Wireless subscriber billing and distribution

• US 9,350,875 B2
• Filed: 05/31/2005
• Issued: 05/24/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 05/31/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Yu, Julie, Oliver, Mitchell B., Horel, Gerald Charles, Nguyen, Phil Tien, Prast, Sandra L., Patwari, Jaiteerth
• Primary Examiner(s): Ly, Nghi H
• Application Number:
  US11/141,807
• Publication Number:
  US 20060270386A1
• Time in Patent Office: 4,011 Days
• Field of Search: 455/406, 455/411, 455/414.1, 705/34
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/14 Charging , metering or billing arrangements for data wireline or wireless communications
• 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 15/68 Payment of value-added services
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 17/00 Prepayment of wireline communication systems, wireless communication systems or telephone systems using a coded card to authorise calls from a telephone set H04M1/675
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/0196 Payment of value-added services, mainly when their charges are added on the telephone bill, e.g. payment of non-telecom services, e-commerce, on-line banking
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/24 Accounting or billing

Abstract

Systems and methods for generating and responding to billing requests in a wireless subscriber billing system are disclosed. A billing request can be generated at a trusted service. The billing request including billing information is communicated to a wireless subscriber billing system. A validation response to the billing request is generated in the wireless subscriber billing system and the validation response is communicated to the trusted service.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a billing request from a trusted service, the billing request corresponding to a third-party transaction between the trusted service and a client device of a carrier network, wherein the third-party transaction includes a purchased item purchased by the client device;

communicating the billing request including billing information to a validation component of a wireless subscriber billing system of the carrier network;

receiving a validation response to the billing request from the validation component of the wireless subscriber billing system;

communicating the validation response to the trusted service;

adding the purchased item corresponding to the billing request to a subscriber identification information-directed (SID-directed) group of catalog items selected from a main catalog based on a subscriber identification information (SID) corresponding to the client device; and

presenting the SID-directed group including the purchased item to the client device.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

authenticating the trusted service prior to processing the billing request.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein authenticating further comprises validating a digital signature of the trusted service associated with the billing request.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the billing information comprises at least one of subscriber ID, provider payee, item ID, retail price, and billing description.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

returning an error code in response to the billing request being invalid.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

delivering the purchased item to the client device.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

associating the purchased item with local billing information in a delivery table, wherein the local billing information corresponds to the third-party transaction, and wherein the local billing information differs from main catalog billing information corresponding to the main catalog for the purchased item.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

generating transaction data upon a delivery of the purchased item using the local billing information in the delivery table; and

generating a billing event based on the transaction data.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the delivery of the purchased item comprising downloading the purchased item from the SID-directed group to the client device, wherein the local billing information in the delivery table is operable to cause association of a zero value price with the downloading of the purchased item.

10. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

recording a delivered state in the delivery table indicating a delivery of the purchased item.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

preventing further downloads when the billing information in the delivery table associated with the purchased item is set to the delivered state.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

including a tracking ID with the billing request;

generating first transaction data including the tracking ID based on the billing request; and

processing the first transaction data.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein processing the first transaction data further comprises:

generating a subscriber bill;

distributing payment to a provider; and

transmitting reporting data based on the first transaction data to at least one of an operator and the provider.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein processing the first transaction data further comprises:

storing the tracking ID with the first transaction data.

15. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

associating the tracking ID with the purchased item.

16. The method claim 15, further comprising:

delivering the purchased item and the tracking ID to the client device.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

generating second transaction data on the delivery of the purchased item including the tracking ID; and

processing the second transaction data.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein processing the second transaction data further comprises:

preventing billing a subscriber when processing the first transaction data includes generating a subscriber bill.

19. An apparatus comprising:

a service value billing (SVB) module in a wireless subscriber billing system configured to receive a billing request from a trusted service, the billing request corresponding to a third-party transaction between the trusted service and a client device of a carrier network, wherein the third-party transaction includes a purchased item purchased by the client device;

validation logic configured to generate a validation response in response to the billing request;

logic configured to add the purchased item corresponding to the billing request to a subscriber identification information-directed (SID-directed) group of catalog items selected from a main catalog based on a subscriber identification information (SID) corresponding to the client device; and

logic configured to present the SID-directed group including the purchased item to the client device.

