Bidding for telecommunications traffic and billing for service

• US 5,995,602 A
• Filed: 03/24/1999
• Issued: 11/30/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 02/24/1997
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Summit Telecom Systems Inc.
• Original Assignee: Summit Telecom Systems Inc.
• Inventors: Coyle, William F., Johnson, Jack J.
• Primary Examiner(s): LOOMIS, PAUL A
• Application Number:
  US09/275,251
• Time in Patent Office: 251 Days
• Field of Search: 379/112, 379/114, 379/115, 379/116, 379/119, 379/120, 379/121
• US Class Current: 379/116
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/14 Charging , metering or billing arrangements for data wireline or wireless communications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/145 trading network capacity or selecting route based on tariff
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/00 Arrangements for metering, time-control or time indication ; Metering, charging or billing arrangements for voice wireline or wireless communications, e.g. VoIP
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/49 Connection to several service providers
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/8044 Least cost routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/8083 involving reduced rates or discounts, e.g. time-of-day reductions or volume discounts
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/0184 involving reduced rates or discounts, e.g. time-of-day reductions, volume discounts, cell discounts, group billing, frequent calling destination(s) or user history list
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/42 Least cost routing, i.e. provision for selecting the lowest cost tariff
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/46 Connection to several service providers
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/745 Least cost routing, e.g. Automatic or manual, call by call or by preselection

Abstract

Telecommunication switches (e.g., PBX'"'"'s or local exchange carrier'"'"'s Centrex-enabled switches) route calls in accordance with economic incentives (e.g., least cost routing) resulting from a bidding process between participating telecommunication Carriers (Carriers) by operation of a central processor, a computer referred to as a bidding moderator (Moderator). Each of the Carriers bidding for traffic over a route informs the Moderator of the rate it is willing to charge for (or other economic incentive it is willing to offer) service between two specific points in a telecommunication network, for example, from one NPA-NXX to another NPA-NXX, at some particular time. This "bid" rate may be lower than that Carrier'"'"'s established rate for any of several reasons (e.g., the Carrier has excess capacity on that route at that time). The Carrier may change its bids as often as it likes during the day as traffic patterns change. The Moderator collects this bid information from all the Carriers, processes the bid information and transmits carrier selection information to subscribing switches. Bid information is also transmitted to participating Carriers'"'"' network management centers. From the list of all Carriers providing bid information to the Moderator, each Subscriber can select those Carriers to which it wants traffic routed and can change that selection at any time.

Claims

1. A method for billing users for call attempts, made during a billing period by means of an auction process, in which a moderating computer collects economic incentive data from each Carrier of a plurality of telecommunications Carriers, processes the economic incentive data and distributes processed data to a plurality of telecommunications switches, each switch associated with an originating point, thereby enabling each of the plurality of switches to select a Carrier of the plurality of telecommunication Carriers for a call attempt presented to the switch, based on an economic choice, wherein the method comprises:

a. receiving in the moderating computer, call completion data from the switch including, at least, a call source identifier and a selected Carrier identifier;

b. associating the call completion data with the economic incentive data to produce a billing record including the call source identifier and the portion of the economic incentive data applied to the call;

c. storing the billing record in a billing data base; and

d. sorting the billing data base by call source identifier and generating a bill for calls associated with each call source identifier during the billing period.

2. A method for billing users for call attempts, made during a billing period by means of an auction process, in which a moderating computer collects economic incentive data from each Carrier of a plurality of telecommunication Carriers, processes the economic incentive data and distributes processed data to a plurality of telecommunication switches, each switch associated with an originating point, thereby enabling each of the plurality of switches to select a Carrier of the plurality of telecommunication Carriers for a call attempt presented to the switch, based on an economic choice, wherein the method comprises:

a. receiving in a computer associated with at least one of the plurality of switches, economic incentive data from the moderating computer and call completion data from the switch including, at least, a call source identifier and a selected Carrier identifier;

b. associating the call completion data with the economic incentive data to produce a billing record including the call source identifier and the portion of the economic incentive data applied to the call and storing the billing record in a billing data base; and

c. sorting the billing data base by call source identifier and generating a bill for calls associated with each call source identifier during the billing period.