLING PARTY PAYS ADDITIONAL CHARGES

The present invention pertains to the telecommunications field and can be used to establish telecommunications with the subscribers who have debts as to their credit history.

In modern systems of telecommunication, such as public exchange carriers, billing of a call is typically applied to the calling party on the basis of a per-minute or per-second charging. There are also telephone services, referred to as value-added services, such as the one which is disclosed in the US patent 51484474, which employ additional fees established for the services provided by them. Communication with these value-added services can be completed by dialing additional numbers by a calling party after which the service provider system allows to accomplish a communication with the service system.

As the billing of a call is typically applied to the calling party the databases employed in telecommunication systems store credit parameters of each subscriber and in the event of a credit depletion and, subsequently, failure of the subscriber to meet some specific requirements of the telecommunication company the subscriber is disconnected either completely or in a one-direct-call manner, i.e. when the subscriber is given a determined time limit within which any other calling party is able to complete a call with him/her in a conventional manner.

To avoid the depletion of the credit amount of a subscriber, various call charge control and notification systems have been proposed. For example, European patent EP 0705019 discloses a telecommunication network where a subscriber can specify a limit on charges to be incurred on a telecommunication call. The telecommunication network, thereafter, maintains a running tally on the charges being incurred in the course of the telecommunication and notifies the caller when the charges approach the placed limit. At that time, the caller may specify a new limit, simply disconnect, or be automatically disconnected when the limit is reached.

To avoid the credit amount depletion and, respectively, disconnection of a subscriber a number of systems have been proposed that allow to shift billing burden between the calling and called parties. The systems can particularly be applied to the instances where, for example, a college student may desire to call his or her parents at home, or a call is placed between friends, or between business partners etc. For example Us patents 5937044 and 5646984 disclose systems of telecommunication where upon negotiation between the calling and called parties the called party can accept the charges, either completely or partially, of the telecommunication. However, it is apparent that if the called party denies accepting the charges of the call the whole communication charge is again billed to the calling party, and if the credit of the caller is, anyway, have reached the limit he or she is faced with the danger of being disconnected.

As was stated in the above description, in the instance when a subscriber is disconnected in a one-direction-call manner he or she is given certain time limit for improving his or her own credit and to be connected, respectively, to the network with full its capabilities. There still remain some instances to be envisioned, in particular, when the subscriber fails to pay within the given time limit even minimum amount of sum relating to the charges of the telecommunication network. Both the subscriber and the communication provider in this case are getting suffered. In such instances, it would be desirable to provide the system of automatic collection of sum which would be convenient both for a subscriber and a provider. In connection with this problem a telecommunication system, which is described in US patent 5568541, should be mentioned, which enables to improve the credit balance of a called party. In particular, the called party, upon receipt of calls from selected calling parties and completion of communication is given an ability to credit to his/her account a portion of those charges which are to be paid by the calling parties. To this end, the calling party has to pay with the communication charges in a conventional manner and, at this time, prior to completion of the telecommunication, the calling party is being advised that a surcharge will be incurred for completing the call. If the calling party accepts the surcharge the communication is completed and the called party is credited during the course of the communication with a portion of the surcharge. The above described system is contemplated to perform a telephone marketing in a more effective way and to enable a higher percentage of calls with proposals of services to called parties from business organizations taking into account the fact that in most cases the called parties are disinterested to such service proposals, or otherwise are unwilling to be inundated by such calls. Consequently, despite the improvement of called parties credit the proposed system does not contemplate to collect money from disconnected (in a one-direction-call manner) subscribers. The present invention has for its objective to provide a communication system that would enable to avoid the creation of debt of network subscribers and, respectively, their disconnection from the network, which would be undesirable to both the subscriber and the provider party. To meet this objective, the proposed by the present invention system contemplates shifting of the subscribers whose credit amount is below the threshold value to the service regime, wherein upon receiving incoming calls the calling parties who are trying to place calls to them are notified that if they are willing to establish connection with the called party a surcharge will be incurred for completing the call, and if the calling party accepts the surcharge the receiving number is automatically credited with a portion of the surcharge during the course of the communication.

