Providing Discounted Service Offerings to Customers Experiencing Reduced Service Availability

• US 20160094721A1
• Filed: 09/25/2014
• Published: 03/31/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/25/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: T-Mobile USA, Inc. (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Original Assignee: T-Mobile USA, Inc. (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Inventors: Tapia, Pablo
• Granted Patent: US 9,667,805 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/60 based on actual use of network resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/8016 based on quality of service [QoS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/8083 involving reduced rates or discounts, e.g. time-of-day reductions or volume discounts
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/24 Accounting or billing

Abstract

An application server described herein receives historical data for a customer of a telecommunication service provider. The historical data may indicate that the customer has experienced reduced service availability from the telecommunication service provider. Based at least in part on the historical data, the application server may determine that the customer qualifies for a discounted service offering. The application server may then provide the discounted service offering to the customer.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, by an application server, historical data for a customer of a telecommunication service provider, wherein the historical data indicates that the customer has experienced a reduced service availability from the telecommunication service provider;

based at least in part on the historical data, determining, by the application server, that the customer qualifies for a discounted service offering, the discounted service offering including at least an indication of an overall reduced service level; and

providing, by the application server, the discounted service offering to the customer.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving comprises receiving or retrieving the historical data from an operations support system (OSS), from traces, or from call detail records (CDR).

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving is triggered by one or more conditions or is automatically performed on a periodic basis.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the historical data includes at least one of a location, radio conditions, or a pattern of use.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving comprises receiving the historical data from an electronic payments system and the historical data includes electronic payment data from payments or attempted payments made at specific locations and times.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining comprises determining one or more locations of a telecommunication network of the telecommunication service provider referenced in the historical data and receiving or retrieving performance data for the one or more locations.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein either the performance data or the historical data indicate the reduced service availability.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the discounted service offering includes different speed tiers and corresponding prices at corresponding different locations.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the providing the discounted service offering to the customer comprises texting the customer, delivering a message to a client application of a device of the customer, emailing the customer, or calling the customer.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the providing includes providing an indication of the reduced service availability and the discounted service offering to the customer.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving an affirmative response from the customer accepting the discounted service offering and notifying a charging system of the telecommunication service provider of the affirmative response.

12. (canceled)

13. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media having programming instructions stored thereon that, when executed by an application server, cause the application server to perform operations comprising:

receiving historical data or current activity data for a customer of a telecommunication service provider;

determining that the historical data or the current activity data match a reduced service availability profile, the reduced service availability profile reflecting historical data of one or more customers which indicates that the one or more customers have experienced reduced service availability from the telecommunication service provider;

based at least in part on the determining that the historical data or the current activity data match the reduced service availability profile, determining that the customer qualifies for a discounted service offering, the discounted service offering including at least an indication of an overall reduced service level; and

providing the discounted service offering to the customer.

14. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 13, wherein the receiving comprises receiving or retrieving the historical data from an operations support system (OSS), from traces, or from call detail records (CDR).

15. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 13, wherein the historical data includes at least one of a location, radio conditions, or a pattern of use.

16. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 13, wherein the current activity data includes at least one of a current location or current radio conditions.

17. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 13, wherein the providing the discounted service offering to the customer comprises texting the customer, delivering a message to a client application of a device of the customer, emailing the customer, or calling the customer.

18. An application server comprising:

one or more processors;

a memory device coupled to the one or more processors, the memory device storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to;

receive historical data for a customer of a telecommunication service provider, wherein the historical data indicates that the customer has experienced a reduced service availability from the telecommunication service provider;

determine that the customer qualifies for a discounted service offering based at least in part on the historical data, the discounted service offering including at least an indication of an overall reduced service level; and

provide the discounted service offering to the customer.

19. The application server of claim 18, wherein the memory device further stores computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to retrieve telecommunication network performance data for one or more locations.

20. The application server of claim 18, wherein the memory device further stores computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to receive an affirmative response from the customer accepting the discounted service offering and notify a charging system of the telecommunication service provider of the affirmative response.

21. The application server of claim 18, wherein the historical data is received from an electronic payments system and the historical data includes electronic payment data from payments or attempted payments made at specific locations and times.