KR20170042864A - Apparatus and method for charging for communicating service - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for charging for a communication service. The control method of a charging system according to the present invention includes a step of receiving the data addition request of a customer; a step of additionally allocating data of a requested size to the customer according to the data addition request; and a step of additionally charging the customer for the data that are additionally allocated to the customer in at least one month that comes after a month when the data is additionally allocated. So, it is possible to minimize the burden of using the additional data.

Description

[0001] APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR CHARGING FOR COMMUNICATING SERVICE [0002]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for charging a communication terminal, and more particularly, to an apparatus and method for charging a data use service among communication services.

BACKGROUND ART [0002] With the recent development of electronic communication technology and communication technology, most people have carried mobile communication terminals such as mobile phones and smart phones.

The purpose of using the mobile communication terminal can be classified into communication and data communication.

A call is a communication using voice or video directly with the other party, and a data communication means a communication except voice / video call or exchange of a conventional text message such as accessing the Internet or using a messenger.

In the case of mobile communication companies providing telecommunication services, voice / video communication and data communication are separately classified and charge policy is proposed.

In recent years, mobile carriers have introduced various types of subscriptions that allow customers to pay a certain amount each month. Subscribers who subscribe to a subscription plan other than an unlimited subscription plan have a limited amount of data available each month, .

In this case, the mobile communication company blocks the data communication of the user or bills the amount of the amount exceeding the amount of committed data.

In the case of blocking data communication, customers are inconvenienced because they can not use data communication any longer in the month, and in the case of a billing rate, a relatively high rate is applied, which causes a burden on the customers.

Published Japanese Patent Application No. 10-2013-0015327

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a data communication service capable of continuously using a data communication service for a user who wants to use additional data only at a specific time, And to provide a device and method for charging the use of the communication service.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a billing system comprising: a request receiver for receiving a data addition request from a customer; A data allocator for allocating data of a requested size to the customer according to a data addition request received by the request receiver; And a billing unit for billing the additional charge corresponding to the data further allocated to the customer by the data allocator in at least one month after the month in which the corresponding data is further allocated.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a billing system control method comprising: receiving a data addition request of a customer; Further allocating data of the requested size to the customer according to the data addition request; The additional charge corresponding to the data further allocated to the customer is charged in at least one month which comes after the month in which the data is further allocated.

As described above, according to the present invention, additional data can be assigned to a customer according to a request of a customer, and an additional charge corresponding to the additional data can be billed according to a request of the customer or in a specific month after the use month , Customer satisfaction may increase as compared to the previous bill that has charged the data usage month without considering the customer's economic situation.

In particular, customers do not have to switch to expensive flat-rate plans (for example, data infinity plans) to use additional data for a particular month.

In addition, by applying the lower contract rate as compared with the billing rate, it is possible to induce the customers to determine the amount of data to be used in advance by calculating the additional charge corresponding to the additional data, In addition, it is advantageous for the mobile communication company to manage the entire network traffic through the amount of data requested by the customers in advance.

1 is a functional block diagram of a billing system according to an embodiment of the present invention,
FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example in which a billing system according to an embodiment of the present invention estimates additional data usage fees as installments of several months,
FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a case where the billing system according to an embodiment of the present invention calculates the additional data usage fee in a specific month designated by the customer,
4 is a control flow diagram of a billing system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in order to facilitate understanding of the present invention, and the present invention is not limited to these embodiments. In particular, the present invention can be configured by combining at least any one of individual components, individual functions, or individual steps included in each embodiment.

The billing system 100 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention performs a function of calculating a communication charge for a user using a communication terminal and may be configured as one server or may include a plurality of physical servers .

For example, the billing system 100 can calculate the mobile communication use fee of customers using the mobile communication terminal on a monthly basis. Since the general technology for registering information on customers who have subscribed to a specific rate plan and imposing a bill on the customer according to the registered rate is well-known, the description of the contents overlapping with the conventional technology can be omitted .

The functional blocks of billing system 100 according to one embodiment of the present invention are as shown in FIG.

The billing system 100 may include a request receiving unit 110, a data allocating unit 120, a billing unit 130, and a storage unit 140 as shown in FIG.

The storage unit 140 functions to store various data and information required for the operation of the billing system 100 or data and information generated or externally received while the billing system 100 is performing its functions.

In particular, the storage unit 140 may store the agreement rate and the non-agreement rate for the data used by the customer separately.

