Methods for identifying and recovering non-revenue generating network circuits established outside of the united states

• US 8,307,057 B1
• Filed: 12/20/2005
• Issued: 11/06/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/20/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: AT&T Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property II LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Bajpay, Paritosh, Best, Robert, Eslambolchi, Hossein, Glozzy, Richard, Hughes, Alan, McCanuel, John, Bond, Romelle
• Primary Examiner(s): Tiv, Backhean
• Application Number:
  US11/311,439
• Time in Patent Office: 2,513 Days
• Field of Search: 709/227
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/43 Billing software details
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/49 Connection to several service providers
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/50 for cross-charging network operators

Abstract

A method includes issuing a retrieval instruction, such as a database query, to retrieve from a database system a datum associated with a network circuit established outside of the United States. Upon receiving the datum from the database system, it is determined, based on the datum retrieved, whether the network circuit is incurring a charge. It is further determined, based on the datum retrieved, an amount of revenue generated by the network circuit. When the amount of revenue generated by the network circuit is below a predetermined threshold, a termination instruction to terminate a service associated with the network circuit is issued.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

issuing a retrieval instruction to retrieve a datum associated with a network circuit established outside of the United States from a database system;

determining, by a processor, based on the datum retrieved from the database system whether the network circuit is incurring a charge;

determining based on the datum retrieved from the database system an amount of revenue generated by the network circuit;

determining if the network circuit is part of a block of network circuits that is leased, wherein the block of network circuits that is leased does not allow the charge to be attributed to any one network circuit of the block of network circuits; and

issuing a termination instruction to terminate a service associated with the network circuit when the network circuit is not part of the block of network circuits that is leased, when the network circuit is incurring the charge and when the amount of revenue generated by the network circuit that is not part of the block of network circuits that is leased is below a predetermined threshold that indicates that the network circuit is deemed to be an access-no-revenue circuit, wherein the predetermined threshold is based on a type of network circuit being analyzed and a country that the network circuit is established in.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the network circuit includes a DS0 circuit.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining whether the network circuit is incurring the charge is done automatically.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining the amount of revenue generated by the network circuit is done automatically.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the issuing the termination instruction is done automatically.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising verifying that the service associated with the network circuit has been terminated when the termination instruction has been issued.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising issuing a disconnect instruction to disconnect the network circuit when the network circuit is incurring the charge and when the amount of revenue generated by the network circuit is below a predetermined threshold.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

issuing automatically a disconnect instruction to disconnect the network circuit when the network circuit is incurring the charge and when the amount of revenue generated by the network circuit is below the predetermined threshold; and

verifying that the network circuit has been disconnected when the disconnect instruction has been issued.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the network circuit includes an E1 circuit.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the network circuit includes an E3 circuit.

11. A method comprising:

receiving an identification of a network circuit established outside of the United States that is not part of a block of network circuits that is leased, wherein the block of network circuits that is leased does not allow a charge to be attributed to any one network circuit of the block of network circuits, when the network circuit is incurring a cost and is generating an amount of revenue below a predetermined threshold that indicates that the network circuit that is not part of the block of network circuits that is leased is deemed to be an access-no-revenue circuit, wherein the predetermined threshold is based on a type of network circuit being analyzed and a country that the network circuit is established in;

verifying, by a processor, automatically whether a service provider outside of the United States is providing a service associated with the network circuit; and

issuing automatically a request to the service provider to terminate the service when it is verified that the service provider is providing the service.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising producing a report when the request to the service provider is issued.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the network circuit includes a DS0 circuit.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the network circuit includes an E1 circuit.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein the network circuit includes an E3 circuit.

16. A tangible memory device storing code representing instructions, which when executed to cause a processor to perform operations, the operations comprising:

issuing a retrieval instruction to retrieve from a database system a datum associated with a network circuit established outside of the United States;

determining based on the datum whether the network circuit is incurring a charge;

determining based on the datum an amount of revenue generated by the network circuit;

determining if the network circuit is part of a block of network circuits that is leased, wherein the block of network circuits that is leased does not allow the charge to be attributed to any one network circuit of the block of network circuits; and

producing automatically a report when the network circuit is not part of a block of network circuits that is leased, when the network circuit is incurring the charge and when the amount of revenue generated by the network circuit that is not part of the block of network circuits that is leased is below a predetermined threshold that indicates that the network circuit is deemed to be an access-no-revenue circuit, wherein the predetermined threshold is based on a type of network circuit being analyzed and a country that the network circuit is established in.

17. The tangible memory device of claim 16, further comprising:

verifying whether a service provider outside of the United States is providing a service associated with the network circuit;

issuing a termination instruction to terminate the service associated with the network circuit when it is verified that the service provider is providing the service; and

verifying that the service associated with the network circuit has been terminated when the termination instruction has been issued.