EP1527585A1

EP1527585A1 - System and procedure for payment of a service at a communications system

Info

Publication number: EP1527585A1
Application number: EP03760185A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Fredrik Blaavall
Original assignee: Telia AB
Current assignee: Telia Co AB
Priority date: 2002-06-18
Filing date: 2003-06-12
Publication date: 2005-05-04
Also published as: SE523864C2; AU2003243084A1; SE0201862D0; NO20045204L; WO2003107623A1; SE0201862L

Abstract

System for payment of a service at a telecommunications and data communications system, including a telecommunications network (102, 104) and a data communications network (106), from a communication point of view connected with said telecommunications network (102, 104). Said data communications network (106) includes a web server (108), a payservice server (110), a telephony server (112) and a gateway (114). Said telephony server (112) is arranged to automatically call a telephone unit (116) belonging to a user when the user via a computer unit (118) has indicated that he/she wants to activate a service provided via said data communications network (106). The user can, by means of said telephone unit (116), accept/acknowledge or deny/reject the choice of service. If the user has accepted/acknowledged a service, said web server (108) is arranged to immediately provide said service to the user via said computer unit (118). Said payservice server (100) further is arranged to store information about the user and said provided service, and a billing device is arranged to bill said user for said provided service.

Description

SYSTEM AND PROCEDURE FOR PAYMENT OF A SERVICE AT A COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to payment of a service at a communications system, and particularly a system and a procedure at telecommunications and data communications system which makes possible for a provider/supplier to charge for a provided service.

PRIOR ART

During the recent years the use of data communications networks such as Internet to obtain information and to advertise or offer different types of products and services has increased gradually. This has resulted in that the so called e-commerce, that is, the electronic commerce of products and services over a data communications network, today is established.

There today exist a number of different pay-systems where a provider/supplier of a product or service can debit a buyer.

Traditionally, speech data communication networks have been used, and customers have been allowed to pay for provided services by means of so called pay-number, for instance 070-number. A disadvantage with these payments systems is that the cost can vary depending on how long time the buyer is connected in the data communications network, that is, a service will be cheaper for a user who has a fast connection, for instance broad band connection, compared with a buyer who has a slow connection, such as a slow modem. In connection with e-commerce, also different payments systems based on credit card transactions are frequent. In these payments systems a buyer specifies his/her credit card number and then a provider/supplier debits this account for the cost of a service or a product which the buyer has purchased. A disadvantage with/of this type of payments system is the risk that the buyer's credit card number ends up in wrong hands and that an unauthorized person without the buyer' s permission draws money from the buyer's account.

In a communications system, such as Internet, there are plenty of services, for instance the provision of information such a news, which one would like to debit the customer, that is, the user who is surfing in on a home page and obtains information. A disadvantage with some of the previously known payments systems, however, is that these are uneconomical at small payments. That is, for instance, the case at payments systems based on credit card transactions .

Consequently it is a problem for suppliers/providers of services, so called content or service providers, in a communications network to charge a user of the communications network when the user obtains a service provided by the service provider. In the case with an Internet user it is difficult for the service providers to charge for the information which the user obtains from the provider's web page when the user is surfing on the Internet. Most of the contents on Internet therefore so far has in principle been without charge for the user to study. One reason for this is that it today is difficult for the service providers to, in an easy way, charge the users for certain types of services which are offered on the provider's web page, since there are lacking well functioning systems for this type of small payments, so called micro payments.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention aims a solving above mentioned problems .

The present invention solves above mentioned problems by a system, a device and a method which realizes the possibility for the service provider to, on , for instance, Internet, in real time charge his/her customers, that is, the users, when they are utilizing the contents of/on the service provider's web pages, that is, when they for instance obtain information or load down a file.

One embodiment of a system according to the invention includes a telecommunications network and a data communications network which are, from a communication point of view, interconnected. Further, said data communications network includes a web server, a payservice server, a telephony server and a gateway. Said telephony server is arranged to automatically call a telephone unit belonging to a user when the user via a computer unit has indicated that he/she wants to activate a service provided via said data communications network. The user can by means of said telephone unit accept/acknowledge or deny/reject the choice/selection of service. If the user has accepted/ acknowledged a service, said web server is arranged to immediately provide said service to the user via said computer unit. Said payservice server further is arranged to store information about the user and said provided service, and a billing device is arranged to bill said user for said provided service. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention now will be described in details in the following with reference to enclosed drawings, in which

