Method and system for providing market analysis for wireless voice markets

• US 7,991,661 B1
• Filed: 04/03/2007
• Issued: 08/02/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 04/03/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: The Nielsen Company LLC (MOOD Media Corporation)
• Original Assignee: The Nielsen Company LLC (MOOD Media Corporation)
• Inventors: Gaffney, Tamara, Kim-Brown, Stuart
• Primary Examiner(s): Gart; Matthew
• Assistant Examiner(s): PARIKH, HARSHAD R
• Application Number:
  US11/732,758
• Time in Patent Office: 1,582 Days
• Field of Search: 705/34, 705/8, 705/10
• US Class Current: 705/34
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0631 Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• 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

Abstract

A computer-implemented method and computer system for providing market analysis for a wireless voice market. Embodiments provide convenient and effective mechanisms for obtaining wireless voice information from online bills of a panel of wireless subscribers, thereby reducing subscriber interaction and enabling more complete and frequent access to the wireless voice information used to provide market analysis. The wireless voice information is scraped from the online bill (e.g., after obtaining permission from a wireless subscriber) and stored in a database for subsequent access, processing and output (e.g., in the form of a presentation, datafeed, as part of an online tool used by a client to access the information, etc.). The processing may include standardizing, cleaning, classifying and applying additional information (e.g., census data comprising demographic information, user-supplied information, etc.) to the voice information to provide further and/or more relevant market analysis.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of accessing, collecting and classifying that uses information of wireless voice market subscribers, said method comprising:

receiving, with a survey participant computer system, subscriber access information from a wireless subscriber to access a wireless carrier webpage, the access information including an indication of a first candidate carrier;

accessing, with the survey participant computer system, a webpage of the first candidate carrier and using the access information to access an online bill of the wireless subscriber via the webpage;

when the access of the online bill via the webpage of the first candidate carrier is unsuccessful, accessing the online bill via a webpage of a subsequent candidate carrier from a list of candidate carriers generated by an online survey system, the survey participant computer system to access each of the candidate carrier webpages until access to the online bill of the wireless subscriber is successful via the subsequent candidate carrier webpage using the subscriber access information;

collecting voice information from the accessed online bill associated with the subsequent candidate carrier webpage, and saving the voice information to a memory associated with the survey participant computer system;

processing said voice information to generate processed voice information associated with the wireless subscriber; and

classifying said processed voice information to generate market analysis information for said wireless voice market.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein said voice information from the accessed online bill comprises at least one of charge information and usage information for wireless calls associated with the wireless subscriber that is a panelist member.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein said wireless subscriber is identified using responses from an online survey, said responses indicating subscribers who fit a profile.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein said processing said voice information comprises at least one of standardizing said voice information, cleaning said voice information, or applying additional information to said voice information to provide further market analysis for said wireless voice market.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprising:

grouping a plurality of wireless subscribers into a plurality of groupings based upon a characteristic shared by members of each of said plurality of groupings;

performing a comparison of a number of members within a select grouping with respect to a predetermined number of people having said characteristic within a predetermined geographical area; and

assigning a weighting factor to members of said select grouping based upon said comparison, wherein an application of said weighting factor to said select grouping provides a panel that is more representative of a population within said predetermined geographical area.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprising:

in response to an input identifying said wireless voice market, outputting said market analysis information using at least one of a presentation, a datafeed, or an online access tool enabling a third party to retrieve select portions of said voice information.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprising:

accessing archived market analysis information for said wireless voice market; and

processing said archived market analysis information along with said voice information to provide further voice information that indicates a change in said generated market analysis information over time.

8. A computer system to access, collect and process that uses information of wireless voice market subscribers comprising a processor coupled to a bus and a memory coupled to said bus, wherein said memory comprises instructions to, when executed on said processor, at least:

receive subscriber access information from a wireless subscriber to access a wireless carrier webpage, the access information including an indication of a first candidate carrier;

access a webpage of the first candidate carrier and use the access information to access an online bill of the wireless subscriber via the webpage;

when the access of the online bill via the webpage of the first candidate carrier is unsuccessful, accessing the online bill via a webpage of a subsequent candidate carrier from a list of candidate carriers, and to access each of the candidate carrier webpages until access to the online bill of the wireless subscriber is successful via the subsequent candidate carrier webpage using the subscriber access information;

collect wireless voice information from the accessed online bill associated with the subsequent candidate carrier webpage, and saving the voice information to the memory; and

process said wireless voice information to provide market analysis information for said wireless voice market.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein said wireless voice information from the accessed online bill comprises at least one of charge information and usage information for wireless calls associated with the wireless subscriber.

10. The system of claim 8 further comprising a plurality of wireless subscribers assembled using responses from an online survey, said responses indicating subscribers who fit a profile.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein said processing said wireless voice information comprises at least one of standardizing said wireless voice information, cleaning said wireless voice information, classifying said wireless voice information, or applying additional information to said wireless voice information to provide further market analysis information for said wireless voice market.

12. The system of claim 8, further comprising:

to group members of a plurality of wireless subscribers into a plurality of groupings based upon a characteristic shared by members of each of said plurality of groupings;

to perform a comparison of a number of members within a select grouping with respect to a predetermined number of people having said characteristic within a predetermined geographical area; and

to assign a weighting factor to members of said select grouping based upon said comparison, wherein an application of said weighting factor to said select grouping provides a panel that is more representative of a population within said predetermined geographical area.

13. The system of claim 8, further comprising:

in response to an input identifying said wireless voice market, to output said market analysis information using at least one of a presentation, a datafeed, or an online access tool enabling a third party to retrieve select portions of said wireless voice information.

14. The system of claim 8, further comprising:

to access archived market analysis information for said wireless voice market; and

to process said archived market analysis information along with said wireless voice information to provide further wireless voice information that indicates a change in said provided market analysis over time.