Fig. 1 shows a block diagram illustrating a method for placing a surcharge on calling parties according to the present invention.

Referring to Fig.l an individual places a call to a subscriber, and then the communication system performs identification of the caller as illustrated in box 2 to add a surcharge to the cost of the call if the calling party is willing to establish a connection with the subscriber. The communication system then defines in step 3 whether the called party is out service (disconnected) or whether his/her credit amount is below the established threshold value, as shown in box 4. In case the subscriber's credit exceeds the established threshold value two party connection is established in a conventional manner without adding any surcharge to the cost of call and the calling party is billed according to the established fee for the communication. In case the called party is disconnected in one-direction-call manner or his/her credit amount is below the established threshold value the calling party is automatically notified of the surcharge if he/she is willing to be connected to the subscriber, as indicated at box 5. If, at this time, the caller accepts the surcharge he will have to confirm his willingness by pressing, for example, an appropriate key on his/her telephone. Failure to press the appropriate key on his/her telephone will be interpreted as non-acceptance of the surcharge and the call will be terminated consequently. After having confirmed his willing to accept the surcharge by pressing an appropriate key the caller is connected to the called party and his account is billed and the portion of the added fee is then automatically credited to the account of the subscriber as indicated at step 10. It should be contemplated herein also the instance when, during the course of two party communication, the credit of the called party reaches the established threshold value. This time, the communication system is checking at the selected time intervals the credit parameters and optionally stops the billing of the surcharge directly in the course of communication and in the remaining time of the communication the surcharge no more is added to the cost of call.

The surcharge that is to be placed on the calling parties according to the above described procedure may be a portion of an established communication fee, for example 25 per cent thereof, etc. As for the portion which is to be credited to the called party's account may be calculated by taking the expenditures that would be needed for operating appropriate network resources by the communication system into account, in particular, performing searches in databases, etc.

Minimum threshold value of the called party's credit account may be determined in various ways. For example, it may be above zero, or may equal to zero or even be less than zero taking the local conditions of the communication network into the consideration. This value can also be varied to contemplate some particular instances as well.

In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, the subscriber who has been disconnected in one-direction-call manner is given an opportunity to place on his credit account certain amount of sum which should be limited by established maximum value, for example ten dollars, by dialing special access number. The credit shall give him capability to place calls prior to the incoming calls and, respectively, before replenishing his account by placing a surcharge on the calling parties, especially when urgent calls are needed to be placed. To this end, the subscriber will have to dial specified access code, for example *46, on his touch-tone telephone which will be followed by an announcement from the operator system by audible, visual indicator etc., such as: "Please enter the amount of the credit for charges of the calls." The subscriber then enters the amount he is willing to have as credit and becomes capable of placing calls in a normal way. At this time, the communication provider system, in accordance with the entered credit amount, establishes new threshold value for the step 4 (Fig 1) which differs from the previously established threshold value by the amount having been dialed by the subscriber. The above-described mechanism of placing a credit can have a particular practical value in instances where the subscriber has been disconnected, or the established threshold value for the step 4 (Fig 1) equals to or is less than zero. These are the cases when the subscriber has debt with respect to the provider and, naturally, he would not be able to make calls until his credit has been replenished by placing a surcharge on the calling party in accordance with the above-described procedure contemplated by the present invention. For example, if the subscriber who has been disconnected is in need of placing a call he/she dials the specified access code and then having received the prompt for the credit amount from the operator he continues to dial the amount of the credit. In that particular case when the subscriber has zero debt the dialed amount of the credit will equal to the established threshold value applied at the step 4 (Fig 1).

