Classifications

• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
  • H04W4/00—Services specially adapted for wireless communication networks; Facilities therefor
  • H04W4/24—Accounting or billing
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
  • H04M15/00—Arrangements for metering, time-control or time indication ; Metering, charging or billing arrangements for voice wireline or wireless communications, e.g. VoIP
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
  • H04M15/00—Arrangements for metering, time-control or time indication ; Metering, charging or billing arrangements for voice wireline or wireless communications, e.g. VoIP
  • H04M15/47—Fraud detection or prevention means
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
  • H04M2215/00—Metering arrangements; Time controlling arrangements; Time indicating arrangements
  • H04M2215/01—Details of billing arrangements
  • H04M2215/0148—Fraud detection or prevention means
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
  • H04M2215/00—Metering arrangements; Time controlling arrangements; Time indicating arrangements
  • H04M2215/32—Involving wireless systems

Definitions

• the present invention relates generally to a personal communication system which employs two-way wireless communication that can only be initiated by, and billed to, a caller.
• the system uses a method for billing the calling party in a wireless communication system using a one-way signal transfer. More particularly, the present invention is directed to a system which utilizes a subscriber apparatus having pager and radiotelephone functions to generate two-way wireless communication by an outside caller calling a page number wherein the caller is billed for the communication time and the subscriber is unable to incur communication charges due to their inability to initiate or place a call with the apparatus.
• Mobile radio communication is well known in the art.
• Cellular radio has spawned Personal Communication Service.
• PCS is wireless and the user requires no tether such as the wire pair that connects a conventional telephone to a local serving switch.
• paging systems provide the mobile and ambulatory user with a means of being alerted that someone wishes to contact or talk to that person.
• the public switched telecommunications network is vast and includes hundreds of national networks that are interconnected to form a gigantic international network.
• Cellular service is an adjunct to the network.
• Cellular radio systems provide two-way signaling and communication by usually connecting a mobile terminal to another user through the PSTN where the other user is most commonly a subscriber of the PSTN. Nevertheless, the other user may be a mobile terminal.
• Most of the connectivity involves connecting wired telephone service to mobile users.
• the mobile telephone switching office (MTSO) is the heart of a cellular system for a specific serving area.
• the MTSO is connected to the PSTN by a trunk group. Trunks are the telephone lines connecting one telephone switch or exchange with another.
• Paging is a one-way radio alerting system that is a simple extension of the
• PTSN Unlike cellular radio systems, the direction of transmission is from a fixed paging transmitter to an individual. Some pagers have digital readouts which provide the individual with a number to call back while others give a short message or enable a transmitter to leave a voice mail by hooking into a voice mail system.
• the cordless telephone is another example of a personal communication system.
• Technology in recent years has resulted in a vast number of cordless telephones, cellular telephones and paging apparatus which exhibit a variety of unique and multiple features.
• the following described inventions are directed to cellular telephones.
• U.S. Patent No. 4,908,848 issued to Hanawa discloses an apparatus for a mobile communication system having a handset which can be programmed to lock calls, restrict calls, or time calls.
• U.S. Patent No. 5,203,009 issued to Bogusz et al. describes a cellular telephone having a fixed calling capacity which limits the use of the phone by only enabling it to call emergency telephone numbers.
• a similar cellular telephone is described in U.S. Patent No.
• U.S. Patent No. 4,906,989 issued to Kasugai describes a paging system having a vehicle mounted repeater with a portable paging receiver detachably mounted on the repeater.
• U.S. Patent No. 4,940,963 issued to Gutman et al. discloses a paging system having a centrally located terminal and a plurality of remote pager units wherein both automatic and manual acknowledge back signaling is provided.
• U.S. Patent No. 5,040,204 issued to Sasaki et al. discloses a cordless telephone apparatus with a removably mounted pager which reports an incoming signal from a parent device or radiotelephone; ii) U.S. Patent No. 4,747, 1 22 issued to Bhagat et al.
• a mobile paging call back system which includes a control unit interconnecting a radio pager, a memory, an indicator, a control switch, and an automatic dialer with the control unit including a logic circuit that is programmed to verify valid telephone number information received from a pager, to store the verified data in memory, to activate the indicator to show that valid data has been received and to transfer the stored data to the automatic dialer to reach a mobile radiotelephone; iii) U.S. Patent No. 5, 1 1 7,449 issued to Metroka et al.