20. The apparatus of claim 19, further comprising:

a transaction manager (TXN) configured to receive transaction data related to the billing request and generate a billing event;

a client billing module configured to receive the billing event from the transaction manager and generate a bill; and

a settlement module configured to receive the billing event from the transaction manager, to invoice a carrier, and to pay a provider.

21. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the TXN associates additional billing information with the billing request to generate the billing event.

22. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the billing request is generated by the trusted service.

23. The apparatus of claim 22, wherein the billing request comprises a digital signature operable to authenticate the trusted service.

24. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the billing request comprises at least one of subscriber ID, provider payee, item ID, retail price, and billing description.

25. The apparatus of claim 19, further comprising:

a delivery table including local billing information corresponding to the third-party transaction and associated with the purchased item in the SID-directed group, wherein the local billing information differs from main catalog billing information corresponding to the main catalog for the purchased item.

26. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein the local billing information in the delivery table is operable to cause association of a zero value price with a download of the purchased item.

27. The apparatus of claim 25, further comprising:

logic configured to record a delivered state in the delivery table, wherein the delivered state indicates a delivery of the purchased item; and

logic configured to prevent further downloads when the local billing information in the delivery table associated with the purchased item is set to the delivered state.

28. A system comprising:

means for receiving a billing request including billing information from a trusted service at a wireless subscriber billing system, the billing request corresponding to a third-party transaction between the trusted service and a client device of a carrier network, wherein the third-party transaction includes a purchased item purchased by the client device;

means for generating a validation response to the billing request in the wireless subscriber billing system;

means for communicating the validation response to the trusted service;

means for adding the purchased item corresponding to the billing request to a subscriber identification information-directed (SID-directed) group of catalog items selected from a main catalog based on a subscriber identification information (SID) corresponding to the client device; and

means for presenting the SID-directed group including the purchased item to the client device.

29. The system of claim 28, further comprising:

means for authenticating the trusted service prior to processing the billing request.

30. The system of claim 28, wherein the billing information comprises at least one of subscriber ID, provider payee, item ID, retail price, and billing description.

31. The system of claim 28, further comprising:

means for delivering the purchased item; and

means for associating local billing information in a delivery table with the purchased item, wherein the local billing information differs from main catalog billing information corresponding to the main catalog for the purchased item.

32. The system of claim 31, further comprising:

means for generating transaction data upon delivery of the purchased item using the local billing information in delivery table; and

means for generating a billing event based on the transaction data.

33. The system of claim 31, wherein the local billing information in the delivery table is operable to cause association of a zero value price with a download of the purchased item.

34. The system of claim 33, further comprising:

means for recording a delivered state in the delivery table indicating a delivery of the purchased item; and

means for preventing further downloads when the local billing information in the delivery table associated with the purchased item is set to the delivered state.

35. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions which, upon being executed, causes a computing device to perform operations, the instructions comprising:

at least one instruction for receiving a billing request from a trusted service, the billing request corresponding to a third-party transaction between the trusted service and a client device of a carrier network, wherein the third-party transaction includes a purchased item purchased by the client device;

at least one instruction for generating a validation response to the billing request in the wireless subscriber billing system;

at least one instruction for communicating the validation response to the trusted service;

at least one instruction for adding the purchased item corresponding to the billing request to a subscriber identification information-directed (SID-directed) group of catalog items selected from a main catalog based on a subscriber identification information (SID) corresponding to the client device; and

at least one instruction for presenting the SID-directed group including the purchased item to the client device.

36. A method comprising:

receiving a billing request from a trusted service, the billing request corresponding to a third-party transaction between the trusted service and a client device of a carrier network, wherein the client device corresponds to a subscriber ID (SID), and wherein the third-party transaction includes a purchased item purchased by the client device;

communicating the billing request including billing information to a wireless subscriber billing system, wherein the trusted service comprises a third-party external to the wireless subscriber billing system;

receiving a validation response to the billing request from the wireless subscriber billing system;

communicating the validation response to the trusted service;

adding the purchased item to a SID-directed group of catalog items selected from a main catalog based on the subscriber ID, the purchased item corresponding to the billing request; and

presenting the SID-directed group including the purchased item to the client device.