Here, the contract rate is a rate corresponding to pre-allocated data according to the customer's request, and the non-contract rate is a rate corresponding to the data used by the customer exceeding the data allocated according to the contract with the customer.

The request reception unit 110 performs a function of receiving various requests from a customer (i.e., a customer using a communication terminal). For example, when the request receiving unit 110 receives a request directly from a communication terminal (not shown) of a customer, or when an employee such as a mobile communication agent enters a request to a staff terminal (not shown) And can receive various requests of the customer from the employee terminal.

Further, it can receive the request of the customer from the server collecting various requests of the customer.

Here, the customer's request may include a subscription request for a communication company, a request for a plan selection (a request for a flat-rate plan subscription, etc.), and in particular a request for data addition of a customer who has already subscribed to a specific plan.

In addition, the data addition request of the customer may include the deferred request month information corresponding to any one of the months coming after the data addition request.

A data addition request is a request to allocate a predetermined amount of data in advance when a customer who subscribed to a specific plan wants to write data in excess of the amount of data allocated to the corresponding month.

The data allocator 120 allocates data to the client according to a request received by the request receiver 110. [

For example, when a flat rate is requested from a customer, the data allocation unit 120 may allocate a basic data amount corresponding to the requested flat rate to the customer. For example, a flat rate of 29,000 won per month can allocate a basic amount of data of 200 Mbytes.

The data allocator 120 also allocates data of the requested size to the customer according to the data addition request of the customer.

For example, if the customer has allocated 200 Mbytes of data to the customer according to the pre-registered flat fee, and the customer additionally requests 300 Mbytes of data allocation while using the communication service, A total of 500 Mbytes of data will be allocated for the customer's month, so customers can use up to 500 Mbytes of data for the month.

Here, the data allocation unit 120 first determines whether data addition can be allocated based on at least one of the charge plan of the corresponding customer and the communication usage amount of the customer according to the data addition request received by the request reception unit 110 If it is determined that the data can be additionally allocated, the data of the requested size can be further allocated to the customer.

For example, the data allocation unit 120 may determine that additional data allocation is possible when a customer subscribes to a flat fee of 50,000 won or more per month, or when the customer has a monthly communication use fee of 50,000 won or more for a specific period have.

The charge requesting unit 130 requests the data allocated by the data allocating unit 120 to the customer, that is, the additional charge corresponding to the above-mentioned 300 Mbytes, in at least one month arriving after the month in which the data is additionally allocated .

For example, the billing unit 130 may charge the additional charge for the additional data (the above-mentioned 300 Mbytes) to the customer equally to a plurality of months arriving after the further allocated month.

For example, if you assign additional data to a customer in January, the additional charge for that additional data can be billed equally between February and April for three months.

At this time, the billing unit 130 may divide the data size further allocated to the customer into a plurality of months, and charge an additional fee corresponding to the divided data size to each of the plurality of months.

That is, in the above example, the billing unit 130 may divide the additional charge corresponding to 300 Mbytes by 3, and charge the divided amount over three months, or add 300 Mbytes corresponding to 100 Mbytes divided by 3 Charges may be charged for three months. The additional charge corresponding to 300Mbyte divided by 3 and the additional charge corresponding to 100Mbyte may be different.

Here, a plurality of balancing months may be predetermined or requested by the customer.

In other words, it may be pre-determined to be charged uniformly from the month after the additional data is allocated to the predetermined number of months, or the customer may specify a plurality of specific months after the additional data is allocated.

The fact that the billing unit 130 charges an additional charge in the month after the data is further allocated to the customer means that the bill charged in the month after the month in which the data was actually added includes an additional fee corresponding to the additional data , Or may mean that the data includes an additional charge corresponding to the additional data in the communication usage claim for the month after the month actually added.

For example, in the case of allocating additional data in the month of January, the billing unit 130 may cause the actual bill to be actually issued to the customer in February or April month to include an additional charge corresponding to the additional data equally Or an additional charge corresponding to the additional data may be equally included in the communication charges (irrespective of whether the bill is issued to the actual customer) in the month of February or April of the month.

In the example described above, the additional charge for the additional data is equally included in a plurality of months. However, the amount allocated to each month may be different, or may not be divided into a plurality of months, You may be billed for an additional fee for.

For example, if a data addition request is made in January, the billing unit 130 can charge an additional fee corresponding to the additional data in April, three months from then.