Figure 1 schematically shows one embodiment of the system according to the present invention;

Figure 2 schematically shows the information and cash flow in one embodiment of the system according to the present invention; and

Figure 3 shows a flow chart over the method steps according to one embodiment of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

In the description of embodiments of the present invention, the following abbreviations will be used:

PLMN = Public Land Mobile Network

PSTN = Public Switched Telephone Network

IP = Internet Protocol

RTP = Real-time Transport Protocol

SIP = Session Interactive Protocol

DTMF = Dual-Tone MultiFrequency

IVR = Interactive Voice Response

SMS = Short Message Service

WAP = Wireless Application Protocol

GSM = Global System for Mobile communications

UMTS = Universal Mobile Telecommunications System

GPRS = General Packet Radio Service

PIN = Personal Identification Number

WAN = Wide Area Network

LAN = Local Area Network In the following, the present invention will be described with reference to enclosed figures.

In Figure 1 an embodiment of a system 100 according to the present invention, including one or more telecommunications and data communications networks, is schematically shown. In the figure, the system 100 includes a telecommunications network for mobile telephony 102, such as PLMN (Public Land Mobile Network) which, for instance, supports GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) , GPRS (General Packet

Radio Service) or UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) , and a telecommunications network for ordinary telephony 104, for instance PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) . It, however, should be understood that other embodiments of the invention can include only one of the two telecommunications networks. Further, a data communications network 106, such as a WAN (Wide Area Network) for instance Internet, or a LAN (Local Area Network) for instance Ethernet, from a communication point of view connected with said telecommunications network 102, 104, is included.

The telecommunications and data communications networks can be other forms of wire-based or wireless networks provided via a telecommunications network, but it also can be telecommunications and data communications networks which are provided by the outlet of cable-TV or by the electrical power network.

In the embodiment according to Figure 1, the data communications network 106 includes a web server 108, a payservice server 110 which, from a communication point of view, is connected with said web server 108, a telephony server 112 which, from a communication point of view, is connected with said payservice server 110, and a gateway

114, from a communication point of view connected with said telephony server 112 and said telecommunications networks 102, 104. The communication link between telephony server 112 and gateway 114 is in one embodiment arranged to support RTP (Real-time Transport Protocol) , that is, an Internet protocol which supports real time transmission of speech and pictures. It, however, should be understood that in other embodiments including another type of data communications network, other protocols or devices can be arranged to provide said real time transmission of speech and pictures.

Further, said data communications network 106 is arranged to make possible for a service provider to, in real-time, provide a service to a user of said data communications network 106. A telephony server 112, such as a SIP-proxy (Session Interactive Protocol) , further is arranged to automatically call a user's telephone unit 116 when the user via a computer unit 118 has indicated that he/she wants to activate a service which is provided via the service provider's home page. Further, the user can, by means of said telephone unit 116, accept/acknowledge or deny/reject the choice of service, that is, to accept/acknowledge or deny/reject the purchase of a service. If the user has accepted/acknowledged a service by means of his/her telephone unit 116, said web server 108 is arranged to immediately provide said service to the user via said computer unit 118.

In one embodiment of the invention, the user's telephone unit 116 is arranged to support DTMF (Dual-Tone

MultiFrequency) , at which the user can accept/acknowledge or deny/reject a service by a keying/pressing a key on his/her telephone unit 116. A user can accept/acknowledge the purchase by, for instance, pressing 1# or writing YES, and deny/reject the purchase by, for instance, pressing 2# or writing NO. It is also possible that a user indicates a PIN-code (Personal Identification Number) before he/she accepts/acknowledges or denies/rejects a purchase, or that the user accepts/acknowledges or denies/rejects the purchase by means of his/her PIN-code.

In other embodiments of the invention, the system is arranged with possibility to handle interactive voice response from the user.

The payservice server 110 is preferably arranged to support IVR (Interactive Voice Response) , that is, an automatic telephone system with artificial speech or recorded speech where the user answers, that is, accepts/acknowledges or denies/rejects a purchase, by pressing the keys of his/her telephone or by speaking in the microphone of the telephone .

The payservice server 110 further is arranged to store information about, for instance, the user, said provided service or about the service provider. In one embodiment of the invention, the pay server 110 is arranged to store information in a payservice database 120 which, from a communication point of view, is connected with payservice server 110.

The payservice database 120 consequently is, from a communication point of view, connected with said payservice server 110 and arranged to store information about the user, purchased services or information about service providers and their services .

