Method and apparatus for calculating call charge rates in a mobile telecommunication system

• US 6,516,190 B1
• Filed: 12/17/1999
• Issued: 02/04/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 06/17/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Hanger Solutions, LLC (IP Investments Group LLC)
• Original Assignee: Sonera Oyj
• Inventors: Linkola, Janne
• Primary Examiner(s): VO, NGUYEN THANH
• Application Number:
  US09/466,497
• Time in Patent Office: 1,145 Days
• Field of Search: 455/405-408, 455/456
• US Class Current: 455/408
• 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 15/8083 involving reduced rates or discounts, e.g. time-of-day reductions or volume discounts
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/2026 Wireless network, e.g. GSM, PCS, TACS
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/32 Involving wireless systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/24 Accounting or billing

Abstract

Rate charging rules and principles concerning mobile calls in a cellular communication system can be improved by providing the mobile station with a locator object which, at certain intervals, determines the cell in which the mobile station is currently located. Stored in the mobile station is a list of cells or areas in which a special rate is to be applied in charging for calls originating from the mobile station. The locator object monitors calls made from the mobile station and, when it detects that a call is being made, it determines whether the mobile station was in a denoted special rate area at the time that its location was most recently determined. If so, then the object informs the network that the call is entitled to the special rate. Since the last location function was executed just before call setup commenced, a special rate call is possible even if the mobile station has thereafter moved some distance into a cell applying a normal rate. Disposed in a billing center is a billing object, to which the locator object sends data indicating whether the call was initiated from a cell or area in which a special rate is applicable, as well as data identifying the particular call. The second object receives the billing records generated by the mobile switching center, which also contain call identifying data, and compares the call-specific data in those records with the data sent by the first object. In this way, the second object can identify from the billing records those calls that are entitled to a special rate, regardless of whether the mobile station has moved during call setup from the original cell into a cell where another rate, e.g. a higher rate, is applicable.

Claims

1. A method of determining a call charge rate to be applied in a cellular mobile telephone network covering a plurality of coverage areas and that includes a mobile switching center that produces a call data record for each call, and a plurality of base transceiver stations that each transmits the calls of subscriber mobile stations located in the coverage areas served by the each base transceiver station, wherein at least one of the coverage areas is designated a special area in which a special charge rate is applied to calls originating from the special area, and wherein each of the mobile stations comprises mobile equipment, receives and sorts by relative signal strength received base station broadcast signals, decodes from at least a strongest of the sorted broadcast signals the base transceiver station identifying data, and repeatedly determines its current location at a first predetermined time interval, said method comprising the steps of:

storing a list of location identifiers denoting the designated at least one special area in each of the mobile stations;

comparing in each mobile station, with each determination of the current location of the each mobile station, the determined location with the stored list of location identifiers to determine whether the each mobile station is currently located in the designated at least one special area;

storing in a memory of the each mobile station for the first predetermined time interval, where it is determined that the each mobile station is currently located in the designated at least one special area, location data for the determined location;

generating during a call originating from the each mobile station, where the originating call is initiated from the each mobile station while the location data is stored in the memory, a compensation record associated with the originating call and comprising the location data and data identifying the originating call;

transmitting the generated compensation record from the each mobile station to the mobile telephone network;

combining, in the mobile telephone network, data in the transmitted compensation record received from the each mobile station for the originating call with data in the call data record for the originating call to determine a proper call charge rate to be applied to the originating call; and

sending to the mobile equipment a Provide Local Information message at a second predetermined time interval and, in response to a Terminal Response return message, to determine whether the decoded base transceiver station identifier data is included in the stored list.

2. A method in accordance with claim 1, wherein the determination by each of the mobile stations of the current location of the each mobile station is effected using identifier data transmitted by the mobile telephone network.

3. A method in accordance with claim 1, wherein the determination by each of the mobile stations of the current location of the each mobile station is effected using data transmitted by a system external to the mobile telephone network.

4. A method in accordance with claim 3, wherein the external system is a satellite positioning system.

5. A method in accordance with claim 1, wherein said data identifying the originating call comprises an identical parameter included in both the compensation record and the call data record for the originating call.

6. A method for improved determination of a call charge rate to be applied in a cellular mobile telephone network covering a plurality of coverage areas and that includes a plurality of base transceiver stations each serving at least one of the plural coverage areas and a plurality of subscriber mobile stations, wherein each of the mobile stations comprises mobile equipment, sorts, by signal strength, broadcast signals received from the plural base transceiver stations and decodes from at least a strongest of the sorted broadcast signals base transceiver station identifying data, wherein at least one of the coverage areas is designated a special area in which a special charge rate is applied to calls originating from the special area, and wherein each of the mobile stations repeatedly determines its current location at a first predetermined time interval, said method comprising the steps of:

storing a list of the designated at least one special area in each of the mobile stations;

determining at the mobile station, with each determination of the current location of the each mobile station, whether the mobile station is currently located in the designated at least one special area;

storing in a memory of the each mobile station for the first predetermined time interval, where it is determined that the each mobile station is currently located in the designated at least one special area, location data for the determined current location;

generating during a call originating from the each mobile station, where the originating call is initiated from the each mobile station while the location data is stored in the memory, a compensation record associated with the originating call and comprising the location data and data identifying the originating call;

transmitting the generated compensation record from the each mobile station to the mobile telephone network; and

sending to the mobile equipment a Provide Local Information message at a second predetermined time interval and, in response to a Terminal Response return message, to determine whether the decoded base transceiver station identifier data is included in the stored list.

