System and method for determining characteristics of international calls

• US 20040203650A1
• Filed: 08/13/2002
• Published: 10/14/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 08/13/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Knowledge Ventures, L.P. (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: SBC Properties, L.P.
• Inventors: Halpern, Jackie A., Berelian, Elias
• Granted Patent: US 7,602,891 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/414.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2207/206 composed of PSTN and wireless network
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4931 Directory assistance systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/00 Arrangements for interconnection between switching centres
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13097 Numbering, addressing
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13102 Common translator
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13103 Memory
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13141 Hunting for free outlet, circuit or channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 3/66 Traffic distributors

Abstract

A telecommunications system utilizes a central database to determine characteristics for international calls, to facilitate call routing for international calls, or both. The central database includes termination information for telephone numbers in multiple nations outside the North American Numbering Plan. In one aspect, an interexchange switch receives a termination number for an international call from a local exchange carrier and uses information from the central database to help complete the call. In another aspect, the central database receives a telephone number from a remote user such as interexchange carrier (IXC) and, in response, transmits termination information to the remote user to identify whether the telephone number uses wireless termination. The remote user may then charge a customer for wireless termination, if appropriate, possibly even before the remote user receives an invoice that reflects wireless termination charges from a foreign wireless carrier.

Claims

1. An automated method of determining characteristics of a terminating number for an international call, the method comprising:

receiving a request for termination information from a remote user via a secure network connection, wherein the request includes a terminating number for an international call;

in response to receiving the request for termination information, automatically consulting a table of prefixes in a centralized prefix database to identify a longest matching prefix for the terminating number, wherein the centralized prefix database includes terminating prefixes for terminating numbers for multiple nations outside the North American Numbering Plan (NANP);

in response to identifying the longest matching prefix, automatically consulting a location table in the centralized prefix database to retrieve location information associated with the longest matching prefix, wherein the location information indicates whether the terminating number uses wireless termination or wireline termination, and wherein the location information includes a carrier name for at least one of the terminating prefixes that use wireless termination;

responding to the request for termination information with a response that indicates whether the terminating number uses wireline termination or wireless termination, such that the response enables the remote user to distinguish between calls with wireline termination and calls with wireless termination for rating purposes; and

including the carrier name in the response if the terminating number uses wireless termination and the centralized prefix database associates the carrier name and the terminating number.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the operation of receiving a request for termination information via a secure network connection comprises receiving the request via a network connection selected from the group consisting of:

a connection in a private network;

a connection in a virtual private network; and

a secure Web connection.

3. An automated method of providing termination information for an international telephone number, the method comprising:

receiving a termination telephone number from a remote user;

in response to receiving the termination telephone number, automatically querying a centralized database of termination characteristics to determine whether the termination telephone number uses wireless termination; and

in response to determining whether the termination telephone number uses wireless termination, automatically transmitting termination information to the remote user, wherein the termination information identifies whether the termination telephone number uses wireless termination.

4. A method according to claim 3, wherein:

the remote user comprises a carrier;

the operation of receiving the termination telephone number comprises receiving multiple termination telephone numbers from the carrier;

the operation of automatically querying the centralized database of international codes comprises automatically querying the centralized database to determine which of the multiple termination telephone numbers use wireless termination; and

the operation of automatically transmitting termination information comprises sending termination data to the carrier identifying which of the multiple termination telephone numbers used wireless termination.

5. A method according to claim 3, wherein:

the carrier comprises an interexchange carrier (IXC);

the operation of receiving the termination telephone number comprises receiving a set of call records from the IXC;

the operation of automatically querying the centralized database of international codes comprises automatically querying the centralized database to determine which of the call records involve calls that used wireless termination; and

the operation of automatically transmitting termination information comprises sending termination data to the IXC identifying which of the call records involve calls that used wireless termination.

6. A method for obtaining termination information for an international telephone number, the method comprising:

transmitting a request for termination information for a termination telephone number to a remote centralized database of international termination characteristics, wherein the remote centralized database associates multiple termination telephone numbers from multiple nations with termination characteristics indicating which of the multiple termination telephone numbers use wireless termination; and

receiving termination information for the termination telephone number from the remote centralized database, wherein the termination information indicates whether the termination telephone number uses wireless termination.

7. A method according to claim 6 for providing call assistance, the method comprising:

receiving the termination telephone number from a caller;

transmitting the request for termination information to the remote centralized database in response to receiving the termination telephone number from the caller; and

in response receiving termination information indicating that the termination telephone number uses wireless termination, notifying the caller that termination telephone number uses wireless termination.

8. A method according to claim 6 for providing assistance for call completion, the method comprising:

receiving the termination telephone number from a caller;

transmitting the request for termination information to the remote centralized database in response to receiving the termination telephone number from the caller; and

in response receiving termination information indicating that the termination telephone number uses wireless termination, notifying the caller, before a call to the termination telephone number is connected, that an extra charge for wireless termination may apply to the call.

