Prepaid Short Message Services Revenue Capture
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
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.
6 Citations
17 Claims
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1-6. -6. (canceled)
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7. A method of prepaid messaging, comprising:
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initiating, to a prepaid server, a pre-delivery debit query of a first fee associated with a delivery of a text message; terminating delivery of said text message when a prepaid account associated with a wireless device has inadequate account funds to deliver cover said first fee; receiving a home location register (HLR) query response associated with a second fee associated with delivery of said text message; and tariffing said prepaid account both said first fee and said second fee for delivery of said text message. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10)
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11. Apparatus for providing a prepaid messaging service, comprising:
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an initiator to initiate, to a prepaid server, a pre-delivery debit query of a first fee associated with a delivery of a text message, and to terminate delivery of said text message when a prepaid account associated with a wireless device has inadequate account funds to cover said first fee; a receiver to receive a home location register (HLR) query response associated with a second fee associated with delivery of said text message; and a billing system to tariff said prepaid account both said first fee and said second fee for delivery of said text message. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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Specification