7. A method in accordance with claim 6, further comprising the step of displaying on a display of the each mobile station, when the location data for the determined current location is stored in the memory of the each mobile station, information indicating that the mobile station is located in the at least one special area.

8. A method in accordance with claim 6, wherein an interval of repetition at which the mobile station decodes the at least the strongest of the sorted broadcast signals being longer than the predetermined time interval.

9. A method in accordance with claim 6, wherein the at least one special area comprises at least one cell of a plurality of cells covered by the mobile telephone network, and wherein the stored list of the designated at least one special area comprises identifiers of the at least one cell of the at least one special area.

10. A method in accordance with claim 6, wherein the generated compensation record from the each mobile station to the mobile telephone network is transmitted during the originating call.

11. A method in accordance with claim 6, wherein said transmitting step comprises the steps of:

collecting a plurality of compensation records each associated with a different originating call from the each mobile station into a batch; and

transmitting the batch of compensation records from the each mobile station to the mobile telephone network.

12. A method in accordance with claim 6 and wherein the mobile telephone network includes a mobile switching center that produces a call data record for each call in the network, further comprising the steps of:

comparing in the mobile telephone network the call data records generating by the mobile switching center with the transmitted compensation records received by the mobile telephone network; and

calculating charges for a particular call in the mobile telephone network, when said comparison locates both a call data record and a compensation record for the particular call, on the basis of the special charge rate for the special area.

13. A method in accordance with claim 6, wherein said storing of the list of the designated at least one special area comprises storing the list in a Subscriber Identity Module of the each mobile station.

14. In a cellular mobile telephone system covering a plurality of coverage areas and that includes a mobile switching center for producing a call data record for each call in the system, a plurality of base transceiver stations each operable for transmitting identifier data for said each base transceiver station in a broadcast signal, and a plurality of subscriber mobile stations each comprising a mobile equipment and a subscriber identity module connected to the mobile equipment, each said mobile station being operable for receiving and sorting by relative signal strength the received base transceiver station broadcast signals and for decoding from at least a strongest of the sorted broadcast signals the base transceiver station identifying data, and wherein at least one of the coverage areas is designated a special area in which a special charge rate is applied to calls originating from the special area, an apparatus for assuring proper billing of charges to subscribers for calls in the cellular mobile telephone system, comprising:

memory in each said mobile station storing a list comprising data identifying the at least one of the coverage areas designated a special area;

a locator object in each said mobile station for;

(i) repeatedly determining at predetermined time intervals a current location of the said each mobile station;

(ii) comparing the determined current location with the data in the stored list to determine whether the said each mobile station is currently located in the at least one of the coverage areas designated a special area;

(iii) storing in the memory said each mobile station for the predetermined time interval, where it is determined that the said each mobile station is currently located in the at least one of the coverage areas designated a special area, location data for the determined current location;

(iv) generating during a call originating from said each mobile station, where the originating call is intitiated from said each mobile station while the location data is stored in the memory, a compensation record associated with the originating call and comprising the location data and data identifying the originating call; and

(v) transmitting the generated compensation record from said each mobile station to the mobile telephone system, said locator object being further operable for sending to the mobile equipment a Provide Local Information message at time intervals of a second predetermined length and, in response to a Terminal Response return message, for determining whether the decoded base transceiver station identifier data is included in the stored list;

an interface included in each of said plural mobile stations conforming to GSM system specification 11.14 between the mobile equipment and the subscriber identity module; and

a billing object operable for comparing the transmitted compensation records received from the mobile stations with the call data records generated by the mobile switching center and, when a compensation record is located for a call data record identifying a particular call, generating a call charge using the special charge rate for the special area identified by the located compensation record.

15. In the cellular mobile telephone system of claim 14, said locator object being located in the subscriber identity module of said each mobile station and said billing object being located in a billing center of the telephone system.

16. In the cellular mobile telephone system of claim 14, said locator object being further operable to send to the mobile equipment of the said each mobile station, when the decoded identifier data is determined to be included in the stored list, a Display Text message to cause the mobile equipment to display the identifier data on a display screen of said each mobile station.

17. In the cellular mobile telephone system of claim 14, said locator object being operable to generate the compensation record in response to a message sent to the subscriber identity module indicating establishment of a speech connection of the originating call.

18. In the cellular mobile telephone system of claim 14, said locator object being operable to transmit the generated compensation record by sending to the mobile equipment of said each mobile station a Send Short Message message to thereby cause the mobile equipment of s aid each mobile station to transmit the generated compensation record to said billing object.

19. In the cellular mobile telephone system of claim 14, said locator object being operable to transmit the generated compensation record by sending to the mobile equipment of said each mobile station a Send USSD message to thereby cause the mobile equipment of said each mobile station to transmit the generated compensation record to said billing object.