9. A method according to claim 6 for producing a phone bill for a customer, wherein:

the method further comprises identifying a set of call records to be included in a phone bill for a customer, wherein the set of call records includes termination numbers for international calls that were placed from an originating number assigned to the customer;

the operation of transmitting the request for termination information to a remote centralized database of international termination characteristics comprises communicating with the remote centralized database to identify which of the international calls were terminated with wireless carriers;

the operation of receiving termination information comprises receiving termination information that identifies which of the international calls were terminated with wireless carriers; and

the method further comprises, when preparing the phone bill, adding wireless termination surcharges only for the international calls identified as having been terminated with wireless carriers.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein:

the method further comprises receiving one or more invoices requesting payment for wireless termination from one or more of the wireless carriers that provided wireless termination for one or more of the international calls; and

the operation of adding wireless termination surcharges only for the international calls identified as having been terminated with wireless carriers is performed before the operation of receiving the one or more invoices from the one or more wireless carriers.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the operation of communicating with the remote centralized database to identify which of the international calls were terminated with wireless carriers, comprises:

transmitting call records to a support organization, wherein the call records include terminating numbers for the international calls; and

receiving termination information from the support organization, wherein the termination information identifies the international calls that were terminated with wireless carriers.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the termination information comprises two or more termination characteristics selected from the group of termination characteristics consisting of:

termination type;

country identifier;

city identifier; and

terminating carrier identifier.

13. The method of claim 6, wherein the operation of receiving termination information for the termination telephone number comprises receiving a name for a terminating carrier if the termination telephone number uses wireless termination and the remote centralized database associates the name of the terminating carrier with the termination telephone number.

14. A system for providing termination information for an international telephone number, the system comprising:

a centralized database of terminating characteristics; and

request processing logic that performs operations comprising;

receiving a termination telephone number from a user;

in response to receiving the termination telephone number, automatically querying the centralized database to determine whether the termination telephone number uses wireless termination; and

in response to determining whether the termination telephone number uses wireless termination, automatically transmitting termination information to the user, wherein the termination information identifies whether the termination telephone number uses wireless termination.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein:

the user comprises a carrier;

the request processing logic receives multiple termination telephone numbers from the carrier;

the request processing logic automatically queries the centralized database to determine which of the multiple termination telephone numbers use wireless termination; and

the request processing logic sends termination data to the carrier identifying which of the multiple termination telephone numbers use wireless termination.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the request processing logic sends a name of a terminating carrier to the user if the termination telephone number uses wireless termination and the centralized database associates the name of the terminating carrier with the termination telephone number.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein:

the centralized database of terminating characteristics comprises a linked list that serves as a prefix table; and

the request processing logic comprises a database engine that uses the linked list to perform a longest prefix match on the termination telephone number when automatically querying the centralized database to determine whether the termination telephone number uses wireless termination.

18. A program product for providing termination information for an international telephone number, the program product comprising:

a computer usable medium; and

computer instructions encoded in the computer-usable medium, wherein the computer instructions perform operations comprising;

receiving a termination telephone number from a user;

in response to receiving the termination telephone number, automatically querying a centralized database of termination characteristics to determine whether the termination telephone number uses wireless termination; and

in response to determining whether the termination telephone number uses wireless termination, automatically transmitting termination information to the user, wherein the termination information indicates whether the termination telephone number uses wireless termination.

19. The program product of claim 18, wherein:

the user comprises an interexchange carrier (IXC);

the operation of receiving the termination telephone number comprises receiving a set of call records from the IXC;

the operation of automatically querying the centralized database of international codes comprises automatically querying the centralized database to determine which of the call records involve calls that used wireless termination; and

the operation of automatically transmitting termination information comprises sending termination data to the IXC indicating which of the call records involve calls that used wireless termination.

20. The program product of claim 18, wherein the operations performed by the computer instructions further comprise sending a name of a terminating carrier to the user if the termination telephone number used wireless termination and the centralized database associates the name of the terminating carrier with the termination telephone number.

21. The program product of claim 18, wherein the operation of automatically querying the centralized database to determine whether the termination telephone number uses wireless termination comprises:

automatically consulting a table of prefixes in the centralized database to identify a longest matching prefix for the termination telephone number, wherein the centralized prefix database includes terminating prefixes for termination telephone numbers for multiple nations outside the North American Numbering Plan (NANP); and

in response to identifying the longest matching prefix, automatically consulting a location table in the centralized prefix database to retrieve location information associated with the longest matching prefix, wherein the location information indicates whether the termination telephone number uses wireless termination or wireline termination, and wherein the location information includes a carrier name for at least one of the terminating prefixes that use wireless termination.