Automatic generation of billing records at a telephone paystation
First Claim
1. A telecommunications system for processing a telephone call made by a user of the system, comprising:
- a pay telephone station;
circuitry at said station for creating and storing a billing record associated with the call containing information relating to the identity of an appropriate party to be billed for the call and information relating to a rate to be charged for the call and a chargeable amount of time for the call; and
circuitry for transferring the billing record from said station to a storage unit to enable the subsequent billing of charges associated with the call to said appropriate party.
30 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A telephone system and method of operation are disclosed which use a microprocessor control system (10), a speech generator (34) and speech memory (46) to interact with a calling party placing a long distance phone call. The telephone establishes a communication path through a telephone line interface (38). The microprocessor controlled system (10) generates a billing record for the call which is stored in a call record memory (11). The billing record can include information such as an account number to be billed, destination determining information, the duration of the call, the time of the call, and rate information. The billing record can later be retrieved from a remote location through standard telephone lines to facilitate billing the call. The local generation of billing records facilitates billing for direct calls, collect calls, third party charge calls and calls associated with accounts which are key-padded into the telephone paystation by the customer.
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Citations
35 Claims
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1. A telecommunications system for processing a telephone call made by a user of the system, comprising:
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a pay telephone station; circuitry at said station for creating and storing a billing record associated with the call containing information relating to the identity of an appropriate party to be billed for the call and information relating to a rate to be charged for the call and a chargeable amount of time for the call; and circuitry for transferring the billing record from said station to a storage unit to enable the subsequent billing of charges associated with the call to said appropriate party. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3)
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4. A telecommunications system comprising:
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a local telecommunications station; circuitry at the station for determining the chargeable amount of time attributable to calls made by users of the station; circuitry at the station for receiving destination determining information input by a user; circuitry at the station responsive to said chargeable amount of time and said destination determining information for creating a billing file; a first memory resident in the station for the local storage of rate information; circuitry at the station for selecting a portion of said rate information relevant to the call and for adding said relevant portion to said billing file; and a second memory resident in the station for storing said billing file such that said billing file may be retrieved from the station in order that charges for the call can be billed to the user. - View Dependent Claims (5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A telecommunications system used to place a telephone call by a user comprising:
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a localized telecommunications device; circuitry at the device for prompting the user of the device to input into the device destination determining information, access format information and billing information; circuitry at the device for determining a category of the telephone call according to said destination determining information and said access format information; circuitry at the device for timing the duration of the telephone call; circuitry at the device for generating a record of the telephone call, said record comprising the duration of the telephone call and said billing information; circuitry at the device for storing rate information; circuitry at the device for selecting a portion of said rate information relevant to the telephone call and for adding said relevant portion to said record; and circuitry at the device for storing said record for subsequent use. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A telecommunications system, comprising:
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a local telecommunications device; circuitry resident in said device for storing rate information associated with calls placed by users of said device; circuitry resident in said device for timing the duration of calls placed by users of said device; circuitry resident in said device for receiving destination determining information from said user; circuitry resident in said device for creating a billing record associated with a call placed by a user utilizing said device; circuitry for establishing a communication path between the device and a remote location; circuitry resident in said device for transmitting said billing record to said remote location; and circuitry resident in said remote location for receiving said billing record. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21)
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22. A method for processing a telephone call placed at a local telecommunications station by a user of a telecommunications system, comprising the steps of:
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storing rate information at the station; retrieving a portion of this rate information relevant to the call; receiving information from the user identifying the party to be billed for the call; creating at the station a billing record associated with the call containing said information relating to the identity of the appropriate party to be billed for the call and said rate information for the call; and transferring the billing record from the station to a storage unit to enable the subsequent billing of charges associated with the call to the appropriate party. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24)
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25. A method for processing telephone calls placed at a localized telecommunications station by a user of a telecommunications system, comprising the steps of:
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determining in said station the chargeable amount of time attributable to a call placed by the user; creating a file containing billing information comprising information relating to the chargeable amount of time for the call and identification information relevant to the appropriate party to be charged for the call; storing rate information in a memory in the station; selecting a portion of the rate information relevant to the call; including the relevant portion of the rate information in the file for the call; storing the file in a memory resident in the station; retrieving the billing information from the station; and formatting the billing information such that the appropriate party may be billed for the call.
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26. A method for processing a telephone call placed by a user of a telecommunications system on a localized telecommunications station comprising the steps of:
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prompting the user to input into the station destination determining information, access format information and information identifying a party to be billed for the call; determining at the station the category of the telephone call according to the destination determining information and the access format information; timing the duration of the telephone call at the station; generating a record of the telephone call at the station, the record comprising information relating to the duration of the telephone call and the information identifying the party to be billed for the call; determining a billing rate for the call at the station; including the billing rate in the record for the call; and storing the record at the station for subsequent use. - View Dependent Claims (27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33)
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34. A telecommunications system, comprising:
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a local telecommunications device; a circuitry resident in said device for creating a billing record associated with a call placed by a user utilizing said device; circuitry resident in said device for storing said billing record; circuitry resident in said device for storing said billing record; circuitry for establishing a communication path between the device and a remote location; circuitry resident in said device for transmitting said billing record to said remote location; and circuitry resident in said remote location for receiving said billing record.
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35. A method for processing a collect call placed by a user of a telecommunications system on a localized telecommunications station comprising the steps of:
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prompting the user to input into the station destination determining information, access format information and telephone number of the called party; determining at the station the category of the telephone call according to the destination determining information and the access format information; timing the duration of the telephone call at the station; generating a record of the telephone call at the station, the record comprising information relating to the duration of the telephone call and the telephone number of the called party.
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Specification