Telephone line aggregated billing

• US 5,915,006 A
• Filed: 05/01/1997
• Issued: 06/22/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 05/01/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: AT&T Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Jagadish, Hosagrahar V., Mumick, Inderpal S.
• Primary Examiner(s): LOOMIS, PAUL A
• Application Number:
  US08/848,870
• Time in Patent Office: 782 Days
• Field of Search: 379/112, 379/113, 379/114, 379/115, 379/116, 379/119, 379/120, 379/221, 379/122, 379/127, 379/133, 379/134
• US Class Current: 379/115.01
• 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 15/44 Augmented, consolidated or itemized billing statement or bill presentation
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/8083 involving reduced rates or discounts, e.g. time-of-day reductions or volume discounts
• 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 2215/0184 involving reduced rates or discounts, e.g. time-of-day reductions, volume discounts, cell discounts, group billing, frequent calling destination(s) or user history list

Abstract

A method and system in which calls made on two or more phone lines of a customer are aggregated for billing and discount billing plans to which the customer subscribes are applied to the aggregated phone usage of the customer. In order to price a call made over a network by a customer of the network, information specifying a billing plan of the customer and information specifying a plurality of telephone lines to which the billing plan applies are stored. A call made from one of the plurality of telephone lines is received at a network switch and record that describes the call is generated. The record is received at a billing analysis system and a priced call value for the call is determined based on the record and the information specifying the customer billing plan. The record that describes the call comprises an identifier of the telephone line from which the call was made and priced call value for the call is determined by accessing the information specifying the customer billing plan using the identifier in the received record.

Claims

1. A method of pricing a call made over a network by a customer of the network, comprising the steps of:

storing information specifying a billing plan of the customer and information specifying a plurality of telephone lines to which the billing plan applies, each telephone line having a separate billing account;

receiving a call made from one of the plurality of telephone lines at a network switch;

generating a record that describes the call;

receiving the record at a billing analysis system; and

determining a priced call value for the call based on the record, information specifying the customer billing plan and aggregated information relating to all of the plurality of separate billing accounts.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the record that describes the call comprises an identifier of the telephone line from which the call was made and the determining step comprises the step of:

accessing the information specifying the customer billing plan using the identifier in the received record.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the telephone lines is geographically separate from the other telephone lines.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein each telephone line is coupled to a network switch and all telephone lines are coupled to the same network switch.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein each telephone line is coupled to one of a plurality of network switches and at least some of the telephone lines are coupled to different network switches.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of:

generating a separate bill for each separate billing account.

3. The method of claim 3, further comprising the step of:

updating the customer'"'"'s current bill by adding the priced call value to the customer'"'"'s balance.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the priced call value incorporates one or more discounts to which the customer is entitled.

9. A system for pricing a call made over a network by a customer of the network, comprising the steps of:

a database storing information specifying a billing plan of the customer and information specifying a plurality of telephone lines to which the billing plan applies, each telephone line having a separate billing account;

a network switch receiving a call made from one of the plurality of telephone lines and generating a record that describes the call; and

a billing analysis system receiving the record and determining a priced call value for the call based on the record and the information specifying the customer billing plan and aggregated information relating to all of the plurality of separate billing accounts.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the record that describes the call comprises an identifier of the telephone line from which the call was made and the billing analysis system further:

accesses the information specifying the customer billing plan using the identifier in the received record.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the billing analysis system further:

updates the customer'"'"'s current bill by adding the priced call value to the customer'"'"'s balance.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the priced call value incorporates one or more discounts to which the customer is entitled.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein at least one of the telephone lines is geographically separate from the other telephone lines.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein each telephone line is coupled to a network switch and all telephone lines are coupled to the same network switch.

15. The method of claim 9, wherein each telephone line is coupled to one of a plurality of network switches and at least some of the telephone lines are coupled to different network switches.

16. The method of claim 9, wherein the billing analysis system further generates a separate bill for each separate billing account.

24. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

means for generating a separate bill for each separate billing account.

17. A system for pricing a call made over a network by a customer of the network, comprising:

means for storing information specifying a billing plan of the customer and information specifying a plurality of telephone lines to which the billing plan applies, each telephone line having a separate billing account;

means for receiving a call made from one of the plurality of telephone lines;

means for generating a record that describes the call; and

means for determining a priced call value for the call based on the record and the information specifying the customer billing plan and aggregated information relating to all of the plurality of separate billing accounts.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the record that describes the call comprises an identifier of the telephone line from which the call was made and the determining means comprises:

means for accessing the information specifying the customer billing plan using the identifier in the received record.

19. The system of claim 18, further comprising:

means for updating the customer'"'"'s current bill by adding the priced call value to the customer'"'"'s balance.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the priced call value incorporates one or more discounts to which the customer is entitled.

21. The method of claim 17, wherein at least one of the telephone lines is geographically separate from the other telephone lines.

22. The method of claim 17, wherein each telephone line is coupled to a network switch and all telephone lines are coupled to the same network switch.

23. The method of claim 17, wherein each telephone line is coupled to one of a plurality of network switches and at least some of the telephone lines are coupled to different network switches.