Apparatus and method to identify potential work-at-home callers

• US 20050018825A1
• Filed: 07/25/2003
• Published: 01/27/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 07/25/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Viavi Solutions, Inc. (Lumentum Holdings Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Agilent Technologies, Inc.
• Inventors: Ho, Jeremy
• Granted Patent: US 7,142,652 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/133
• 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 15/06 Recording class or number of calling , i.e. A-party or called party , i.e. B-party
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/41 Billing record details, i.e. parameters, identifiers, structure of call data record [CDR]
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/43 Billing software details
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/44 Augmented, consolidated or itemized billing statement or bill presentation
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/53 using mediation
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/0104 Augmented, consolidated or itemised billing statement, e.g. additional billing information, bill presentation, layout, format, e-mail, fax, printout, itemised bill per service or per account, cumulative billing, consolidated billing
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/0164 Billing record, e.g. Call Data Record [CDR], Toll Ticket[TT], Automatic Message Accounting [AMA], Call Line Identifier [CLI], details, i.e. parameters, identifiers, structure
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/0172 Mediation, i.e. device or program to reformat CDRS from one or more switches in order to adapt to one or more billing programs formats

Abstract

A method of identifying work at home users of a telecommunications network based on call detail records. The phone numbers of the work at home users are identified from call detail records that exhibit characteristics of work at home users. In one embodiment this involves selecting records describing calls to phone numbers of known Internet Service Providers; excluding records describing calls less than a predetermined length of time; excluding records containing originating numbers with records describing calls to an ISP that occur on weekends; and excluding records containing originating numbers with records describing calls to an ISP that occur outside normal business hours.

Claims

1. A method of identifying work at home users of a telecommunications network, the method comprising:

retrieving records describing phone calls; and

identifying phone numbers from records that exhibit characteristics of work at home users.

2. A method, as set forth in claim 1, wherein the step of retrieving records comprises retrieving call detail records from a database.

3. A method, as set forth in claim 2, wherein the database is contained in a data management component.

4. A method, as set forth in claim 1, wherein the step of identifying phone numbers comprises selecting records describing calls to phone numbers of known Internet Service Providers.

5. A method, as set forth in claim 1, wherein the step of identifying phone numbers comprises excluding records describing calls less than a predetermined length of time.

6. A method, as set forth in claim 1, wherein the step of identifying phone numbers comprises excluding records containing originating numbers with records describing calls to an ISP that occur on weekends.

7. A method, as set forth in claim 1, wherein the step of identifying phone numbers comprises excluding records containing originating numbers with records describing calls to an ISP that occur outside normal business hours.

8. A method, as set forth in claim 1, wherein the step of identifying phone numbers further comprises:

selecting records describing calls to phone numbers of known Internet Service Providers;

excluding records describing calls less than a predetermined length of time;

excluding records containing originating numbers with records describing calls to an ISP that occur on weekends; and

excluding records containing originating numbers with records describing calls to an ISP that occur outside normal business hours.

9. A method, as set forth in claim 1, further comprising generating a list of ISP phone numbers for which associated call at homers are to be identified.

10. A system for identifying work at home users of a telecommunications network, the system comprising:

a CDR feed that generates call detail records;

means for identifying phone numbers from the call detail records that exhibit characteristics of work at home users.

11. A system for identifying work at home users of a telecommunications network, the system comprising:

a CDR feed that generates call detail records;

a storage device for storing the call detail records;

an application in communication with the storage device that retrieves call detail records and identifies phone numbers from the retrieved call detail records that exhibit characteristics of work at home users.

12. A system, as set forth in claim 11, wherein the application retrieves all call detail records for a certain timeframe from a database.

13. A system, as set forth in claim 12, further comprising a database management system associated with the storage device for managing the call detail records.

14. A system, as set forth in claim 11, wherein the application selects call detail records describing calls to phone numbers of known Internet Service Providers.

15. A system, as set forth in claim 11, wherein the application excludes call detail records describing calls less than a predetermined length of time.

16. A system, as set forth in claim 11, wherein the application excludes records containing originating numbers with records describing calls to an ISP that occur on weekends.

17. A system, as set forth in claim 11, wherein the application excludes records containing originating numbers with records describing calls to an ISP that occur outside normal business hours.

18. A system, as set forth in claim 11, further comprising a second application that identifies phone numbers of internet service providers.

19. A method for identifying phone numbers of interest, the method comprises:

selecting records describing calls to phone numbers of known Internet Service Providers (ISP);

excluding records describing calls less than a predetermined length of time;

excluding records containing originating numbers with records describing calls to an ISP that occur on weekends; and

excluding records containing originating numbers with records describing calls to an ISP that occur outside normal business hours.