Billing process and system in a telecommunication network

• US 7,194,432 B1
• Filed: 09/08/1998
• Issued: 03/20/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/15/1997
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Swisscom AG (Government of Switzerland)
• Original Assignee: Swisscom Mobile AG (Government of Switzerland)
• Inventors: Ritter, Rudolf, Heutschi, Walter
• Primary Examiner(s): Millin; Vincent
• Assistant Examiner(s): CHARLES, DEBRA F
• Application Number:
  US09/508,422
• Time in Patent Office: 3,115 Days
• Field of Search: 705/32, 705/34, 705/36
• US Class Current: 705/34
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/102 Bill distribution or payments
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/201 Price look-up processing, e.g. updating
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing
• 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 15/58 based on statistics of usage or network monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 17/00 Prepayment of wireline communication systems, wireless communication systems or telephone systems using a coded card to authorise calls from a telephone set H04M1/675
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/0188 Network monitoring; statistics on usage on called/calling number

Abstract

A billing method and billing system to determine usage fees which are charged to the user of a digital telecommunications network, whereby a usage fee charged for a connection is determined prior to establishing this connection from statistical characteristics of previous connections of the user, is described. Usage fees are determined from a dynamic client profile, derived from one or multiple random variables of previous connections of the user, which is stored in memory and rederived after each new customer connection. In a simple variant, the client profile contains a value proportional to the average price per connection or to the average duration of a connection of the user. The random variables used to derive the client profile include, for example, the connection duration, the time of day, the day of the week, and/or geographic characteristics of previous connections.

Claims

1. A billing system for determining telecommunications network usage fees, comprising:

a first profile memory area configured to store a dynamic client profile for at least one customer of the telecommunications network, said dynamic client profile indicating an average cost of previous connections of the customer and being derived from at least one random variable of the previous connections;

means for determining the at least one random variable with every new connection;

means for changing the dynamic client profile depending on the determined at least one random variable;

means for determining a usage fee based on the stored dynamic client profile;

a pre-paid amount memory area configured to store a pre-paid money amount associated with the customer; and

means for debiting said usage fee from the pre-paid money amount.

2. A billing system according to claim 1, further comprising a second profile memory area configured to store an overall client profile, wherein the usage fee is determined from the overall client profile, and wherein the overall client profile is derived from at least one random variable of previous connections of at least one group of customers, the stored overall client profile being adapted dynamically.

3. A billing system according to claim 1, wherein the at least one random variable includes at least one of connection duration, time of day, day of the week, and geographic characteristics of the previous connections.

4. A billing system according to claim 1, wherein the usage fee is determined based on a statistical system load obtained from the overall client profile.

5. A customer telecommunications device, comprising:

means for storing a dynamic client profile for at least one customer of a telecommunications network, said dynamic client profile indicating an average cost of previous connections of the customer and being derived from at least one statistical characteristic of the previous connections of the customer;

means for determining at least one statistical characteristic with every new connection;

means for changing the dynamic client profile depending on the determined at least one statistical characteristic; and

means for determining a usage fee based on the stored dynamic client profile.

6. A customer telecommunications device according to claim 5, further comprising means for storing a statistical dynamic overall client profile, wherein the usage fee is determined from the dynamic overall client profile, and wherein the overall client profile is derived from at least one random variable of previous connections of at least one group of customers, the stored overall client profile being adapted dynamically.

7. A customer telecommunications device according to claim 5, wherein the at least one statistical characteristic includes at least one of connection duration, time of day, day of the week, and geographic characteristics of previous connections.

8. A customer telecommunications device according to claim 5, wherein the usage fee is dependent on a statistical system load obtained from the overall client profile.

9. A billing method to determine usage fees which arise through use of a digital telecommunications network, comprising:

determining statistical characteristics of previous connections of a customer;

creating a client traffic distribution curve based on the statistical characteristics;

generating a dynamic client profile based on the client traffic distribution curve;

establishing a new connection by the customer via the digital telecommunications network;

calculating a usage fee associated with the new connection before termination of the new connection;

deriving a dynamic overall client profile, comprising statistical features of previous connections of at least one group of customers, from at least one random variable of previous connections of said at least one group of customers; and

storing said dynamic overall client profile in a memory area of a customer telecommunications device.

10. A billing method according to claim 9,

wherein the calculating further includes calculating the usage fee based on said statistical characteristics of at least one group of users.

