Billing records enhanced by called party names from subscriber phone book

• US 20040242262A1
• Filed: 03/09/2004
• Published: 12/02/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 09/15/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google Technology Holdings LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Motorola, Inc. (Motorola Solutions, Inc.)
• Inventors: Turner, Neil
• Granted Patent: US 7,054,665 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/550.1
• 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 15/44 Augmented, consolidated or itemized billing statement or bill presentation
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/58 based on statistics of usage or network monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/745 Customizing according to wishes of subscriber, e.g. friends or family
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/0104 Augmented, consolidated or itemised billing statement, e.g. additional billing information, bill presentation, layout, format, e-mail, fax, printout, itemised bill per service or per account, cumulative billing, consolidated billing
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/0108 Customization according to wishes of subscriber, e.g. customer preferences, friends and family, selecting services or billing options, Personal Communication Systems [PCS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/0188 Network monitoring; statistics on usage on called/calling number
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/204 UMTS; GPRS
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/32 Involving wireless systems

Abstract

This invention relates to a cellular communication system (200), billing processor (223) and method of billing. The communication system includes a subscriber unit (201) having a user updateable identity to phone number association table used for dialling phone numbers based on an identity such as a name. It also includes means (203, 205,219,217) for communicating the table to a billing processor (223) being part of the fixed network. The billing processor (223) comprises means (227) for receiving the table and generating a billing association table containing information from the identity to phone number association table. It furthermore comprises a billing report generator (225) for generating a billing report for the subscriber unit (201) including identity information derived from the billing association table. The invention is applicable to cellular communication systems such as UMTS.

Claims

1. A cellular communication system comprising

a subscriber unit having:

memory means comprising a user updateable identity to phone number association table operable to translate an identity into a phone number;

dialling means for dialling the phone number;

means for communicating the identity to phone number association table from the subscriber unit to a billing processor, the billing processor comprising;

means for receiving the identity to phone number association table from the subscriber unit;

means for generating a billing association table comprising information from the received identity to phone number association table

means for associating identity information with at least one call by deriving an identity corresponding to a call phone number from the billing association table;

means for generating a billing report for the subscriber unit including identity information related to the at least one call.

2. A cellular communication system as claimed in claim 1 wherein means for communicating comprises means in the subscriber unit for transmitting the identity to phone number association table using a GPRS data call.

3. A cellular communication system as claimed in claim 1 wherein means for communicating comprises means in the subscriber unit for transmitting the identity to phone number association table using an SMS call.

4. A cellular communication system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the subscriber unit comprises instigating means for instigating the communication of the identity to phone number association table from the subscriber unit to the billing processor when the identity to phone number association table is updated by the user.

5. A cellular communication system as claimed in claim 1 further comprising means for replacing the phone number with the associated identity information derived from the billing association table such that the billing report contains identity information instead of the phone number for the at least one call.

6. A cellular communication system as claimed in claim 1 further comprising means in the billing processor for requesting the communication of the identity to phone number association table from the subscriber unit.

7. A method of billing in a cellular communication system including a subscriber unit having an user updateable identity to phone number association table operable to translate an identity into a phone number and dialling means for dialling the phone number;

the method comprising the steps of

receiving the identity to phone number association table from the subscriber unit;

generating a billing association table comprising information from the received identity to phone number association table;

associating identity information with at least one call by deriving an identity corresponding to a call phone number from the billing association table;

generating a billing report for the subscriber unit including identity information related to the at least one call.

8. A method of billing in a cellular communication system as claimed in claim 7 further comprising the step of replacing the phone number with the associated identity information derived from the billing association table such that the billing report contains identity information instead of the phone number for the at least one call.

9. A method of billing in a cellular communication system as claimed in claim 7 further comprising the step of requesting a transmission of the identity to phone number association table from the subscriber unit.

10. A billing processor for a cellular communication system including at least one subscriber unit having a user updateable identity to phone number association table operable to translate an identity into a phone number and dialling means for dialling the phone number;

the billing processor comprising

means for receiving the identity to phone number association table from the subscriber unit;

means for generating a billing association table comprising information from the received identity to phone number association table

means for associating identity information with at least one call by deriving an identity corresponding to a call phone number from the billing association table;

means for generating a billing report for the subscriber unit including identity information related to the at least one call.

11. A billing processor as claimed in claim 10 further comprising means for replacing the phone number with the associated identity information derived from the billing association table such that the billing report contains identity information instead of the phone number for the at least one call.

12. A billing processor as claimed in claim 10 further comprising means for requesting the communication of the identity to phone number association table.