Cost accounting during data transmission in a mobile radiotelephone network

• US 20040049438A1
• Filed: 03/24/2003
• Published: 03/11/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 09/22/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Siemens AG
• Original Assignee: Siemens AG
• Inventors: Schmidt, Andreas, Laumen, Josef, Schmidt, Gunnar
• Granted Patent: US 7,305,227 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/32
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/201 Price look-up processing, e.g. updating
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/14 Charging , metering or billing arrangements for data wireline or wireless communications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1471 splitting of costs
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/00 Arrangements for metering, time-control or time indication ; Metering, charging or billing arrangements for voice wireline or wireless communications, e.g. VoIP
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/08 Metering calls to called party , i.e. B-party charged for the communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/28 with meter at substation or with calculation of charges at terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/67 Transmitting arrangements for sending billing related information
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/22 Bandwidth or usage-sensitve billing
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/32 Involving wireless systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/48 Sending information over a non-traffic network channel or another connection than the one actually used, e.g. signalling, D-channel, data and voice

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for accounting data transmission costs in a mobile radiotelephone network, especially text or image data with or without sound, wherein an identification signal for transmission costs is assigned to the data and said identification signal is sent to the recipient and/or sender of the data.

Claims

1. A method for the accounting of data transmission costs in a mobile radio network, in particular in respect of text and/or image data with and without sound,

characterized in that

the data is assigned an identification signal for the transmission costs and that this identification signal is transmitted to the recipient of the data.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1,

characterized in that

the identification signal contains information about the person owing the costs for the incurred transmission costs of the data.

3. The method as claimed in one of claims 1 or 2,

characterized in that

the identification signal contains information about the level of the transmission costs.

4. The method as claimed in one of the claims 1 to 3,

characterized in that

the sender of the data can select before the data is sent who owes the costs for the data transmission.

5. The method as claimed in one of the claims 1 to 4,

characterized in that

the existing transmission costs are assigned to the data by the provider before the data is forwarded to the recipient and the information about this is sent to the recipient.

6. The method as claimed in one of the claims 1 to 5,

characterized in that

the transmission costs are indicated to the recipient visually or acoustically before receipt of the data.

7. The method as claimed in one of the claims 1 to 6,

characterized in that

the telecommunication device of the recipient features an assumption switch to confirm the assumption of costs and the transmission to the recipient is not enabled until the acceptance switch has been triggered.

8. The method as claimed in one of the claims 1 to 7,

characterized in that

the method is applied in the Mobile Messaging Service (MMS).

9. The method as claimed in one of the claims 1 to 8,

characterized in that

the method is applied in the transmission standard UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunication System), in GSM (Global System for Mobile Communication), in GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) and/or in EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Environments).

10. The method as claimed in one of the claims 1 to 9,

characterized in that

the identification signal is assigned to one or more header fields of the data which is transmitted.

11. The method as claimed in one of the claims 1 to 10,

characterized in that

the selection of the person owing the costs is stored in a header field and the level of the transmission costs is stored in a further header field.

12. The method as claimed in claim 11,

characterized in that

the selection of the person owing the costs is stored in the header field 0×

19 and the level of the transmission costs is stored in the header field 0×

1A.

13. The method as claimed in one of the claims 1 to 12,

characterized in that

the additional identification signal for the selection of the person owing the costs is transmitted respectively during the transmission of a data record (multimedia message) from the sender (MMS user agent A) to the MMS relay of the service provider, in the confirmation of receipt of a transmitted data record (multimedia message) by the MMS relay of the service provider to the sender (MMS user agent), in the notification to the recipient (MMS user agent) by the MMS relay of the service provider concerning the presence of a new data record (multimedia message), as well as during the transmission of a data record (multimedia message) from the MMS relay of the service provider about the presence of a new data record (multimedia message).

14. The method as claimed in one of the claims 10 to 13,

characterized in that

the additional identification signal for the level of transmission costs is transmitted respectively in the notification to the recipient (MMS user agent) by the MMS relay of the service provider concerning the presence of a new data record (multimedia message), as well as during the transmission of a data record (multimedia message) from the MMS relay of the service provider to the recipient (MMS user agent).

15. The method as claimed in one of claims 10 to 14,

characterized in that

the additional header field(s) for the selection of the person owing the costs is or are assigned respectively to the messages M-send.req, M-send.conf, M-Notification.ind and M-Retrieve.conf and the additional header field(s) for the level of the transmission costs is or are assigned respectively only to the messages M-Notification.ind and M-Retrieve.conf.

16. The method as claimed in claim 15,

characterized in that

the outgoing message M-Send.req is assigned an additional header field for the selection by the sender of the person owing the costs.

17. The method as claimed in one of claims 15 or 16,

characterized in that

in the message M-send.conf returned to the data sender by a provider the same header field acknowledges with a confirmation of acceptance or rejection of a selection of the person owing the costs.

18. The method as claimed in one of the claims 15 to 17,

characterized in that

in the message M-Notification.ind sent to the recipient by the provider the same header field is populated with a signal which indicates the selection of the person owing the costs.

19. The method as claimed in one of the claims 15 to 18,

characterized in that

the message WSP Get.req (14) sent to the provider by the recipient represents a signal accepting the selection of the person owing the costs.

20. A method for the accounting of data transmission costs in a mobile radio network, in particular in respect of text and/or image data with and without sound, in particular in accordance with one of the claims 1 to 17,

characterized in that

the data is assigned an identification signal for the transmission costs and that this identification signal is transmitted to the sender of the data.

21. A mobile telecommunication device (5;

6) for carrying out the method as claimed in one of the claims 1 to 18,

characterized in that

the mobile telecommunication device (5;

6) features an assumption switch (16) for confirming the assumption of costs.

22. The mobile telecommunication device as claimed in claim 21,

characterized in that

the mobile telecommunication device (5;

6) features an indicator means (15) for visual or acoustic indication of the costs of sending and/or receiving data (7).

23. The mobile telecommunication device as claimed in one of the claims 21 or 22,

characterized in that

the mobile telecommunication device (5;

6) features a selection switch (17) to select a charging of costs when data is sent (7).

24. The mobile telecommunication device according to one of claims 20 to 22,

characterized in that

the selection switch (17) and/or the assumption switch (16) is or are implemented in software and is or are selectable by means of an input means.

27. Software in accordance with claim 26,

characterized in that

this carries out a method in accordance with one of claims 1 to 17 when sending data in the mobile radio network.

25. The mobile telecommunication device (5;

6),

characterized in that

this features software for populating header fields of data messages (9;

13) with an identification signal for transmission costs.

26. Software to enable data transmission by means of a mobile radio network,

characterized in that

this forwards a cost identification signal to the respective recipient.