Prepaid long-distance telephone service system with flexible operating parameters
First Claim
1. A method of automatically establishing a prepaid long-distance telephone service account for a new customer by electronic communication from a remote location comprising the steps of:
- maintaining a prepaid long-distance telephone account database comprising a plurality of individual service accounts;
at a location remote from the prepaid long-distance telephone account database, receiving a customer account number input by a user to identify a source of funds;
at the remote location, receiving a prepaid long-distance telephone service dollar amount specified by the user;
debiting the source of funds identified by the customer account number by the specified dollar amount;
activating a new service account in the prepaid long-distance telephone account database associated with a corresponding service account number after the step of receiving the customer account number;
crediting the specified dollar amount to the activated service account in the prepaid long-distance telephone account database;
informing the user of the activated service account number; and
informing the user of an access telephone number for using the prepaid long-distance telephone services.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A long-distance telephone service system provides for accounting and flexible, customizable control of long-distance telephone usage by customers, especially prepaid long-distance service customers. The system maintains a set of global operating parameters associated with each access number. It further maintains a database of user accounts or card numbers, and a set of card processing parameters associated with each card number. Both the global parameters and the individual card processing parameters are applied in completing a long-distance call to a destination number so as to provide highly flexible control over individual accounts as well as groups of accounts. Establishment of new accounts, and "recharging" the prepaid balance of existing accounts is accomplished automatically from remote locations.
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Citations
9 Claims
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1. A method of automatically establishing a prepaid long-distance telephone service account for a new customer by electronic communication from a remote location comprising the steps of:
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maintaining a prepaid long-distance telephone account database comprising a plurality of individual service accounts; at a location remote from the prepaid long-distance telephone account database, receiving a customer account number input by a user to identify a source of funds; at the remote location, receiving a prepaid long-distance telephone service dollar amount specified by the user; debiting the source of funds identified by the customer account number by the specified dollar amount; activating a new service account in the prepaid long-distance telephone account database associated with a corresponding service account number after the step of receiving the customer account number; crediting the specified dollar amount to the activated service account in the prepaid long-distance telephone account database; informing the user of the activated service account number; and informing the user of an access telephone number for using the prepaid long-distance telephone services. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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Specification