When the subscriber uses his/her credit and places a call the credit starts to deplete in accordance with the length of the call. Afterwards, when the subscriber receives a call from someone it is unambiguously defined at the step 4 (Fig 1) that the credit amount is below the threshold value and the calling party is again notified at the step 5 of the surcharge to be paid, and the steps 6,7,8,10 subsequently repeats until the subscriber's credit replenishes and reaches the threshold value again.

To accomplish the above-described method which is contemplated by the present invention conventional billing apparatus can be employed in practice, that is used in exchange carriers. For example, upon dialing a number of a called party by the calling party the service processor of the exchange carriers, which includes service logic for processing calls, a database and announcement facilities, after the electronic identification step of the calling party's number causes an announcement to be plaid on the magnetic tape or causes dual tone multifrequency_digits to be collected. The database stores records which include information about each subscriber, as well as billing parameters etc. The service logic represents the conventional processing equipment and software needed to store, retrieve, and process records in the database, and to communicate with switch of the exchange carrier and the signaling network.

Once the calling party dials a number of a called party the switch of the exchange carrier communicates the dialed number to the service processor. The service processor uses the dialed number to retrieve a record which specifies features of the called party. Then the service processor causes an announcement concerning the pricing of the call to be played to the calling party. This time the service processor sends a standard message (e.g. SS7TCAP) to the switch to activate the announcement facilities. For example, switch may play an announcement such as: "Your call has been placed to a subscriber who has been disconnected. If you wish to complete this call you will be charged additional 25 per cent of the cost per minute to cover the debt of the subscriber. If you wish to pay the surcharge, please press the key (specifying which key to be pressed) on your telephone. Otherwise please hang up now".

If the caller accepts the surcharge, the service processor instructs the switch to record billing information to be used by the billing system to bill the caller for completing a call with the disconnected called party.

The described mechanism of placing a credit according to the second aspect of the present invention may, for example, be accomplished by the application of a dual tone multifrequency detector which should be located in the unidirectional path in the carrier switch network. The detector would receive touch tone digits corresponding to the access code and the amount of credit dialed by the caller and then communicates these digits to the service processor for making required modifications in the appropriate record of the database.

Generally, the implementation of the proposed method of placing a surcharge on the calling party can be utilized in various environments including switched connections for voice communication, data communication, video conferencing etc., and implemented in various channels, as are voice grade channels (DSO), Tl channels, STS-1 channels, etc.

The method for completing the communication and collection of money which is proposed by the present invention can particularly be applicable to regions settled by socially unprotected people, developing countries, etc.

Claims

1. A method of calling-party-paid telecommunication by adding a surcharge to the cost of call comprising the steps of: identifying the calling party's telephone number; advising the calling party that a surcharge will be incurred for completing the call; giving the calling party an opportunity to accept the surcharge or terminate the call; billing the calling party who fails to terminate the call; and crediting the called party with a portion of the surcharge, characterized in that prior to the step of advising the calling party it includes the step of checking the credit parameters of the called party to identify whether these parameters are below the established threshold value.

2. A method of calling-party-paid telecommunication in accordance with claim 1, characterized in that the step of checking the called party's credit parameters are continuously performed at the selected intervals during the course of two party communication and the billing of the calling party by applying the surcharge is terminated when the said parameters reach the established threshold value.

3. A method of calling-party-paid telecommunication by adding a surcharge to the cost of call comprising the steps of: identifying the calling party's telephone number; advising the calling party that a surcharge will be incurred for completing the call; giving the calling party an opportunity to accept the surcharge or terminate the call; billing the calling party who fails to terminate the call; and crediting the called party with a portion of the surcharge, characterized in that further includes the step of giving the called party an opportunity to place a new credit to enable the called party to place calls until the previous credit has been replenished, and the step of checking the credit parameters of the called party prior to said step of advising the calling party to identify whether the said parameters are below the established threshold value. A method of calling-party-paid telecommunication in accordance with claim 3, characterized in that said step of placing a credit is performed by dialing an access code by the subscriber, and sending a message to the subscriber notifying to dial the amount of credit to be placed.