METHODS, SYSTEMS, AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCTS FOR GENERATING RESOURCE UTILIZATION ALERTS THROUGH COMMUNICATION TERMINALS

• US 20100144310A1
• Filed: 12/04/2008
• Published: 06/10/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/04/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Bedingfield, James Carlton SR., Gilbert, Quenton Lanier
• Granted Patent: US 8,374,576 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/405
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1417 Advice of charge with threshold, e.g. user indicating maximum cost
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/58 based on statistics of usage or network monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/8066 According to the number of recipients
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/844 Message, e.g. SMS
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/846 optical, e.g. icon
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/852 Low balance or limit reached
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/863 multiple parties, e.g. multi party AOC
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/24 Accounting or billing
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/23 in the downlink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards a terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/53 based on regulatory allocation policies

Abstract

The cumulative utilization of communication system resources by a communication terminal is determined. An alert is generated through the communication terminal in response to the cumulative utilization exceeding a threshold amount. The cumulative utilization of resources may be determine by a core network of the communication system and/or by the communication terminal. The core network may transmit an alert message to the communication terminal to trigger an alert therefrom in response to the cumulative utilization of resources exceeding a threshold value.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

determining cumulative utilization of communication system resources by a communication terminal; and

generating an alert through the communication terminal in response to the cumulative utilization exceeding a threshold amount.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein generating an alert through the communication terminal comprises generating an audible tone from the communication terminal, activating a vibration device within the communication terminal, and/or generating a visual indication on a display device of the communication terminal to generate the alert in response to the cumulative utilization reaching the threshold amount.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein generating an alert through the communication terminal comprises generating an audible tone from the communication terminal, activating a vibration device within the communication terminal, and/or generating a visual indication on a display device of the communication terminal to generate the alert in response to the cumulative utilization reaching the threshold amount and in response to a user initiating a call, generation of a message, and/or an Internet browser through the communication terminal.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

resetting a counter in the communication terminal that tracks the cumulative utilization of communication system resources in response to receiving a message from a core network of the communication system that indicates that a new billing cycle is starting, wherein the alert is generated in response to the counter exceeding the threshold amount.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

transmitting an alert message from a core network of the communication system to the communication terminal to trigger the alert therefrom in response to the cumulative utilization of communication system resources by the communication terminal exceeding the threshold value.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

determining at the core network when a combination of cumulative utilization of communication system resources by a plurality of communication terminals that share a resource allotment under a shared subscriber plan exceeds a combined threshold value; and

transmitting an alert message from the core network to at least a designated one of the communication terminals to trigger an alert therefrom in response to the combined cumulative utilization exceeding the combined threshold value.

7. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

determining at the core network a cumulative utilization of communication system resources by each of a plurality of communication terminals that share a resource allotment under a shared subscriber plan; and

transmitting a usage message from the core network to at least a designated one of the communication terminals that contains information that indicates the cumulative utilization of each of the communication terminals that are sharing the resource allotment under the shared subscriber plan.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein:

determining at the core network a cumulative utilization of communication system resources comprises determining for each of the communication terminals the number of data bytes communicated through the core network therewith, determining for each of the communication terminals the number of data messages communicated through the core network therewith, and/or determining for each of the communication terminals the number of minutes of talk time for calls through the core network therewith; and

further comprising including the determined number of data byes, data messages, and/or minutes of talk time used by each of the communications in the usage message that is transmitted to at least the designated one of the communication terminals.

9. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

in response to the cumulative utilization exceeding the threshold value, transmitting a subscriber plan solicitation message to the communication terminal that offers to modify a subscriber plan to increase a present allotment of communication system resources to the communication terminal under the subscriber plan; and

increasing the allotment of communication system resources under the subscriber plan in response to the core network receiving a message from the communication terminal accepting the offered modification of the subscriber plan.

10. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

determining at the core network a cumulative utilization of communication system resources by each of a plurality of communication terminals that share a resource allotment under a shared subscriber plan; and

in response to increased utilization of communication system resources by a designated one of the communication terminals, transmitting messages from the core network to at least some non-designated ones of the communication terminals that trigger reduction of threshold values that are used in those non-designated ones of the communication terminals to tugger resource utilization alerts.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving at the communication terminal a message from a core network of the communication system that contains information that indicates individual cumulative utilizations by the communication terminal and at least one other communication terminal that are sharing an allotment of communication system resources under a shared subscriber plan; and

displaying indicia on a display device of the communication terminal that illustrates a proportional amount of the shared allotment of communication resources that has been used by the communication terminal and the at least one other communication terminal.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein:

displaying indicia on a display device of the communication terminal comprises controlling arc lengths of sectors of a pie chart displayed on the display device that are assigned to different ones of the communication terminal and the at least one other communication terminal to illustrate the proportional amount of the shared allotment of communication resources that has been used by the respective terminals.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein:

displaying indicia on a display device of the communication terminal comprises controlling lengths of rectangular bars of a bar chart displayed on the display device that are assigned to different ones of the communication terminals and the at least one other communication terminal to illustrate the proportional amount of the shared allotment of communication resources that has been used by the respective terminals.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein:

displaying indicia on a display device of the communication terminal comprises displaying separate indicia that illustrate a proportional amount of the shared allotment of data bytes, a proportional amount of the shared allotment of data messages, and a proportional amount of the shared allotment of minutes of talk time that has been used by each of the communication terminals.

15. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

resetting counters in the communication terminal that track the cumulative utilization of communication system resources by the communication terminal and the at least one other communication terminal in response to receiving a reset message from the core network that indicates that a new billing cycle is starting.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving resource reporting messages at the communication terminal from a plurality of other communication terminals that collectively share an allotment of communication resources under a shared subscriber plan, wherein the resource reporting messages indicate individual utilizations by the other communication terminals of the shared allotment of communication resources; and

displaying indicia on a display device of the communication terminal that illustrates a proportional amount of the shared allotment of communication resources that has been used by itself and the other communication terminals.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

in response to a combination of indicated individual utilizations by the other communication terminals of the shared allotment of communication resources exceeding a combined threshold value, transmitting an alert message to the other terminals to trigger an alert therefrom.

18. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

in response to a combination of indicated individual utilizations by the other communication terminals of the shared allotment of communication resources exceeding a combined threshold value, transmitting a resource restriction message to the other terminals to trigger a reduction of threshold values which are used in those communication terminals to trigger resource utilization alerts.

19. A communication system comprising:

a core network that transmits an alert message to a communication terminal to trigger an alert therefrom in response to a cumulative utilization of communication system resources by the communication terminal exceeding a threshold value.

20. A computer program product for monitoring utilization of communication system resources, the computer program product comprising a computer readable medium having computer readable program code embodied therein, the computer readable program code comprising:

computer readable program code that is configured to determine cumulative utilization of communication system resources by a communication terminal; and

computer readable program code that is configured to generate an alert through the communication terminal in response to the cumulative utilization reaching a threshold amount.