Method for effecting the preventive and/or current display of transmission costs during the transmission of internet and online data

• US 7,505,834 B1
• Filed: 08/30/2000
• Issued: 03/17/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 08/31/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: T-Mobile Deutschland GmbH (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Original Assignee: T-Mobile Deutschland GmbH (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Inventors: Keller, Walter
• Primary Examiner(s): Vig; Naresh
• Application Number:
  US10/069,850
• Time in Patent Office: 3,121 Days
• Field of Search: 705/1, 705/400, 705/40
• US Class Current: 701/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/102 Bill distribution or payments
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0283 Price estimation or determination
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/14 Charging , metering or billing arrangements for data wireline or wireless communications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1414 in real-time
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1421 Indication of expected costs
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1485 Tariff-related aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/62 Establishing a time schedule for servicing the requests
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/63 Routing a service request depending on the request content or context
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/75 Indicating network or usage conditions on the user display
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/28 with meter at substation or with calculation of charges at terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/8083 involving reduced rates or discounts, e.g. time-of-day reductions or volume discounts
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/83 Notification aspects
• 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 2215/22 Bandwidth or usage-sensitve billing
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/82 Advice-of-Charge [AOC], i.e. notify subscriber of charges/cumulative charge; meter at the substation

Abstract

The present invention suggests the introduction of an additional protocol element for a preventive display of transmission costs in the case of Internet and on-line services, at least for the transmission of larger quantities of data, such as, for example FTP files, sent by the provider, which can, at least, contain the scope of the data in the pending transmission, as well as other price criteria, optionally, which is recognized as such by the nodes (routers) that are involved in the transmission, and which may be expanded by its own proportional transmission prices, such that, ultimately, in the recipient'"'"'s PC, on the browser for example, an evaluation of the protocol element, with a display of the costs, accordingly, appears on the screen, after which the subscriber can institute a transmission or disrupt it and optionally, take additional measures, such as, for example, activating the automatic instigation of the transmission at a later, more favorable time from the standpoint of costs.

In particular, the introduction of the protocol element for all pending transmissions of data, including, for example, HTML pages, makes sense as an option that affords protection against the senseless delivery of large numbers of illustrated pages, especially in cases of rapid Internet access.

Claims

1. A process displaying prior to transmission the transmission costs in the transmission of Internet data or on-line data by a services/information provider to a subscriber, including:

prior to a pending transfer of data, transferring a protocol element by the services/information provider to the subscriber'"'"'s terminal unit, wherein the protocol element contains an indication of the pending volume of data;

recognizing the protocol element at one or more transit nodes of the telecommunications networks that are involved in the transmission;

supplementing as needed the protocol element by a partial cost based on a transmission through the one or more transit nodes;

wherein the supplementing step is performed by the one or more transit nodes;

evaluating the protocol element at the subscriber'"'"'s terminal unit to determine the value of a pending transmission;

displaying the total of pending transmission costs at the subscriber'"'"'s terminal unit via browser software to the subscriber, said

browser software displaying a menu enabling the subscriber to institutes the transmission of the data or refuses the transmission of data based on the total of pending transmission costs.

2. A process according to claim 1, wherein the protocol element includes one or more price-relevant criteria selected from a group consisting of:

quality of service;

priority of transmission routing instructions;

price group;

contractual comment;

degrees of security; and

an indication of the sender.

3. A process according to claim 1 wherein evaluating at the subscriber'"'"'s terminal unit includes calculating the total of pending transmission costs based on the protocol element via calculating means that are configured with the browser software.

4. A process according to claim 1, wherein the menu includes menu points to initiate transfer options at the subscriber'"'"'s terminal unit wherein said transfer options are selected from a group consisting of:

direct transmission;

disruption of the transmission;

transmission cost options; and

data storage.

5. A process according to claim 1, further including indicating with the protocol element prior to data transmission an option of electing to receive the data.

6. A process according to claim 1, further including providing a means for programming to the subscriber, wherein the means for programming provides for automatically confirming transmission demands.

7. A process according to claim 1 further including:

setting either a data limit or a cost limit at the subscriber'"'"'s terminal unit;

automatically transferring the data limit or the cost limit from the subscriber'"'"'s terminal unit to the service/information provider; and

automatically transferring a confirmation/denial option of the pending transmission from the service/information provider to the subscriber'"'"'s terminal unit for all data deliveries above said data or cost limits.