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Methods for providing overdraft protection for post-paid communication service plans

  • US 7,650,138 B1
  • Filed: 07/07/2004
  • Issued: 01/19/2010
  • Est. Priority Date: 01/09/2004
  • Status: Expired due to Fees
First Claim
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1. A method for implementing a service plan, the method comprising:

  • defining, via a billing system server, a data plan account comprising a plurality of data plan periods, each having a predetermined number of data blocks;

    defining, via the billing system server, an overdraft protection plan that adds overdraft data blocks to the data plan account;

    the billing system server determining whether the predetermined number of data blocks has been reached during one of the plurality of data plan periods;

    the billing system server selecting between borrowing data blocks from a future data plan period and charging the data plan account for additional overdraft data blocks, a cost per overdraft data block being less than a cost per data block normally associated with exceeding the predetermined number of data blocks during the data plan period; and

    the billing system server adding data blocks to the data plan when the predetermined number of data blocks has been reached.

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