SMS INQUIRY AND INVITATION DISTRIBUTION METHOD AND SYSTEM

• US 20090104925A1
• Filed: 04/20/2007
• Published: 04/23/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/21/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Smartcom Labs OY
• Original Assignee: Bookit Oy Ajanvarauspalvelu
• Inventors: Aula, Jukka Tapio
• Granted Patent: US 8,145,245 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/466
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/18 for broadcast or conference , e.g. multicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1868 Measures taken after transmission, e.g. acknowledgments
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1877 Measures taken prior to transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/189 in combination with wireless systems selective distribution or broadcast in wireless communication networks H04W4/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/58 Message adaptation for wireless communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42 Systems providing special services or facilities to subscribers specially adapted for wireless communication networks H04W4/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/00 Services specially adapted for wireless communication networks; Facilities therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/14 Short messaging services, e.g. short message services [SMS] or unstructured supplementary service data [USSD]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/26 Network addressing or numbering for mobility support

Abstract

The invention is an SMS distribution method for inquiries, invitations and proposals in which inquiries are sent to mobile telephone numbers included in a distribution list and their replies are collected as text messages via the SMS service (7) provided by the telecommunications network by means of a software programme (1) installed on a server (2). The problem in distributing inquiries with existing SMS services has been the limited possibility of replying to the sending telecommunications operator and separating replies to several inquiries from one another. In the method embodied by this invention, universally reachable mobile network numbers (11) are used as reply addresses for the inquiries, invitations and proposals, and replies are separated from one another by means of reply addresses consisting of public mobile communication network numbers and SMS service numbers and automatically generated reply symbols.

Claims

1. A method for distributing inquiries to one or more recipients and receiving replies in the telecommunications network by means of an SMS service, in which method the questions in the inquiries are designed in a format suitable for the SMS service, the inquiry is sent to one or more persons per distribution according to a distribution list, replies to an inquiry are accepted during a specified active time of the distribution, characterized in that a) a distribution is initialized by defining reply addresses for the questions in the inquiry from those available for the distribution, i.e. public mobile communication network numbers or SMS service numbers, to which the replies will be routed, b) each question is sent as a text message to a mobile number in the distribution list in a way that the reply address is shown to the replier as the sender, c) at least one question in the inquiry is a choice question containing one or more reply alternatives with the reply choice being a letter, a number or another symbol available in the reply functionality of the mobile device or an empty message, d) replies to questions are received as text messages, e) the correctness of a reply is verified and a reply is matched with a question based on the replier'"'"'s mobile number, the reply address and/or the choice symbol in the reply.

2. A method according to claim 1, characterized in that different reply addresses and/or different choice symbols for the reply alternatives are selected in those distributions that are active at the same time for the inquiries or individual questions that are sent to the same mobile number, or for those distributions that are active at the same time, or for separate questions in the same inquiry.

3. A method according to claim 2, characterized in that the choice symbols used for reply alternatives are generated automatically from available symbols.

4. A method according to claim 1, characterized in that the next question for one or more questions in the inquiry is decided based on the choice symbol received as the reply or the reply address.

5. A method according to claim 1, characterized in that a question sent in the inquiry will be sent again, in case no reply is received within the time frame defined or, if the reply is not the choice symbol used in the reply alternatives.

6. A method according to claim 1, characterized in that the repliers, i.e. mobile numbers, are ranked based on how quickly a reply to the inquiry or its particular question is received.

7. A method according to claim 6, characterized in that the inquiry will be stopped after a defined number of repliers have replied to the inquiry.

8. A method according to claim 1, characterized in that replies related to a distribution are saved into a database from where they can be monitored in realtime distribution wise using a WWW browser, or transferred to a computer system of a customer via a telecommunications connection.

9. A method according to claim 1, characterized in that reply addresses for distributions are selected from different reply address groups according to the distribution type, customer or location.

10. A method according to claim 1, characterized in that reply addresses for a distribution are selected according to the expected reply traffic volume so that the performance criteria set for the replies will be met.

11. A method according to claim 1, characterized in that the reply addresses for an inquiry/invitation form a reply address series identifying the inquiry/invitation based on which the replier can be authenticated by verifying that the replies from a mobile number have been received in the correct reply address series.

12. A method according to claim 1, characterized in that a distribution is automatically activated from an external device via a telecommunications connection

13. An inquiry/invitation system where according to Figure the software programme (1) installed on the distribution server (2), the SMS server (14) and the database (10) implement the functional logic according to patent claims 1, 2 and 3.