That is, if the customer's data addition request includes the grace request month information (information corresponding to any one of the incoming months after the data addition request) as described above, the billing unit 130 may further allocate The additional charge for the data may be charged in the month corresponding to the deferral request month information.

Of course, the billing unit 130 may charge the additional charge in the predetermined month (for example, three months after the month in which the additional data is allocated) in the case that the grace request month information is not received from the customer.

The additional charge requested by the billing unit 130 in response to the customer's data addition request may be an amount calculated using the amount of data requested by the customer and the aforementioned contracted rate.

In addition, the billing unit 130 notifies the requesting client 110 of the amount of excess data and the above-mentioned non-commitment rate to the customer who has exceeded the basic data amount based on the flat rate plan in a state where the request for data addition by the client is not received. You can include the additional charges calculated by using the excess data in the bill for the month of use.

Here, the non-commitment rate is more expensive per unit of data when compared to the contract rate described above, and in particular, the additional charge according to the non-commitment rate is a kind of mass charge.

That is, since the billing rate is relatively higher than the contracting rate, it is more advantageous for the customers to request the additional data according to the present invention and to apply the contracting rate when additional data is needed.

As a mobile communication company, it is possible to predict the amount of data consumed by each customer, thereby helping to operate the communication network, by allowing the customers to request additional data in advance.

Meanwhile, when receiving a service termination request from the customer, the billing unit 130 may calculate and charge an unpaid fee among the additional charges corresponding to the data further allocated by the data allocation unit 120. [

For example, if you assign additional data to a customer in January and assign additional fees for the additional data for a period of three months from February to April, the customer requests to cancel the service after paying the February month's fee The billing unit 130 can bill the customer for the amount allotted in March and April yet outstanding.

Likewise, if a customer requests to unblock the service before April arrives, with the allocation of additional data to the customer in January and an additional charge for the additional data is set to be billed in April, three months from then. The billing unit 130 can charge the customer with an additional payment amount of April yet outstanding.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example in which, when a customer who subscribed to a flat rate plan requests additional data, an additional charge corresponding to the additional data is charged uniformly in installment format. In FIG. 2, it is assumed that the customer subscribes to the flat rate system of 29,999 won per month and is allocated 200 million bytes of voice (wireless) unlimited and basic data amount.

Referring to FIG. 2, when data of 300 Mbytes according to a user's request is further allocated while 200 Mbytes according to a flat rate system are allocated in March, only a base fee of 29,000 won is charged in the month of M, In the month, it can be seen that base fees corresponding to 100 Mbytes are additionally charged.

To this end, the billing system 100 may generate and store a prepayment history (that is, information that additional billing is required in M + 1 to M + 3 months) in advance when there is a request for additional data.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example in which, when a customer who subscribed to a flat rate plan requests additional data, an additional fee corresponding to the additional data is charged in a specific month requested by the customer.

In other words, if 200 Mbytes are assigned according to the flat rate system in March, and 300 Mbytes of data are allocated according to the user's request, only the base fee of 29,000 won will be charged for that month. It can be seen that the corresponding base fee is being charged.

To this end, the billing system 100 may generate and store a prepayment history (that is, information indicating that additional billing is required in M + March) in advance when there is a request for additional data.

Hereinafter, a control method of the billing system 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

The billing system 100 allocates the basic data amount to the customer in accordance with the customer's flat rate request (step S1). Of course, the billing system 100 can also assign basic voice / video call volume, basic character amount, etc. to the customer in addition to the basic data amount.

Then, if there is an additional data request from the customer (step S3), the billing system 100 further allocates additional data amount for the month (step S5).

Subsequently, the billing system 100 divides the additional charge corresponding to the amount of additional data by the number of months requested by the customer (step S7).

In addition, the billing system 100 generates an installment history specifying the billing month (the month requested by the customer) to which the additional charge is to be charged (step S9), and charges the additional charge calculated equally before the specified billing month S11).

Of course, if the customer does not specify an installment month and specifies a specific month, the total additional charge for the amount of additional data may be billed in that particular month as described above.

Meanwhile, it goes without saying that the process of performing each of the above-described embodiments can be performed by a program or an application stored in a predetermined recording medium (for example, a computer-readable). Here, the recording medium includes an electronic recording medium such as a RAM (Random Access Memory), a magnetic recording medium such as a hard disk, and an optical recording medium such as a CD (Compact Disk).

