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  Method and apparatus for providing prepaid local telephone servicesUSPTO Application #: 20070121851Title: Method and apparatus for providing prepaid local telephone services Abstract: A system and method for providing prepaid dialtone services. The system includes a prepaid dialtone service center having an applications server that maintains a prepaid dialtone subscriber database including subscriber identification and service period information. The applications server is configured to automatically remind subscribers to renew their prepaid dialtone account and communicates with a local exchange carrier to place a hold on, or cancel, an expired subscriber account. The method includes the features of determining and monitoring a service period for a prepaid dialtone subscriber, communicating a reminder to the subscriber prior to expiration of the service period, and communicating with a local exchange carrier servicing the subscriber upon expiration of the service period. (end of abstract) Agent: Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione - Chicago, IL, US Inventors: Samuel George Maropis, John Wesley Moss, David D. Brezinski, Mark Joseph Thabit USPTO Applicaton #: 20070121851 - Class: 379127050 (USPTO) Related Patent Categories: Telephonic Communications, With Usage Measurement (e.g., Call Or Traffic Register), Call Charge Metering Or Monitoring, At Local Exchange Carrier (e.g., Central Switching Office), Pulse Counting Or Accumulating (e.g., "message Metering"), Assembling Billing Record (e.g., Automatic Message Account (ama), Call Detail Record (cdr), Etc.), Having Line Identification Associated With Call Billing (e.g., Automatic Number Identification (ani), The Patent Description & Claims data below is from USPTO Patent Application 20070121851. Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/464,835, filed Jun. 18, 2003, pending, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/417,266, filed Oct. 12, 1999, pending, and these applications are incorporated herein by reference. BACKGROUND [0002] Subscribers of local telephone services often sign up for telephone services that are billed out on a monthly basis. Occasionally, some subscribers who are financially capable of paying their bills have difficulty making timely payments for their local telephone services. These late payments result in late payment penalties for the subscriber and added costs to the telephone service provider. In extreme cases the subscriber's delinquency can adversely affect her credit rating. In an attempt to solve this problem, several types of prepaid telephone services are available that allow for a subscriber to prepay for services. [0003] One existing type of system treats prepaid local telephone services (hereinafter "prepaid dialtone") in the same manner as a conventional long distance prepaid card service. The local exchange carrier (LEC) and/or interexchange carrier (IXC) for a particular subscriber will forward all calls to a dedicated prepaid dialtone switch that will determine if the caller has a credit balance in her account. If the prepaid dialtone switch determines that the call can go through, it then routes the call to the local end office and maintains an active connection to the call so that the prepaid dialtone switch may monitor the call and update its database after the call. A disadvantage of this form of prepaid dialtone is that the telephone network needs to maintain a continuous connection to the database monitoring the prepaid subscriber so that the time of the call is monitored and the charges will be debited on, for instance, a per second basis. [0004] Another version of a prepaid dialtone system utilizes a separate billing service that generates monthly statements and posts deposits received. This system acts to accept prepayment of services but does not adequately address the problem of late payments because there is no mechanism for automatically limiting a subscriber's usage or automatically shutting off the subscriber's service at the end of the prepaid service period. [0005] Accordingly, there is a need for an improved system and method of implementing prepaid dialtone services. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0006] FIG. 1 illustrates a prepaid local telephone service applications system according to a preferred embodiment; [0007] FIG. 2 illustrates a prepaid dialtone database for use in the system of FIG. 1; [0008] FIG. 3 illustrates an advanced intelligent network structure in a local exchange carrier configured to cooperate with the system of FIG. 1; [0009] FIG. 4 is a flow diagram of a method of implementing prepaid dialtone services with the system of FIG. 1; [0010] FIG. 5. is a flow diagram of a method of renewing a prepaid dialtone account according to a preferred embodiment. