Methods and apparatus to measure market share for voice over internet protocol carriers
First Claim
1. A method to estimate market share of a Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) carrier, comprising:
- (1) querying a plurality of VoIP carrier servers to determine the VoIP carrier server that owns a telephone subscriber number;
(2) in response to the querying, obtaining a plurality of messages operable to determine whether the telephone subscriber number is found within any one of the plurality of VoIP carrier servers;
(3) when the telephone subscriber number is not found within any one of the plurality of VoIP carrier servers, placing a partial call to the telephone subscriber number from a VoIP number within a selected VoIP carrier network;
(4) in response to placing the partial call, determining whether the telephone subscriber number belongs to the selected VoIP carrier network based on a signaling parameter retrieved from the selected VoIP carrier network;
(5) repeating (3) and (4) for another selected VoIP carrier network when the telephone subscriber number does not belong to the selected VoIP carrier network;
(6) associating a VoIP carrier with the telephone subscriber number when the telephone subscriber number does belong to the selected VoIP carrier network;
(7) repeating (1) to (6) when a total number of telephone subscriber numbers queried is less than a sample size; and
(8) determining market share of a first VoIP carrier based on a first number of telephone subscriber numbers associated with the first VoIP carrier with respect to the sample size.
10 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Methods and apparatus to measure market share for VoIP carriers is disclosed. An example method includes querying a plurality of VoIP carrier servers to determine the VoIP carrier server that owns the telephone subscriber number (SN), in response to the querying, receiving a plurality of messages operable to determine whether the telephone SN is found within any one of the plurality of VoIP carrier servers, when the received plurality of messages is at least one of inconclusive or when the telephone SN is not found within any one of the plurality of VoIP carrier servers, placing a first partial call to the telephone SN from a first VoIP number within a first VoIP carrier network, receiving a first signal from the first VoIP carrier network, and based on the first received signal, determining whether the telephone SN belongs to the first VoIP carrier network.
81 Citations
21 Claims
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1. A method to estimate market share of a Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) carrier, comprising:
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(1) querying a plurality of VoIP carrier servers to determine the VoIP carrier server that owns a telephone subscriber number; (2) in response to the querying, obtaining a plurality of messages operable to determine whether the telephone subscriber number is found within any one of the plurality of VoIP carrier servers; (3) when the telephone subscriber number is not found within any one of the plurality of VoIP carrier servers, placing a partial call to the telephone subscriber number from a VoIP number within a selected VoIP carrier network; (4) in response to placing the partial call, determining whether the telephone subscriber number belongs to the selected VoIP carrier network based on a signaling parameter retrieved from the selected VoIP carrier network; (5) repeating (3) and (4) for another selected VoIP carrier network when the telephone subscriber number does not belong to the selected VoIP carrier network; (6) associating a VoIP carrier with the telephone subscriber number when the telephone subscriber number does belong to the selected VoIP carrier network; (7) repeating (1) to (6) when a total number of telephone subscriber numbers queried is less than a sample size; and (8) determining market share of a first VoIP carrier based on a first number of telephone subscriber numbers associated with the first VoIP carrier with respect to the sample size. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. An apparatus to estimate market share of a Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) carrier, comprising:
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a server query unit to; query a plurality of VoIP carrier servers to determine the VoIP carrier server that owns a telephone subscriber number; and obtain a plurality of messages in response to the querying; and a processor to; determine whether the telephone subscriber number is found within any one of the plurality of VoIP carrier servers or when the received plurality of messages is at least one of inconclusive or when the telephone subscriber number is not found within any one of the plurality of VoIP carrier servers; cause a partial call initiator to place a partial call to the telephone subscriber number from a VoIP number within a first VoIP carrier network when the telephone subscriber number is not found within any one of the plurality of VoIP carrier servers; determine whether the telephone subscriber number belongs to the first VoIP carrier network based on a signaling parameter retrieved from the first VoIP carrier network in response to placing the partial call; cause the partial call initiator to place a partial call to the telephone subscriber number from a second VoIP number within a second VoIP carrier network when the telephone subscriber number does not belong to the first VoIP carrier network; associate a corresponding VoIP carrier with the telephone subscriber number when the telephone subscriber number does belong to a VoIP carrier network; and determine market share of a first VoIP carrier based on a first number of telephone subscriber numbers associated with the first VoIP carrier with respect to a total number of telephone subscriber numbers queried. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A tangible machine readable storage device or storage disk comprising machine accessible instructions that, when executed, cause a machine to at least:
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(1) query a plurality of VoIP carrier servers to determine the VoIP carrier server that owns a telephone subscriber number; (2) in response to the querying, obtain a plurality of messages operable to determine whether the telephone subscriber number is found within any one of the plurality of VoIP carrier servers; (3) place a partial call to the telephone subscriber number from a VoIP number within a selected VoIP carrier network when the telephone subscriber number is not found within any one of the plurality of VoIP carrier servers; (4) in response to placing the partial call, determine whether the telephone subscriber number belongs to the selected VoIP carrier network based on a signaling parameter retrieved from the selected VoIP carrier network; (5) repeat (3) and (4) for another selected VoIP carrier network when the telephone subscriber number does not belong to the selected VoIP carrier network; (6) associate a VoIP carrier with the telephone subscriber number when the telephone subscriber number does belong to the selected VoIP carrier network; (7) repeat (1) to (6) when a total number of telephone subscriber numbers queried is less than a sample size; and (8) determine market share of a first VoIP carrier based on a first number of telephone subscriber numbers associated with the first VoIP carrier with respect to the sample size. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
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Specification