Prepaid Short Message Services Revenue Capture

• US 20130045711A1
• Filed: 02/14/2012
• Published: 02/21/2013
• 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: Gao, Donghong, Tuttle, Lewis
• Granted Patent: US 8,682,289 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/407
• 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;

tariffing said received short message prior to message delivery via a first pre-delivery debit query to a prepaid server;

querying a home location register (HLR); and

before said message is delivered but after said HLR query, querying said prepaid server pre-delivery a second time regarding said received short message;

wherein a subscriber device is billed for message delivery via two successive pre-delivery debit queries to a prepaid server to ensure that said subscriber device has sufficient account balance to fund any additional service fee discovered throughout message delivery.

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

said querying said home location register is transmitted from a short message service center (SMSC).

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

said second query is performed during but before delivery of said short message.

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

means for receiving a short message at a delivery server;

means for tariffing said received short message prior to message delivery via a first pre-delivery debit query to a prepaid server;

means for querying a home location register (HLR); and

means for querying said prepaid server pre-delivery regarding said received short message a second time, before said message is delivered but after said HLR query;

wherein a subscriber device is billed for message delivery via two successive pre-delivery debit queries to a prepaid server to ensure that said subscriber device has sufficient account balance to fund any additional service fee discovered throughout message delivery.

5. The apparatus for providing a prepaid messaging service according to claim 4, wherein:

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

6. The apparatus for providing a prepaid messaging service according to claim 4, wherein:

said second query is performed during but before delivery of said short message.