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PRESENTLY PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS [0011] The present invention provides for an efficient and configurable system and method for implementing and monitoring prepaid dialtone services that avoids the billing difficulties and telephone network resource usage of existing versions of prepaid dialtone services. FIG. 1 illustrates a telecommunications system 10 according to a preferred embodiment. The system preferably includes at least one subscriber at a subscriber telephone 12 in communication with a prepaid local telephone service center 14 via a service provider network, often referred to as a local exchange carrier (LEC) 17, that is part of the public switched telephone network (PSTN) 16. The subscriber telephone 12 may communicate directly with the prepaid local telephone service customer service center 14 directly or via a voice recognition unit (VRU) 18. The subscriber telephone may be a plain old telephone system (POTS) telephone in communication with a standard subscriber line that provides telephone service to the subscriber's fixed address. As set forth in more detail below, each LEC 17 preferably has advanced intelligent network (AIN) capabilities. The VRU 18 may be any of a number of commonly available VRU's, such as those available from Dialogic Communications Corporation of Franklin, Tenn., that offer voice and touch tone recognition and response abilities. Preferably, the VRU will be configured to query callers of the service center 14 for information and provide automated account information. [0012] The service center 14 includes at least one customer service agent 20 for receiving initial prepaid dialtone service requests and general customer service questions. Each customer service agent 20 receives a call from a subscriber after the subscriber has been screened by the VRU 18 to determine the subscriber's needs. Alternatively, the subscriber may access the customer service center without going through the VRU. The service center is in communication with an application server 22, such as those commonly available from IBM Corporation, containing a prepaid dialtone database 24, a processor 26 and a memory 28. Preferably the processor 26 of the applications server 22 monitors the status of the various subscriber records and manages communications with the telephone network 16 and other resources. In one embodiment, the customer service center 14, VRU 18 and application server 22 may communicate through a hub 29. A provisioning network 31 receives account activation and subsequent account status information generated by the customer service center 14 or applications server 22, via hub 19, when a prepaid dialtone subscriber establishes an account or when the account status changes. The provisioning information generated by the customer service center 14 or application server 22 may reach the LEC 17 for the subscriber through any of a number of provisioning channels that the particular LEC already uses when provisioning services. [0013] As shown in FIG. 2, the prepaid dialtone database 24 includes a record 30 for each subscriber to the prepaid dialtone service. Each record 30 preferably contains fields for subscriber identification 32 and history 34, the applicable service plan 36, the rate plan 38 (e.g., the cost for the service period associated with the service plan), the service dates 40, and account status 42. The subscriber identification field 32 may include information such as subscriber name, telephone number, address and a unique subscriber ID. The subscriber history field 34 may include two types of information: customer service notes and transaction records. The customer service notes may contain information entered by customer service agents 20 who have previously spoken with the subscriber. The transaction records are a log of service activations and renewals that are automatically generated when a subscriber initiates or renews the prepaid dialtone service. Transaction records may include previous activation dates, times and dollar amounts, as well as the value identification number (VIN) 13 of the prepaid dialtone service card 11 (see FIG. 1) used and the telephone number from which the activation/renewal call was made. [0014] The account status field 42 reflects whether a prepaid dialtone subscriber account is active or on hold. The service plan field 36 of the subscriber record 30 contains a product code representative of the specific version of prepaid dialtone service applicable to the subscriber. The service dates field 40 stores the start and end dates of the present period for which the prepaid dialtone service is active. [0015] As shown in FIG. 3, a suitable LEC 17 may be an advanced intelligent network (AIN) capable network. The network may include one or more service switching points (SSP) 44 in communication with one or more service control points (SCP) 46 via one or more service transfer points (STP) 48. A subscriber telephone 12 preferably is in communication with an SSP 44 over a voice channel. [0016] The SSP 44 is a programmable switch having the ability to recognize AIN triggers for calls requiring special services. The SSP 44 may be an end office or tandem switch and communicates with a SCP 46. The subscriber telephone 12 communicates with the SSP 44 over a voice/information channel such