SMS INQUIRY AND INVITATION DISTRIBUTION METHOD AND SYSTEM

• US 20120309437A1
• Filed: 02/09/2012
• Published: 12/06/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/11/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Smartcom Labs OY
• Original Assignee: Bookit Oy Ajanvarauspalvelu
• Inventors: Salonen, Jukka
• Granted Patent: US 8,849,323 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 a telecommunications network by means of a Short Message Service (SMS),

wherein questions in the inquiries are designed in a format suitable for the SMS service, each inquiry is sent to one or more persons per distribution according to a distribution list, and replies to an inquiry are accepted during a specified active time of the distribution, the method comprising:

a) initializing, by a distribution server, a distribution by defining reply addresses for the questions in the inquiry from those available for the distribution wherein the reply addresses comprises public mobile communication network numbers or SMS service numbers, to which the replies will be routed,

b) sending, by the distribution server, each question as a text message to a mobile number in the distribution list in wherein the reply address is shown to the replier as the sender, and wherein one or multiple active questions are sent to a mobile device with the same reply address,

wherein 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 a reply functionality of the mobile device,

c) replying, by mobile devices, to questions wherein replies to questions are received as text messages, wherein the replies do not include the question identifier,

d) verifying the correctness of the replies wherein each of the replies is matched with a question based on the replier'"'"'s mobile number and either the reply address and the choice symbol in the reply or the choice symbol in the reply,

wherein the choice symbols are automatically selected among available choice symbols wherein any mobile number receiving multiple questions with a same reply address will be provided with a unique non-overlapping set of different choice symbols for each separate active question.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein different choice symbols for the reply alternatives are dynamically selected from available choice symbols for the mobile number for separate questions in the same inquiry.

3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising deciding the next question for one or more questions in the inquiry based on the choice symbol received as the reply.

4. The method according to claim 1, further comprising sending a question again, in case no reply is received within a time frame defined or, the reply is not the choice symbol used in the reply alternatives.

5. The method according to claim 1, further comprising stopping the inquiry after a defined number of repliers have replied to the inquiry.

6. The method according to claim 1, further comprising saving replies related to a distribution into a database from where they can be monitored in realtime using a web browser, or transferred to a computer system of a customer via a telecommunications connection.

7. The method according to claim 1, further comprising defining separate reply addresses group for different type of inquiries and applying pricing variation according to reply address.

8. An inquiry and invitation system comprising:

a distribution server connected to a telecommunication network, a database, and a Short Message Service (SMS) server;

wherein the distribution server has an inquiry and invitation distribution software installed;

wherein the inquiry and invitation distribution software performs the method of claim 1 when executed by the distribution server.

9. A method for distributing inquiries to one or more recipients and receiving replies in a telecommunications network by means of a Short Message Service (SMS),

wherein questions in the inquiries are designed in a format suitable for the SMS service, each inquiry is sent to one or more persons per distribution according to a distribution list, and replies to an inquiry are accepted during a specified active time of the distribution, the method comprising:

a) initializing, by a distribution server, a distribution by defining reply addresses for the questions in the inquiry from those available for the distribution wherein the reply addresses comprises public mobile communication network numbers or SMS service numbers, to which the replies will be routed,

wherein the defining reply addresses for the questions in the inquiry comprises selecting the reply addresses for a distribution according to the expected reply traffic volume so that the performance criteria set for the replies will be met,

b) sending, by the distribution server, each question as a text message to a mobile number in the distribution list in wherein the reply address is shown to the replier as the sender, and wherein one or multiple active questions are sent to a mobile device with the same reply address,

wherein 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 a reply functionality of the mobile device,

c) replying, by mobile devices, to questions wherein replies to questions are received as text messages, wherein the replies do not include the question identifier,

d) verifying the correctness of the replies wherein each of the replies is matched with a question based on the replier'"'"'s mobile number and either the reply address and the choice symbol in the reply or the choice symbol in the reply,

wherein the choice symbols are automatically selected among available choice symbols wherein any mobile number receiving multiple questions with a same reply address will be provided with a unique non- overlapping set of different choice symbols for each separate active question.