SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PRICING COMMUNICATION OF A TELECOMMUNICATION PLATFORM

• US 20150079927A1
• Filed: 09/17/2014
• Published: 03/19/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 09/17/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Twilio, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Twilio, Inc.
• Inventors: Ballai, Adam, Milliron, Timothy S., Hageman, Robert
• Granted Patent: US 9,338,018 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/406
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1403 Architecture for metering, charging or billing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1421 Indication of expected costs
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1485 Tariff-related aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/765 Linked or grouped accounts, e.g. of users or devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/80 Rating or billing plans; Tariff determination aspects

Abstract

A system and method that include receiving a communication pricing query; mapping the communication pricing query to a billable item; resolving a price of a billable item within a set of hierarchically defined pricing models with sparse overrides, wherein each pricing model is defined for a set of billable items; and returning the price of the billable item in a response to the communication pricing query.

Claims

1. A method for evaluating usage in a communications platform comprising:

defining a hierarchical structure of pricing models for a set of billable items in the communication platform which comprises;

setting a root pricing model for the set of billable items within the communications platform, and

setting a set of pricing sub-models that sparsely over-ride at least a portion of the root pricing model for a subset of the billable items in the communication platform;

receiving a communication pricing query;

mapping the communication pricing query to a billable item;

resolving a price of a billable item within a set of pricing models which comprises;

identifying a first pricing model that most specifically applies to the billable item, calculating a price at least partially from the first pricing model; and

returning the price of the billable item in a response to the communication pricing query.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein setting a set of pricing sub-models comprises setting a first pricing sub-model for a group of billable items and setting a second pricing sub-model at a second instance through an administrator interface.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first pricing sub-model is set at a first instance and the second pricing model is set at a second instance that is substantially distinct from the first instance;

and wherein the first and second pricing sub-models are set through an administrator interface.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the billable item of the second pricing sub-model applies to a billable item of the group of billable items of the first pricing sub-model.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein resolving a price of a billable item comprises applying a discount rate of the second pricing sub-model to a specified price of the first pricing sub-model.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the root pricing model is defined for a first currency;

and wherein setting a set of pricing sub-models comprises setting a currency sub-model that defines a full set of billable items for a second currency.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein at least one currency sub-model defines a currency conversion factor applied to a root pricing model for billable items without pricing defined in the second currency.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one billable item is defined by a specified communication mode, a caller communication endpoint, and a callee communication endpoint.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein setting a set of pricing sub-model comprises setting at least one pricing sub-model with a fixed price, setting at least a second pricing sub-model with a discount applied to a parent pricing model, and at least a third pricing sub-model that defines a tiered pricing function that is dependent on usage.

10. A method comprising:

receiving a communication pricing query;

mapping the communication pricing query to a billable item;

resolving a price of a billable item within a set of hierarchically defined pricing models with sparse overrides, wherein each pricing model is defined for a set of billable items; and

returning the price of the billable item in a response to the communication pricing query.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein a billable item is defined at least in part by an communication endpoint participating in a communication.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein a billable item is defined at least in part by a communication service usage during a communication service.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein receiving a communication pricing query occurs in response to accounting for usage of an account within a communication platform.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein mapping the communication pricing query to a billable item comprises mapping a set of parameters, which includes a communication mode, regional association of involved endpoints, and service association of involved endpoints, to a billable item.

15. The method of claim 10, further comprising defining a hierarchical structure of pricing models for a set of billable items in the communication platform.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein defining the hierarchical structure of pricing models comprises setting a root pricing model for the set of billable items within the communications platform and setting a set of pricing sub-models that sparsely over-ride at least a portion of the root pricing model for a subset of the billable items in the communication platform.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the pricing models are mutable through an administrators interface, and wherein setting a set of pricing sub-models comprises setting a first sub-model over-rides a parent sub-model for set of billable items.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein setting a set of pricing sub-model comprises setting at least one pricing sub-model with a fixed price.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein setting a set of pricing sub-model comprises setting at least one pricing sub-model with a discount applied to a parent pricing model.

20. The method of claim 16, wherein setting a set of pricing sub-model comprises setting at least one pricing sub-model that defines a tiered pricing function that is dependent on usage.

21. The method of claim 16, wherein the root pricing model is defined for a first currency;

and wherein setting a set of pricing sub-models comprises setting a currency root sub-model that defines a full set of billable items for a second currency.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein at least one currency root sub-model defines a currency conversion factor applied to a root pricing model for billable items without pricing defined in the second currency.

23. A system for pricing in a communication platform comprising:

a communication platform with a plurality of creditable items associated with account use of the platform;

a pricing application programming interface (API) that includes an interface to request a price for a creditable item and an pricing model interface to define a pricing model;

a platform-pricing model that includes a set of root pricing models that define pricing for a full set of creditable items in the communication platform and a set of sub-models that override at least a portion of a root pricing sub-model and depend on at least one parent, and wherein each pricing sub-model includes dependency on at least a portion of the root pricing models; and

a pricing engine configured to resolve a price from the platform-pricing model for a given creditable item.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein the pricing model includes a set of currency sub-models that define a full set of billable items for a first currency.