• Parents would be another target market for this system in that it would enable children to be directly connected to their parents upon being paged by their parents without the expense of cellular telephone charges. Such a system would also prevent the accumulation of billings associated with frivolous or unnecessary calls made by children within the system in that the system does not allow for those possessing the apparatus to make outgoing calls. Further, if the apparatus were stolen, it would be impossible to commit further fraud by charging the communication system for calls because the system employs caller generated billing.
• the caller only generated two-way wireless communication system includes:
• FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of one example of the electronic circuitry of an apparatus for use with the personal communication system of the present invention which employs two-way wireless communication that can only be initiated by, and billed to, the caller.
• FIG. 2 is a schematic illustrating the conceptual layout of a wireless system and its relation to the public switched telecommunications network.
• FIG. 3 is a schematic showing the conceptual layout of the public switched telecommunications network.
• FIG. 4 is a flow chart depicting a two-way wireless communication system that establishes instant two-way wireless communication between a public switched telecommunications network caller and a pagephone subscriber in accordance with the present invention.
• FIG. 5 is a flow chart depicting a two-way wireless communication system that establishes instant two-way wireless communication between a wireless radiotelephone caller and a pagephone subscriber in accordance with the present invention.
• FIG. 6 is flow chart depicting a second embodiment of two-way wireless communication system that establishes instant two-way wireless communication between a wireless radiotelephone caller and a pagephone subscriber in accordance with the present invention.
• FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a method for a caller only initiated two-way wireless communication with caller generated billing in accordance with the present invention.
• FIG. 1 a block diagram 1 0 of one example of an electronic circuitry of an apparatus for use with the personal communication system of the present invention which employs two-way wireless communication that can only be initiated by, and billed to, the caller is shown in FIG. 1 .
• the antenna 1 2 is used to receive and transmit radiotelephone signals to and from separate receiving circuit 14 and a transmitter circuit 1 6.
• the receiving and transmitting circuits 12 and 1 4 may be assembled using components and methods well known in the art.
• Both the receiving and transmitting circuits 1 2 and 1 4 are coupled to a microprocessor 1 8.
• the microprocessor 1 8 When a signal is received from an outside caller having the correct mobile identification (M.I.D.) number of the pagephone, the microprocessor 1 8 will activate an alert signal such as an audio signal 20 or vibrator 22. If the pagephone is then fully opened (i.e. a flip element is moved into the open position such as with a flip phone), and not in use, a further switch means is activated in the pagephone. Activation of the further switch means enables the microprocessor to activate the readiotelephone transmitter 1 6 so that the pagephone will receive incoming signals and transmit outgoing signals to thereby allow a conversation to take place between the caller and the user of the unit.
• M.I.D. mobile identification
• the microprocessor 1 8 is capable of storing several telephone numbers which are transmitted by the radiotelephone receiver 14. Each time the apparatus is turned on via switch 24, the microprocessor 1 8 reads the data stored and sends the data to the transmitter 26 for transmission to the radiotelephone receiver 28 on the apparatus thereby establishing a two-way communication between an outside caller and the user of the apparatus.
• the apparatus for use with the electronic circuitry preferably comprises a transmitting means that is only capable of transmitting radiotelephone signals that are associated with the signals received from the pagephone.
• the system may also include an optional voice mail means 26 which is later described with reference to FIG. 7.
• the system may further include an interface circuit 28 which is coupled to the microprocessor 1 8 which sends verbal voice mail message left by callers to a pager receiver 30.
• the pager receiver 30 transmits the voice mail messages to a speaker 32 which enables the phonepage user to hear their voice mail messages without accessing a telephone to retrieve their messages.
• the speaker 32 may also be coupled to an LED display 34 which can show the number of the message, the time the message was left, and the telephone number of the caller.
• the voice mail message system may be triggered automatically upon closing the flip element of the page phone thereby enabling a pagephone user to hear the voice mail messages which were transmitted during his previous use of the pagephone.