as an ordinary telephone line. Multiple connections and combinations of network elements are usable with the present invention. For example, a subscriber on a subscriber telephone 12 may also communicate with a SSP 44 through one or more ordinary switches. In one preferred embodiment, the SSP is configured to receive and store line class codes from the LEC provisioning system 31 (FIG. 1) representative of the version of prepaid dialtone service offered by the particular LEC. The line class code is associated with a particular subscribers telephone number and instructs the SSP to, for example, verify that calls from the subscriber are of the type permitted under the subscribed prepaid dialtone services. [0017] The service control point (SCP) 46 is a network element containing logic and data necessary to provide functionality required for the execution of a desired communication service. A SCP 46 generally permits separation of service logic from switching functionality such that additional services may be developed without the need to provision significant software in each individual SSP. A suitable SCP 46 is the Advantage SCP manufactured by Lucent Technologies. In a preferred embodiment, the SCP 46 contains service logic for prepaid dialtone services and is also configured to receive a set of records of subscriber names, their telephone numbers and the service time limit at provisioning. This subscriber information originates in the service center 14 and the records are stored in the application server 22 and the memory 50 in the SCP 46. The memory 50 may be integral with the SCP or may be a separate memory device accessible by the SCP 46. [0018] The SCP 46 communicates with SSPs 44 over a data channel via at least one service transfer point (STP) 48. A suitable data signal intended for use with the STPs is the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) signalling system No. 7 (SS7). A suitable SCP/SSP communication protocol is the AIN 0.1 SCP/SSP protocol set forth in Bellcore Technical Reference TR-NWT-001285, entitled AIN Switch-Service Control Point Application Protocol Interface Generic Requirements, Issue 1, August 1992. Other configurations of AIN capable networks may be used to implement a preferred method and system for providing prepaid dialtone services. Additionally, multiple service provider networks, also referred to herein as local exchange carriers (LECs) 17, may access the services of the prepaid dialtone provisioning system 10 so that the prepaid dialtone provisioning system will monitor and maintain all subscriber account records for each of the LECs 17. [0019] In one embodiment, the SSP 44 may be configured to recognize an off-hook delay trigger from a subscriber line when a subscriber picks up the telephone and dials a number. If the subscriber is a prepaid dialtone subscriber, the SSP preferably contains a line class code associated with the subscriber's telephone number. The line class code for prepaid dialtone subscribers contains instructions for the SSP to verify that the telephone number dialed by the subscriber is a non-toll intra-LATA (Local Access and Transport Area), toll-free, or 911 call. If the SSP determines that the number does not fall within the allowable category of calls, the call is not connected. Instead, the off-hook delay trigger is escaped and the call is terminated to treatment in the SSP. If the call made by the prepaid dialtone subscriber is an allowable call, the SSP communicates with the SCP and the SCP verifies that the prepaid dialtone account for the subscriber is valid. If the account is still valid, the SCP instructs the SSP to connect the call. [0020] Referring now to FIG. 4, a method of implementing prepaid dialtone service is described below with relation to the system shown in FIGS. 1-3. When a subscriber 12 desires to participate in the prepaid dialtone service, the subscriber must first purchase a prepaid dialtone card 11. The cards may be purchased from designated retail establishments. The cards will each have a unique value identification number (VIN) that associates a fixed value to a particular card in a prepaid telephone card database. Once a card 11 has been purchased, the customer service center 14 and the VRU 18 will serve as the primary interface for providing the service to the subscriber 12. Although a card having a unique VIN is described herein, a card is not necessary. The VIN may be printed on other items, or may be verbally provided to a subscriber upon purchase, in other embodiments. Continue reading... Full patent description for Method and apparatus for providing prepaid local telephone services Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims Click on the above for other options relating to this Method and apparatus for providing prepaid local telephone services patent application. ###  How KEYWORD MONITOR works... a FREE service from FreshPatents1. Sign up (takes 30 seconds). 2. Fill in the keywords to be monitored. 3. Each week you receive an email with patent applications related to your keywords. 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