AGGREGATED BILLING FOR APPLICATION-BASED NETWORK ACCESS AND CONTENT CONSUMPTION

• US 20150120520A1
• Filed: 10/30/2013
• Published: 04/30/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 10/30/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Vigo Software Ltd (GO2 Holdings Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Rawllin International Inc.
• Inventors: Prokopenko, Anton, Malets, Konstantin, Kulikov, Denis
• Granted Patent: US 10,037,554 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/34
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing

Abstract

Providing for aggregate billing related to provisioning network access and network content to an application or device is described herein. By way of example, the application or device (e.g., a client, . . . ) can be provided network access at a discounted rate to access content of content provider. The network access can be general access, or can be limited access to one or more web-pages, domains, hosts, etc. in various embodiments. Charges for content consumed by the client can be an aggregated charge that includes charges for the content and charges for the network access. In various embodiments, network access can facilitate a relatively persistent connection to a network, with network access charges aggregated into charges for consumption of online content or utilization of online services, or vice versa.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving, by a system comprising a processor, a network report of a request for network access resources initiated by an application or device;

receiving a content report of a request for network content initiated by the application or device;

retrieving data to identify agreement data representing existence of a stored combined billing agreement between a network operator transmitting the network report and a content provider transmitting the content report; and

issuing a billing charge incorporating charges for consumption of the network access resources or charges for consumption of the network content per the combined billing agreement represented by the agreement data.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein retrieving the data comprises retrieving rule data representing combined billing rules for the network operator and the content provider in conjunction with issuing the billing charge in response to identifying the agreement data representing the existence of the combined billing agreement.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising referencing a client data file comprising billing information pertaining to the application or device, in response to receiving the network report or the content report.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising identifying modification data within the client data file indicative of a subscriber account modification to a default billing arrangement under the combined billing agreement.

5. The method of claim 3, further comprising incorporating the subscriber account modification to the charges for consumption of the network access resources or the charges for consumption of the network content in conjunction with issuing the billing charge.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising preparing separate billing charges for billing consumption of the network content and for consumption of the network access resources in response to the combined billing agreement indicating separate billing for the content provider and the network operator.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising transmitting one or more of the separate billing charges directly to the application or device to facilitate issuing the billing charge.

8. The method of claim 6, further comprising transmitting one or more of the separate billing charges to the network operator or the content provider to facilitate issuing the billing charge.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising preparing a combined billing statement for billing consumption of the network content and for billing consumption of the network access resources in response to the combined billing agreement providing rules for aggregated billing for the content provider and the network operator.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein issuing the billing charge further comprises transmitting the combined billing statement to the content provider in accordance with the combined billing agreement.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein issuing the billing charge further comprises transmitting the combined billing statement to the network operator in accordance with the combined billing agreement.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein issuing the billing charge further comprises transmitting the combined billing statement according to client contact information associated with the application or device.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising referencing stored supplemental payment rules associated with the network operator in response to receiving the network report, or associated with the content provider in response to receiving the content report.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising identifying an instant offer associated with charges for consumption of the network access resources or with charges for consumption of the network content, and transmitting the instant offer to the application or device in response to receiving the network report or the content report, and in response to identifying the instant offer.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising facilitating provisioning of advertisement content, promotional content, marketing content or limited-use purchase agreement content to the application or device in conjunction with the instance offer.

16. The method of claim 13, further comprising determining whether the instant offer is accepted or rejected at the application or device, and determining compliance with terms of the instant offer in response to acceptance of the instant offer at the application or device.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising modifying the billing charge in accordance with terms of the instant offer in response to the acceptance of the instant offer and in response to determining compliance with the terms of the instant offer.

18. The method of claim 16, further comprising issuing the billing charge unmodified in response to rejection of the instant offer or in response to determining non-compliance with the terms of the instant offer.

19. A system, comprising:

a memory, coupled to a processor to facilitate execution of computer-executable components, to store the computer-executable components, comprising;

a reporting component configured to receive network messages via a network interface device from sets of network provisioning devices including one or more network access provider devices and one or more network content provider devices, wherein the network interface device is configured to receive or transmit data respectively from or to a set of network devices of a network;

an integrated systems billing component configured to store rules related to aggregated billing for respective subsets of the sets of provisioning devices;

a billing execution component configured to transmit billing for aggregated consumption of network content or network access resources of a subset of the sets of network provisioning devices to one or more entities identified by the rules related to aggregated billing; and

a processing component configured to receive a first report of network access resources consumed in conjunction with fulfilling a subscriber request for an application or device, receive a second report of network content consumed in conjunction with fulfilling the subscriber request, reference the rules to identify an aggregated charge for the network access resources consumed and the network content consumed; and

identify one of the one or more entities for assigning responsibility for payment of the aggregated charge.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the one or more entities comprises a network access provider device of the one or more network access provider devices that transmitted the first report of network access resources.

21. The system of claim 19, wherein the one or more entities comprises a network content provider device of the one or more network content provider devices that transmitted the second report of network content.

22. The system of claim 19, wherein the one or more entities comprises the application or device initiating the subscriber request.

23. The system of claim 19, wherein the computer-executable components further comprise a subscriber account systems component configured to reference subscriber account information, wherein the aggregated charge for the network access resources consumed and the network content consumed is affected by the subscriber account information.

24. The system of claim 19, wherein the computer-executable components further comprise a limited-use discount component configured to send an offer for discounted network access in response to the first report of network access resources and to the second report of network content, wherein an acceptance of the offer by the application or device discounts the aggregated charge as specified by the offer and enables of network access resources for the application or device for a defined amount of time.

25. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising computer-executable instructions that, in response to execution, cause a system comprising a processor to perform operations, comprising:

receiving a first report of a network access request by an application or device and a second report of a network content request by the application or device;

referencing a stored set of aggregated billing rules configured to define aggregated charges for consumption of network access resources provided by a network access device and for consumption of network content provided by a network content device;

identifying an aggregated charge from the stored set of aggregated billing rules based on the first report and the second report; and

identifying a single entity for payment of the aggregated charge, the single entity comprising one of the network access device, the network content device or the application or device.

26. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 25, the operations further comprising transmitting a payment report comprising the aggregated charge to the single entity.

27. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 25, the operations further comprising referencing a subscriber account associated with the application or device and identifying discount data representing a subscriber-related discount for the aggregated charge.

28. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 27, the operations further comprising discounting the aggregated charge according to the subscriber-related discount and deriving a discounted aggregated charge, and transmitting a payment report reflecting the discounted aggregated charge to the single entity.

29. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 25, the operations further comprising transmitting offer data representing a limited-duration offer to the application or device in response to receiving the first report and the second report, wherein the limited-duration offer comprises playback of sponsor-provided content at the application or device in exchange for a discount to the aggregated charge.

30. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 29, the operations further comprising receiving a first indication of an acceptance of the limited-duration offer represented by the offer data and a second indication of completion of the playback of sponsor-provided content by the application or device, and applying the discount to the aggregated charge according to the limited-duration offer.