Consolidated billing system and method for use in telephony networks

• US 6,266,401 B1
• Filed: 09/17/1998
• Issued: 07/24/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 09/17/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Sprint Communications Company LP (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Original Assignee: Sprint Communications Company LP (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Inventors: Sager, Kenneth M., Marchbanks, Noel Ray, Coffman, Webster S., Roman, Luis A., Macha, Jonathan D., Light, LeAnn R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Kuntz, Curtis
• Assistant Examiner(s): BARNIE, REXFORD N
• Application Number:
  US09/154,962
• Time in Patent Office: 1,041 Days
• Field of Search: H04/M.1500
• US Class Current: 379/116
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• 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 15/44 Augmented, consolidated or itemized billing statement or bill presentation
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/49 Connection to several service providers
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/51 for resellers, retailers or service providers
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/55 for hybrid networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/68 Payment of value-added services
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/0104 Augmented, consolidated or itemised billing statement, e.g. additional billing information, bill presentation, layout, format, e-mail, fax, printout, itemised bill per service or per account, cumulative billing, consolidated billing
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/0196 Payment of value-added services, mainly when their charges are added on the telephone bill, e.g. payment of non-telecom services, e-commerce, on-line banking
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/32 Involving wireless systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/44 Charging/billing arrangements for connection made over different networks, e.g. wireless and PSTN, ISDN, etc.
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/46 Connection to several service providers
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/54 Resellers-retail or service providers billing, e.g. agreements with telephone service operator, activation, charging/recharging of accounts

Abstract

A billing system and method particularly well suited for use in telephony networks accounts for usage of standard network services, such as voice and data communication, and third-party services, such as paging and voicemail services, supportable by the network. Customer usage of network equipment and third-party equipment is also accounted for by such a telephony network billing system. Network and third-party usage and equipment charges incurred by a customer are advantageously integrated by the billing system into a single customer invoice.

Claims

1. In a telephony network, a method of generating a customer invoice for usage of network services provided by a service provider operating the telephony network and third-party services supportable by the telephony network but provided by a third party service provider who does not operate the telephony network, comprising:

in the telephony network, acquiring network charge information representative of charges incurred by a customer for usage of the network services provided by the service provider operating the telephony network;

transmitting an order record to the third-party service provider to activate the third-party services;

receiving the completed order record from the third-party service provider;

in the telephony network, acquiring third-party charge information representative of charges incurred by the customer for usage of the services supportable by the telephony network but provided by the third party service provider;

identifying the third-party charge information so as to distinguish the third-party charge information from the network charge information; and

integrating, within a single invoice, network and third-party charges reflective of the network and the third-party charge information, respectively.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the network charge information is representative of charges incurred by the customer for usage of the network services and for equipment usage; and

the third-party charge information is representative of charges incurred by the customer for usage of the third-party services and for equipment usage.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein acquiring the third-party charge information comprises validating the third-party charge information.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the third-party charge information comprises identifying a code indicating a particular third-party service provider as a source of the third-party charge information.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the third-party charge information comprises usage charge information representative of charges incurred by the customer for usage of the third-party services and equipment charge information representative of charges incurred by the customer for use of third-party equipment; and

identifying the third-party charge information comprises identifying a particular source code indicating a third-party service provider as a source of the usage charge information associated with the customer and identifying an equipment code indicting the particular third-party service provider as a source of the equipment.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, by the third-party service provider, the order record transmitted from the telephony network;

inserting, by the third-party service provider, service parameters, equipment parameters, and a customer code into the order record; and

transmitting the order record from the third-party service provider to the telephony network.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein integrating the network and third-party charges comprises locating, in the single invoice, the network charges at a location of the invoice presenting network related billing information and the third-party charges at a location of the invoice presenting non-network related billing information.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the charge information representative of charges incurred by the customer for usage of the network services comprises charges for usage of voice and data services; and

the charge information representative of charges incurred by the customer for usage of the third-party services comprises charges for usage of paging services.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the charge information representative of charges incurred by the customer for usage of the third-party services comprises charges for usage of paging services associated with each of one or more paging units identified by a corresponding unique identification number.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising computing a discount for at least one of usage of the third-part services or equipment usage, wherein information concerning the discount is integrated within the single invoice.

11. A billing system for use in a telephony network, comprising:

a first subsystem that acquires usage charge information representative of charges incurred by the customer for usage of the network services and for usage of third-party services supportable by the network;

a second subsystem that acquires charge information representative of charges incurred by the customer for usage of network equipment and third-party equipment;

an extraction subsystem that extracts the charge information from the first and second subsystems and sorts the charge information associated with each customer; and

an invoice processing subsystem that receives the sorted charge information from the extraction subsystem and integrates, within a single invoice, network and third-party usage and equipment charges associated with each customer, such that the network usage and equipment charges are grouped at a first common location on the invoice and the third-party usage and equipment charges are grouped at a second common location on the invoice.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the first subsystem validates the third-party charge information.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the invoice processing subsystem identifies a code embedded in the third-party charge information indicating a particular third-party service provider as a source of the third-party charge information.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the first subsystem detects a source code indicating a particular third-party service provider as a source of the usage charge information associated with a particular customer, and the second subsystem detects an equipment code indicating the particular third party as a source of the third-party equipment.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the second subsystem transmits an order record to a third-party service provider, and subsequently receives the order record, which includes service parameters, equipment parameters, and a customer code, from the third-party service provider.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein the invoice processing subsystem computes a discount associated with at least one of the third-party usage or equipment charges associated with each customer, and integrates information associated with the discount proximate to the third-party usage and equipment charges grouped at the second common location on the invoice.

17. A system for producing a customer invoice for usage of network services provided by a service provider operating a telephony network and third-party services supportable by the telephony network but provided by a third party service provider who does not operate the telephony network, comprising:

in a telephony network, means for acquiring network charge information representative of charges incurred by a customer for usage of the network services provided by the service provider operating the telephony network;

means for transmitting an order record to a third-party service provider to activate the third-party services;

means for receiving the completed order record from the third-party service provider;

in the telephony network, means for acquiring third-party charge information representative of charges incurred by the customer for usage of the services supportable by the telephony network but provided by the third party service provider;

means for identifying the third-party charge information so as to distinguish the third-party charge information from the network charge information; and

means for integrating, within a single invoice, network and third-party charges reflective of the network and the third-party charge information, respectively.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein:

the third-party charge information comprises usage charge information representative of charges incurred by the customer for usage of the third-party services and equipment charge information representative of charges incurred by the customer for use of third-party equipment; and

means for identifying the third-party charge information comprises means for identifying a particular source code indicating a third-party service provider as a source of the usage charge information associated with the customer and identifying an equipment code indicating the particular third-party service provider as a source of the equipment.

19. The system of claim 17, further comprising:

means for receiving, by the third-party service provider, the order record transmitted from the telephony network;

means for inserting, by the third-party service provider, service parameters, equipment parameters, and a customer code into the order record; and

means for transmitting the order record from the third-party service provider to the telephony network.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein means for integrating the network and third-party charges comprises means for locating, in the single invoice, the network charges at a location of the invoice presenting network related billing information and the third-party charges at a location of the invoice presenting non-network related billing information.