11. A billing method according to claim 9, further comprising:

storing said dynamic client profile in a memory area of a customer telecommunications device;

determining at least one random variable associated with the new connection; and

modifying said dynamic client profile based on the at least one random variable.

12. A billing method according to claim 11, further comprising:

updating the client profile so that the dynamic client profile includes a value proportional to average duration price per connection of the customer.

13. A billing method according to claim 11, further comprising:

updating the dynamic client profile so that the dynamic client profile includes a value proportional to average duration time of a connection of the customer.

14. A billing method according to claim 11, further comprising:

updating the dynamic client profile so that the dynamic client profile includes a number of connections of the customer in pre-defined classes of duration of customer connection time.

15. A billing method according to claim 11, further comprising:

updating the client profile to include multi-dimensional functions of random variables of previous connections of the customer of the digital telecommunications network.

16. A billing method according to claim 11, wherein the creating of the client traffic distribution curve includes using random variables including at least one of connection duration time, time of day, day of the week, and geographic characteristics of previous connections.

17. A billing method according to claim 11, further comprising:

basing the usage fee on a statistical system load obtained from the overall client profile.

18. A billing method according to claim 11, further comprising:

informing the customer of said usage fee before establishment of the new connection; and

allowing the customer to interrupt the establishment of the new connection based on the informing.

19. A method for billing a new connection in a telecommunications network, comprising:

determining group statistical characteristics of previous connections of at least one group of users of the telecommunications network;

determining customer statistical characteristics of previous connections of a customer of the telecommunications network;

deriving a dynamic client profile based on at least one of the group statistical characteristics and the customer statistical characteristics;

storing said dynamic client profile in a memory area of a customer telecommunications device;

establishing a new connection by the customer via the telecommunications network;

calculating, based on the dynamic client profile, a usage fee for the new connection; and

modifying said dynamic client profile based on at least one random variable associated with the new connection.

20. A billing method according to claim 19, further comprising:

updating the client profile so that the dynamic client profile includes a value proportional to average duration price per connection of the customer.

21. A billing method according to claim 19, further comprising:

updating the client profile so that the dynamic client profile includes a value proportional to average duration time of a connection of the customer.

22. A billing method according to claim 19, further comprising:

updating the client profile so that the dynamic client profile includes a number of connections of the customer in pre-defined classes of duration of customer connection time.

23. A billing method according to claim 19, further comprising:

updating the client profile to contain multi-dimensional functions of random variables of previous connections of the customer.

24. A billing method according to claim 19, wherein the determining of the customer statistical characteristics includes using random variables which include at least one of connection duration time, time of day, day of the week, and geographic characteristics of previous connections.

25. A billing method according to claim 19, wherein the calculating is performed before termination of the new connection.

26. A billing method according to claim 19, further comprising:

informing the customer of said usage fee before establishment of the new connection; and

allowing the customer to interrupt the establishment of the new connection based on the informing.

27. A method for determining usage fees in a telecommunications network, comprising:

generating an overall client profile based on random variables associated with previous connections of a plurality of customers of the telecommunications network;

generating a customer client profile for a customer of the telecommunications network based on the overall client profile;

requesting a new connection by the customer;

determining a usage fee for the new connection based on the customer client profile;

establishing the new connection;

debiting the usage fee from a pre-paid amount before the new connection is terminated;

determining random variables associated with the new connection; and

modifying the customer client profile based on the random variables associated with the new connection.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein the generating of the overall client profile further includes generating an overall client traffic distribution.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein the generating of the overall client profile further includes determining, based on the overall client traffic distribution, at least one of a mean value, a variance, a class, a moving average, and a distribution in a pre-defined class.

30. The method of claim 27, wherein the determining of the usage fee is performed by a customer telecommunications device.

31. The method of claim 27, wherein the determining of the usage fee includes determining revenue figures associated with the previous connections of the plurality of customers.

32. The method of claim 31, wherein the determining of the revenue figures includes determining a mean time-per-connection and a mean revenue-per-connection.

33. The method of claim 27, further comprising:

storing the overall client profile and the customer client profile in a customer telecommunications device.

34. The method of claim 27, further comprising:

storing the overall client profile and the customer client profile on an SIM card.

35. The method of claim 27, further comprising:

requesting a second new connection; and

determining a second usage fee for the second new connection based on the modified customer client profile.

36. The method of claim 27, further comprising:

comparing the usage fee with an available pre-paid amount, wherein the establishing occurs when the available pre-paid amount exceeds the usage fee.