MULTI-TIERED, USAGE-BASED PRICING SERVICE PLAN

• US 20120329425A1
• Filed: 06/29/2012
• Published: 12/27/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/27/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Velusamy, Umashankar, Gudlavenkatasiva, Bhaskar R., Hughes, George L. Jr., Sharma, Nityanand
• Granted Patent: US 8,792,856 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/406
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/43 Billing software details
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/58 based on statistics of usage or network monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/80 Rating or billing plans; Tariff determination aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/24 Accounting or billing

Abstract

A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions executable by at least one processor, the instructions to cause the at least one processor to bill a subscriber, enrolled in a multi-tiered pricing plan, a plan fee associated with the multi-tiered pricing plan, for each billing cycle of a plurality of billing cycles, for services associated with a subscriber device; track, for each billing cycle, an amount of usage of the services; determine, for each billing cycle, a pricing tier corresponding to the tracked usage; and bill the subscriber, for each billing cycle, a fee associated with the corresponding pricing tier, wherein at least two of the corresponding pricing tiers differ.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

enrolling a subscriber in a multi-tiered pricing plan, selected from a set of a plurality of multi-tiered pricing plans, for telecommunication services associated with a subscriber device;

billing to the subscriber, for a first billing cycle, a fixed plan fee associated with the selected multi-tiered pricing plan, wherein the fixed plan fee differs from other fixed plan fees associated with other ones of the plurality of multi-tiered pricing plans;

tracking, for the first billing cycle, first cumulative usage of the telecommunication service;

determining, based on the first cumulative usage, a first corresponding tier of the selected multi-tiered pricing plan;

billing, based on the first corresponding tier, a first usage fee for the first billing cycle;

billing to the subscriber, for a second billing cycle, the fixed plan fee associated with the selected multi-tiered pricing plan;

tracking, for the second billing cycle, second cumulative usage of the telecommunication service;

determining, based on the second cumulative usage, a second corresponding tier of the selected multi-tiered pricing plan; and

billing, based on the second corresponding tier, a second usage fee for the second billing cycle, wherein first usage fee differs from the second usage fee.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

automatically selecting, based on information of historical cumulative usage of the telecommunication service associated with the subscriber, the selected multi-tiered pricing plan.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

presenting, based on information of historical cumulative usage of the telecommunication service associated with the subscriber, recommendations to the subscriber related to selection among the plurality of multi-tiered pricing plans; and

receiving, from the subscriber, the selection of the selected multi-tiered pricing plan.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the fixed plan fee or one of the other fixed plan fees is zero.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing respective fixed plan fees, associated with the plurality of multi-tiered pricing plans, which correspond to varying tiers of cumulative usage of the telecommunication services.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing respective fixed plan fees, associated with the plurality of multi-tiered pricing plans, which correspond to varying usage fees.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the respective fixed plan fees have an inverse relationship with the corresponding varying usage fees.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the first corresponding tier and the second corresponding tier comprise non-uniform ranges of cumulative usage of the telecommunication service.

9. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions executable by at least one processor, the instructions to cause the at least one processor to:

bill a subscriber, enrolled in a multi-tiered pricing plan, a plan fee associated with the multi-tiered pricing plan, for each billing cycle of a plurality of billing cycles, for services associated with a subscriber device;

track, for each billing cycle, an amount of usage of the services;

determine, for each billing cycle, a pricing tier corresponding to the tracked amount of usage; and

bill the subscriber, for each billing cycle, a fee associated with the corresponding pricing tier, wherein at least two of the corresponding pricing tiers differ.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the plan fee is zero.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the at least two of the pricing tiers correspond to non-uniform ranges of usage of the services.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the instructions are further to cause the at least one processor to:

determine, at a point in one billing cycle, that the tracked amount of usage corresponds to a first one of the at least two of the corresponding pricing tiers;

determine, at an end of the one billing cycle, that the tracked amount of usage corresponds to a second one of the at least two of the corresponding pricing tiers; and

bill the subscriber, at the end of the one billing cycle, the fee associated with the second one of the at least two of the corresponding pricing tiers.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the instructions are further to cause the at least one processor to:

notify the subscriber of a transition, within one billing cycle, from a first amount of tracked usage corresponding to a first one of the at least two of the corresponding pricing tiers, to a second amount of tracked usage corresponding to a second one of the at least two of the corresponding pricing tiers.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the services comprise at least two of voice communication services, short message service (SMS) communication services, or multimedia messaging service (MMS) communication services.

15. A network device comprising:

a memory to store instructions; and

a processor configured to execute the instructions to;

bill a subscriber, enrolled in a multi-tiered pricing plan for services associated with a subscriber device, a single plan fee associated with the multi-tiered pricing plan, for each billing cycle of a plurality of billing cycles;

track, for the plurality of billing cycles, different amounts of usage of the services;

determine, for the plurality of billing cycles, different pricing tiers corresponding to the different amounts of tracked usage; and

bill the subscriber, for the plurality of billing cycles, different usage fees associated with the different pricing tiers.

16. The network device of claim 15, wherein the processor is further configured to execute the instructions to:

determine, post billing cycle, that total fees associated with a current multi-tiered pricing plan exceed total fees associated with at least one other multi-tiered pricing plan; and

generating a recommendation, to the subscriber, to switch to the at least one other multi-tiered pricing plan.

17. The network device of claim 15, wherein the different pricing tiers correspond to non-uniform ranges of usage of the services.

18. The network device of claim 15, wherein the processor is further configured to execute the instructions to:

determine, at a point in one of the plurality of billing cycles, that the tracked usage corresponds to a first one of the different pricing tiers;

determine, at an end of the one billing cycle, that the tracked usage corresponds to a second one of the different pricing tiers; and

bill the subscriber, at the end of the one billing cycle, the usage fee associated with the second one of the different pricing tiers.

19. The network device of claim 15, wherein the processor is further configured to execute the instructions to:

generate a notification to the subscriber of a transition, within one of the plurality of billing cycles, from a first tracked usage corresponding to a first one of the different pricing tiers, to a second tracked usage corresponding to a second one of the different pricing tiers.

20. The network device of claim 15, wherein the communication services comprise at least two of a voice communication service, a short message service (SMS) communication service, or a multimedia messaging service (MMS) communication service.