Prepaid short message services revenue capture

• US 8,682,289 B2
• Filed: 02/14/2012
• Issued: 03/25/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 02/14/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: TeleCommunication Systems Inc (Comtech Telecommunications Corporation)
• Original Assignee: TeleCommunication Systems Inc (Comtech Telecommunications Corporation)
• Inventors: Tuttle, Lewis, Gao, Donghong
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Khai M
• Application Number:
  US13/396,170
• Publication Number:
  US 20130045711A1
• Time in Patent Office: 770 Days
• Field of Search: 455/406, 455/408, 455/466, 455/433, 455/414.1, 455/424, 455/560, 379/114.2, 379/114.28, 379/114.02
• US Class Current: 455/406
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/145 Payments according to the detected use or quantity
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/223 based on the use of peer-to-peer networks
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/24 Credit schemes, i.e. "pay after"
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/26 Debit schemes, e.g. "pay now"
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/28 Pre-payment schemes, e.g. "pay before"
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/31 Distributed metering or calculation of charges
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 17/10 Account details or usage
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/28 SMS billing
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/96 Distributed calculation of charges, e.g. in different nodes like for mobiles between HLR and VLR, or between the terminal and the billing function
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/12 Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/14 Short messaging services, e.g. short message services [SMS] or unstructured supplementary service data [USSD]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/24 Accounting or billing
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/04 Registration at HLR or HSS [Home Subscriber Server]

Abstract

A prepaid messaging solution that utilizes a pre-delivery debit query to tariff a short message, coupled with an additional debit query performed once necessary billing information has been acquired. A short message is tariffed prior to message delivery via a pre-delivery debit query to a prepaid server. During message delivery, the prepaid server is queried a second time, following the HLR query performed by the Short Message Service Center (SMSC). This subsequent debit query bills a subscriber for any additional service fees discovered throughout message delivery, e.g., international/roaming fees, etc. If either the pre-delivery debit query or the subsequent debit query indicates that a subscriber has insufficient account balance to deliver a short message, the message is prevented from being delivered. If a message is dropped due to lack of account balance, any funds debited throughout the attempted message delivery may be credited back to the subscriber'"'"'s prepaid account.

Claims

1. A prepaid messaging service comprising:

receiving a short message at a delivery server;

initiating a pre-delivery debit query to a prepaid server;

if a prepaid account does not have adequate account funds to deliver said received short message, dropping said short message;

if said prepaid account has adequate account funds to deliver said received short message, receiving a home location register (HLR) query response identifying an additional service fee from message delivery, and tariffing said received short message prior to completion of message delivery;

wherein a subscriber device with sufficient account balance is billed for said additional service fee prior to completion of message delivery.

2. The prepaid messaging service according to claim 1, wherein:

said querying said home location register is performed via a short message service center (SMSC).

3. The prepaid messaging service according to claim 1, wherein:

said pre-delivery debit query is performed before completion of said start message delivery.

4. The prepaid messaging service according to claim 1, wherein:

said pre-delivery debit query debits a standard message delivery fee.

5. The prepaid messaging service according to claim 1, wherein:

said pre-delivery debit query debits said additional service fee from message delivery.

6. The prepaid messaging service according to claim 1, wherein:

said additional service fee from message delivery is an international fee.

7. The prepaid messaging service according to claim 1, wherein:

said additional service fee from message delivery is a roaming fee.

8. Apparatus for providing a prepaid messaging service, comprising:

means for receiving a short message at a delivery server;

means for initiating a pre-delivery debit query to a prepaid server;

means for dropping said short message if a prepaid account does not have adequate account funds to deliver said received short message;

if said prepaid account has adequate account funds to deliver said received short message, means for receiving a home location register (HLR) query response identifying an additional service fee from message delivery, and means for tariffing said received short message prior to completion of message delivery;

wherein a subscriber device with sufficient account balance is billed for said additional service fee prior to completion of message delivery.

9. The apparatus for providing a prepaid messaging service according to claim 8, wherein:

said means for querying said home location register queries from a short message service center (SMSC).

10. The apparatus for providing a prepaid messaging service according to claim 8, wherein:

said pre-delivery debit query is performed before completion of said message delivery.