• radiotelephone transceiving apparatus that may be successfully used in conjunction with the caller initiated and billed personal communication system of the present invention are disclosed and described in detail in U.S. Patent No. 5,574,772 which is directed to a personal apparatus for receiving radiotelephone communications and is herein incorporated by reference.
• FIG. 2 shows a schematic illustration of the wireless system layout and its relation to the public switched telecommunications network while FIG. 3 shows a schematic of the public switched telecommunications network.
• LEC local exchange carriers
• Toll connecting trunks 46 connect the local network 42,44 to the toll network 48.
• FIG. 2 shows the mobile telephone switching office (MTSO) as the heart of the wireless system for a specific serving area.
• the conventional wireless telecommunications switched network 50 is a network consisting of a plurality of wireless antennae 52 capable of receiving wireless band radio frequency signals 54, with each of the plurality of wireless antennae 52 being associated with a discrete cell site 56.
• the plurality of antennae 52 represent mobile units.
• the mobile units may be hand held or vehicle mounted terminals.
• Each of the plurality of wireless antennae 52 is electrically linked to a wireless switch 58 (the MTSO) which governs the operation of the wireless telecommunications switched network 50 and links the network 50 to a local exchange carrier 60 via T1 land lines 62.
• the local exchange carrier 60 is connected to the toll network 64 via connecting trunks 66.
• Satellite means 68 may also be used to access the MTSO 58 via satellite signals 70. The MTSO 58 can then access the toll system 64 as previously described.
• FIG. 4 A flow chart depicting a two-way wireless communication system establishing two-way wireless communication between a public switched telecommunications network caller and a pagephone subscriber in accordance with the present invention is shown in FIG. 4.
• a PSTN caller 80 initiates a telephone call by dialing a pagephone number. The caller enters their telephone number which is transmitted to the local exchange carrier 82 via a subscriber line and the caller's telephone number is further transmitted to the PSTN toll system 84 via connecting trunks. The pagephone number which is dialed by the PSTN caller 80 is also transmitted along the PSTN.
• the PSTN toll system 84 sends a signal to an interface 86 which functions to signal a pagephone subscriber that a page is being transmitted and to record the PSTN caller's telephone number.
• the interface 86 sends a signal to the MTSO 88 with the PSTN caller's telephone number which is then transmitted to the radiotelephone receiver contained within the pagephone in order to connect the initiated PSTN call to the pagephone subscriber 90.
• FIG. 5 is a flow chart depicting a two-way wireless communication system that establishes two-way wireless communication between a wireless radiotelephone caller and a pagephone subscriber in accordance with the present invention.
• the wireless caller initiates a telephone call by dialing a pagephone number.
• the caller enters their wireless telephone number which is transmitted to the MTSO 1 02.
• the MTSO 102 transmits the signal to the local exchange carrier 1 04 via a T1 land line and the caller's wireless telephone number is further transmitted to the PSTN toil system 106 via connecting trunks.
• the pagephone number which was dialed by the wireless caller 1 00 is also transmitted along the PSTN to the PSTN toll system 106.
• the PSTN toll system 1 06 sends a signal to an interface 1 08 which functions to signal a pagephone subscriber that a page is being transmitted and to record the wireless caller's telephone number.
• the interface 1 08 sends a signal back to the MTSO with the wireless caller's telephone number which is then transmitted to the radiotelephone receiver contained within the pagephone in order to connect the initiated wireless call to the pagephone subscriber 1 10.
• FIG. 6 shows a flow chart depicting a second embodiment of two-way wireless communication system that establishes instant two-way wireless communication between a wireless radiotelephone caller and a pagephone subscriber in accordance with the present invention.
• a wireless caller 1 1 2 sends a signal to the MTSO 1 1 4 by making a call.
• the MTSO 1 1 4 sends a signal to a wireless toll system 1 1 6 which tracks the amount of time that the wireless caller 1 1 2 is connected to, or communicating with, the pagephone subscriber 1 1 8.
• the wireless toll system 1 1 6 then bills the wireless caller 1 1 2 for the call.
• FIG. 6 shows a flow chart depicting a second embodiment of two-way wireless communication system that establishes instant two-way wireless communication between a wireless radiotelephone caller and a pagephone subscriber in accordance with the present invention.
• a wireless caller 1 1 2 sends a signal to the MTSO 1 1 4 by making a call.
• the MTSO 1 1 4
• FIG. 7 depicts a flowchart showing a method for a caller only initiated two-way wireless communication with caller generated billing in accordance with the present invention.
• an outside caller 1 20 either a PSTN caller or wireless caller, initiates a telephone call by calling a pagephone number.
