Arrangement for billing interactive communication services
First Claim
1. An interactive communication system comprising:
- an arrangement that provides billing information to at least one remote information source, wherein each source sends information to a plurality of set-top-boxes, each set-top-box possessed by a separate customer;
including;
a billing recorder having recording circuitry and located in a place that is at least one of inaccessible to a plurality of customers and unknown to the customers; and
a set of first links, each first link connecting a separate one of the plurality of set-top-boxes to the billing recorder, each of the set-top-boxes having circuitry that can send a local billing signal and a channel access request signal simultaneously via the connected one of the first links to a junction located in a curbside box, wherein each first link comprises a first short link and second short link, the first short link connecting the junction to the recording circuitry of the billing recorder, and the second short link connecting the junction to a device that sends information to the set-to-box in response to the channel access request signal, the billing recorder recording each time each customer requests access to a channel.
4 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Only one or only a few channels are sent at a time from curbside circuitry located in a curbside box, via a link such as either a coaxial or a fiber cable, into a customer'"'"'s home TV set or personal computer. However, many more than a few channels are delivered to the curbside box from a central office or a central bank of paid video-movies to be selected by the customers. The curbside box serves a multitude of homes, a separate (narrow-band) cable running to each home from the (same) curbside switch. Each channel can be a free radio or free TV channel, a stored or an on-line newspaper pay channel, or a pay TV channel, or a pay-per-view channel. Requests from each TV set in each home (e.g., initiated by a hand-held remote control infra-red sending device) can be sent to the curbside circuitry from the home along a link such as a wire or along the same curbside-to-home cable itself. Storage of billing information with respect to each customer is accomplished by a billing recorder located in the curbside box. A relatively short link connects this billing recorder to a junction in the link that carries the request signals to the curbside box. The billing recorder has registers that record the history of each customer'"'"'s requests for access to each channel. The billing recorder is provided with circuitry responsive to remote billing interrogation signals sent by one or more remote billing centers. In response to these remote billing interrogation signals, the billing recorder sends the records of the customers to the remote billing center.
46 Citations
14 Claims
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1. An interactive communication system comprising:
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an arrangement that provides billing information to at least one remote information source, wherein each source sends information to a plurality of set-top-boxes, each set-top-box possessed by a separate customer; including; a billing recorder having recording circuitry and located in a place that is at least one of inaccessible to a plurality of customers and unknown to the customers; and a set of first links, each first link connecting a separate one of the plurality of set-top-boxes to the billing recorder, each of the set-top-boxes having circuitry that can send a local billing signal and a channel access request signal simultaneously via the connected one of the first links to a junction located in a curbside box, wherein each first link comprises a first short link and second short link, the first short link connecting the junction to the recording circuitry of the billing recorder, and the second short link connecting the junction to a device that sends information to the set-to-box in response to the channel access request signal, the billing recorder recording each time each customer requests access to a channel. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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Specification