Instant calling card provisioning system
First Claim
1. A method of operating a computer system for billing a calling card call completed over a communications switching system, said method comprising the steps of:
- assigning in a database a calling card number associated with a subscriber for whom at least one billing parameter is unavailable and is needed to create a complete billing record when said card number is used;
in response to receiving in said database a request for a calling card call to be charged to said calling card number, validating said calling card number;
storing in said database billing data associated with said calling card call and said calling card number upon completion of said calling card call; and
in response to receiving signals indicative of availability of said at least one billing parameter, generating a billing record for said calling card call by entering said at least one billing parameter in at least one specific field in said billing record and by processing said stored billing data to be included in said billing record.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Calling card subscribers are allowed to charge telephone calls to calling card numbers before the calling card issuer'"'"'s billing system is updated to include account records containing subscriber-specific information associated with those card numbers. Billing data associated with calls charged to those card numbers are stored until account records are created for those card numbers. Upon the creation of an account record for one of those card numbers, subscriber-specific information contained in the account record is combined with the stored billing data associated with that card number to form a conventional billing record for further processing.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method of operating a computer system for billing a calling card call completed over a communications switching system, said method comprising the steps of:
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assigning in a database a calling card number associated with a subscriber for whom at least one billing parameter is unavailable and is needed to create a complete billing record when said card number is used; in response to receiving in said database a request for a calling card call to be charged to said calling card number, validating said calling card number; storing in said database billing data associated with said calling card call and said calling card number upon completion of said calling card call; and in response to receiving signals indicative of availability of said at least one billing parameter, generating a billing record for said calling card call by entering said at least one billing parameter in at least one specific field in said billing record and by processing said stored billing data to be included in said billing record. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4)
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5. A method for use in a telephone system which is normally operative to store calling card numbers and to store subscriber-specific information associated with each of said card numbers at a time substantially contemporaneous with the storing of the associated card number, said method comprising the steps of:
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storing in a database at least a first calling card number without substantially contemporaneously storing any subscriber-specific information associated with that card number, accepting said first calling card number for the charging of telephone calls and creating a pseudo billing record for each of said telephone calls; and subsequently receiving and storing in said database subscriber-specific information associated with said first calling card number and adding said information to said pseudo billing record to create a complete billing record. - View Dependent Claims (6)
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7. A method for billing telephone calls charged to calling card numbers comprising the steps of:
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receiving billing data associated with said calls; querying a database to retrieve billing parameters stored for each calling card number; if said billing parameters are available for a particular one of said card numbers, generating for each call charged to said particular card number a billing record which includes said billing parameters; and if said billing parameters are unavailable for a particular one of said card numbers, periodically repeating said querying step until said billing parameters become available and billing records are generated for calls charged to said particular card number.
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8. A method of administering calling card numbers, said method comprising the steps of:
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creating in a database account records for said calling card numbers, said account records having at least one field that is empty due to unavailability of information needed to be stored in said at least one empty field; placing restrictions on use of said calling card numbers; and removing said restrictions in order to permit unrestricted use of said calling card numbers, when said information needed to be stored in said at least one empty field has become available. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10)
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11. A method of operating a computer system for use in the billing operations of a calling card call, said computer system comprising:
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a database which stores at least one calling card number that is assigned to a subscriber for whom at least one billing parameter needed to create a billing record when said calling card number is used, is unavailable to create a complete account record for said subscriber in said database; means responsive to receiving in said database a request for a calling card call to be charged to the calling card number, for validating said calling card number; means for storing in said database billing data associated with said calling card call and said calling card number upon completion of said calling card call; and means responsive to receiving signals indicative of availability of said at least one billing parameter, for generating a billing record for said calling card call by entering said at least one billing parameter in said at least one specific field in said billing record with said at least one billing parameter, and by processing said stored billing data to be included in said billing record. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 16)
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15. A system for billing a telephone call which is charged to a calling card number preceding the availability of subscriber-related information for that card number, said system comprising:
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means for generating a billing record from data received after the termination of said telephone call; means for periodically checking the availability of said subscriber-related information; and means for including in said billing record at least part of said subscriber-related information when said subscriber-related information becomes available.
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17. A system of billing telephone calls charged to calling card numbers comprising:
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means for receiving billing data associated with said calls; means for submitting said billing data to a processor to generate a billing record for each one of said calls when subscriber-related information needed to create said billing record is available for said calling card number; and in response to a code indicating the inability of said processor to generate a billing record for a particular call charged to one of said calling card numbers due to unavailability of said subscriber-related information for said calling card number, means for resubmitting periodically said billing data to said processor until said subscriber-related information is available for said calling card number and said billing record is generated.
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18. A database system for use in the administration of calling card numbers, comprising
means for creating in said database account records for subscribers associated with said calling card numbers, each one of said account records having at least one empty field reserved for unavailable subscriber'"'"'s identification information; -
means for incrementing a counter associated with each respective calling card number for each calling card call billed to said respective calling card number, means for preventing further calls from being billed to a calling card number once the counter associated with that calling card number reaches a predetermined threshold; and means responsive to reception of subscriber identification information for a calling card number for removing said counter and said predetermined threshold for said calling card number to pennit unrestricted use of said calling card number. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20)
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Specification