• the call from the outside caller 1 20 is transmitted to a hardline switch or LEC 1 22 which is then transmitted to a telephone toll system 1 24.
• the call is then transmitted to the MTSO (wireless switch) 1 26 and the MTSO 126 sends a signal to a unit in step one 1 28.
• MTSO wireless switch
• the unit is preferably a radiotelephone transceiving apparatus in the form of a pagephone which comprises: 1 ) a housing with no keypad and no keypad circuitry so that the apparatus is a caller initiated only receiving apparatus for wireless two-way communication where no outgoing calls can be initiated by a user, 2) a receiving means for receiving radiotelephone signals contained within the housing, 3) transmission means for transmitting radiotelephone signals by the receiving means upon receipt of radiotelephone signals by the receiving means whereby the apparatus can only be used to supervise a two-way voice communication initiated from another telephone apparatus, 4) processing means coupled to the transmission means and receiving means for processing received signals and only transmitting radiotelephone signals in response to receipt of a signal having the correct mobile identification number of the transceiving apparatus whereby the processing means cannot create an outgoing address signal and can only produce an alert signal in response to a signal having the correct mobile identification number, and 5) means for indicating that radiotelephone signals coupled to the processing means are received.
• step two 1 30 the toll system 1 24 determines if the call was received by the unit. If the call was not received, the system 1 24 determines if the unit is in use 1 32. If the unit is in use, the system 1 24 has to determine if the caller has disconnected 1 34. The caller may be able to leave a voice mail message for the user. Two options exist for the voice mail - the voice mail can either be manually retrieved by the user of the unit 1 36 or the voice mail can automatically call back and play a message via the wireless system 1 38.
• a pagephone subscriber may either access a telephone and call their pagenumber to receive messages or, alternatively, the subscriber may manually push a "play" button on the pagephone which will play back voice mail messages that are recorded directly into the pagephone via a miniature recording system.
• the system 1 24 determines if the unit is out of the service area 1 40. If the system 1 24 is out of the service area, the system 1 24 returns to determine whether the caller has disconnected 1 34. If the unit is in the service area 140 the system 1 24 determines if the signal received by the unit is too low for transmission 1 42. If the signal received by the unit is too low for transmission 1 42, the system 1 24 returns to determine whether the caller has disconnected 1 34. If the signal received by the unit is not too low for transmission, the system 1 24 determines if the unit responds to the incoming signal within a predetermined time 144. If the unit does not respond to the incoming signal within the predetermined time 144, then the system 1 24 returns to determine whether the caller has disconnected 1 34.
• the unit responds to the incoming signal then the unit is activated for two- way communication between the caller and the unit subscriber 146. If the call was received by the unit and not activated 148 then the caller 1 20 can leave a voice mail message for the unit 1 36, 1 38. If the unit is activated 1 48 and normal two-way communication proceeds 1 46, the toll system begins to count air time 1 50. When the call is completed the unit is deactivated 1 52 and the air time count is stopped 1 54. The total air time is calculated and recorded and billed to the outside caller's initiating telephone number 1 56. The unit then returns to the sleep mode 1 58.
• the foregoing has described a simplified two way wireless communication system wherein the calling party initiates the call and pays for the call.
• the system does not allow for transmitting outgoing calls and only allows for receiving incoming calls thereby reducing fraud and creating a method for use by employers and parents alike that allows for controlling costs of two-way wireless communication.

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• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Computer Networks & Wireless Communication (AREA)
• Signal Processing (AREA)
• Business, Economics & Management (AREA)
• Accounting & Taxation (AREA)
• Mobile Radio Communication Systems (AREA)
• Meter Arrangements (AREA)

Applications Claiming Priority (3)

Publications (2)

Family

ID=25172244

Family Applications (1)

Country Status (7)

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• 1997
  • 1997-02-25 PE PE00013497A patent/PE72598A1/es not_active Application Discontinuation
  • 1997-04-01 EG EG26197A patent/EG21188A/xx active
  • 1997-04-28 AR ARP970101738A patent/AR006881A1/es unknown
• 1998
  • 1998-02-10 AU AU61568/98A patent/AU6156898A/en not_active Abandoned
  • 1998-02-10 EP EP98906313A patent/EP0985312A4/de not_active Withdrawn
  • 1998-02-10 WO PCT/US1998/002632 patent/WO1998035508A2/en not_active Application Discontinuation
  • 1998-02-11 CR CR5721A patent/CR5721A/es not_active Application Discontinuation

Non-Patent Citations (2)

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