At this time, the program stored in the recording medium may be executed on hardware such as a computer or a smart phone to perform each of the above embodiments. In particular, at least one of the functional blocks of the billing system according to the invention described above may be implemented by such a program or application.

The present invention is not limited to the above-described specific embodiments, and various modifications and changes may be made without departing from the gist of the present invention. It is to be understood that such variations and modifications are intended to be included in the scope of the appended claims.

100: billing system 110: request receiver
120: data allocation unit 130: billing unit
140:

Claims (16)

(a) receiving a data addition request of a customer;
(b) further allocating data of the requested size to the customer according to the data addition request of the step (a);
(c) charging the additional charge corresponding to the data further allocated to the customer in at least one month that comes after the month in which the data is further allocated. < RTI ID = 0.0 > . The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the step (c) further comprises charging an additional charge for data further allocated to the customer to a plurality of months arriving after the further allocated month. The method according to claim 1,
In the step (c), the data size further allocated to the customer is divided by the number of months previously requested or requested by the customer, and an additional fee corresponding to the divided data size is set, And the billing system further comprises a billing system for billing the billing system. The method according to claim 1,
The data addition request in the step (a) includes the grace request month information corresponding to any one of the months coming after the data addition request,
Wherein the step (c) comprises charging an additional charge for the data further allocated to the customer to the month corresponding to the deferred request month information. The method according to claim 1,
Storing the agreement rate and the non-agreement rate for the data separately;
Allocating a basic data amount corresponding to the requested flat rate plan to the customer in response to a customer's flat rate plan addition request;
If the customer who has exceeded the basic data amount in the absence of the data addition request of the customer in the step (a), the excess data amount calculated by using the excess amount data and the additional fee calculated by using the non- Include in gold,
Wherein the additional charge of the step (c) is an amount calculated using the amount of data requested by the customer in the step (a) and the contract rate. The method according to claim 1,
The step (b)
(b1) determining whether data can be additionally allocated based on at least one of the customer's existing service plan and the communication usage amount of the customer according to the data addition request in the step (a);
(b2) if the additional data allocation is possible as a result of the determination in the step (b1), allocating data of the requested size to the customer. The method according to claim 1,
Further comprising the step of calculating and charging an unpaid charge of the additional charge corresponding to the data further allocated in the step (b) when the service release request is received from the customer, Way. A computer-readable recording medium recording a program for executing the method according to any one of claims 1 to 7. 7. An application stored in a medium for executing the method of any one of claims 1 to 7 in combination with hardware. A request receiver for receiving a data addition request of a customer;
A data allocator for allocating data of a requested size to the customer according to a data addition request received by the request receiver;
And a billing unit for billing an additional charge corresponding to the data further allocated to the customer by the data allocating unit in at least one month after the month in which the corresponding data is further allocated, . 11. The method of claim 10,
Wherein the billing unit equally charges an additional charge for data further allocated to the customer for a plurality of months that occur after the further allocated month. 11. The method of claim 10,
Wherein the billing unit divides the data size further allocated to the customer by the predetermined number of months or the number of months requested by the customer and sets the additional fee corresponding to the divided data size to the billing unit, Month, respectively. ≪ / RTI > 11. The method of claim 10,
Wherein the data addition request received by the request receiver includes the deferred request wall information corresponding to any one of the incoming months after the data addition request,
Wherein the billing unit charges an additional charge for data further allocated to the customer in a month corresponding to the grace request month information. 11. The method of claim 10,
And a storage unit for storing the contracted rate and the non-contracted rate for data separately,
Wherein the data allocation unit allocates the basic data amount corresponding to the requested flat rate plan to the customer when the request for the flat rate plan of the customer is received in the request reception unit,
The billing unit may notify the customer who has used the excess data amount in a state in which the data addition request of the customer is not received to the request receiving unit, the excess data amount and the additional charge calculated using the non- Include in the bill for the month,
Wherein the additional charge charged by the charging unit in response to the data addition request of the customer is an amount calculated using the amount of data requested by the customer and the contract rate. 11. The method of claim 10,
Wherein the data allocation unit determines whether data addition can be allocated based on at least one of a customer's existing service plan and a communication usage amount of the customer in response to a data addition request received by the request reception unit, And if so, further allocates data of the requested size to the customer. 11. The method of claim 10,
Wherein the billing unit calculates an unpaid fee among the additional charges corresponding to the data further allocated by the data allocator when the service cancel request is received from the customer.

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