Further, a billing device (not shown) is, from a communication point of view, connected with said payservice server 110 or said payservice database 120 and arranged to bill said user for said provided service. In one embodiment of the invention, a telecommunications operator's existing billing system is used for billing of payservices, at which the user is billed/charged for/ his/her purchased services on his/her telephone bill.

Embodiments of the present invention also relates to a device to provide the payservice. The device includes a payservice server 110 which, from a communication point of view, is connected with, or can be connected with, a web server 108 and with a telephony server 112. The payservice server 110 is arranged to control said telephony server 112 to automatically call a user's telephone unit 116 when the user via a computer unit 118 has indicated that he/she wants to activate a service, that is, purchase a service. Further, said payservice server 110 is arranged to control said web server 108 to immediately provide said service to the user via said computer unit 118 if the user has accepted/acknowledged the purchase. Said payservice server 110 further is arranged to store information about said user and said provided service. In one embodiment of the device according to the invention, a payservice database

120 is, from a communication point of view, connected with, or can be connected with, said payservice server 110 and arranged to store information about said user and said provided service. Said payservice database 120 further can be arranged to store information about a service provider who provides said service to said user.

Figure 2 shows schematically the information and cash flow in one embodiment of the system according to the invention. In the figure, black arrows indicate the information flow, and white arrows the cash flow. In Figure 2 components which have their equivalence in Figure 1 further are indicated with the same reference indications .

The information flow in Figure 2 now will be explained in more details. The arrow 202 indicates that a user, by means of a computer unit, such as an ordinary personal computer, laptop or hand-computer, has informed a service provider via the service provider's web page in the data communications network, for instance Internet, that he/she wants to activate a certain service. A web server establishes contact 204 with a provider of the payservice, also called payservice provider, who in his/her turn establishes contact, arrow 206, with a telecommunications operator. The telecommunications operator can be an operator for/of the wire-based telecommunications network and/or for/of the wireless telecommunications network. After that, contact with the user is made automatically, arrow 208, for instance by the user being called, or a message to the user' s mobile telephone or stationary telephone being transmitted, at which the user is informed about the cost for the wanted service. Users after that either can accept/acknowledge or deny/reject, arrow 210, the purchase of the wanted service. The user can execute this by pressing a key on his/her telephone, if this includes DTMF or any other technology which supports tone dialing, by in customary way answer at the telephone and give a voice answer/interactive voice respons, or by transmitting some form of message, for instance SMS (Short Message Service) , via the telecommunications network. The user's acceptance/acknowledgement or denial/rejection of the purchase after that is transmitted or transferred, arrow 212, from the telecommunications operator to the payservice provider who stores this information, for instance in a payservice database or in any other type of storing medium. Further, the service provider is contacted, arrow 214, who in real time can provide, arrow 216, the wanted service, to the user via the user's data communications unit 118.

It should be understood that the service which is provided by the service provider can be just any service, and particularly such a service which creates an added value for the user. Services which are provided can, for instance, be different types of information, such as documents, computer programs, speech, films, music, pictures etc. The service provider can, for instance, be a portal owner, news distributor or any other information provider .

The receipts in the business model can be acquired in many different ways. In one embodiment, the payservice provider offers the service providers to, for a once-for-all cost and a running fixed cost, get access to the technical platform which makes payment from the user possible, for instance the Internet surfer, to the service provider. Further, the payservice provider can take a specified percentage of the service provider' s receipts from the user. If the payservice provider is a telecommunications operator, the payservice provider also can charge for the termination of the connection in the telecommunications network and a fee for the billing cost. If the payservice provider is a telecommunications operator, it also will be possible to use the telecommunications operator's existing pay system to book a purchased service and/or bill the user. If the payservice provider is not a telecommunications operator, the telecommunications operator can be offered a certain share of the receipts in order to motivate participation and as compensation for extra billing costs.

The cash flow in Figure 2 now will be described in more details. When a user has accepted or acknowledged a purchase of a service, the user pays or is debited, arrow 218, a sum of money, for instance 10 Swedish Crowns. Of this so called micro payment, the telecommunications operator takes a specified sum, for instance 1,50 Swedish Crowns, and the remaining sum of money is transferred, arrow 220, to the payservice provider. The payservice provider then transfers, arrow 222, in his/her turn the 7 Swedish Crowns to the service provider. In the shown example, the payservice provider consequently obtains 1,5 Swedish Crowns per service the user purchases from the service provider.

According to one embodiment, the procedure for payment of a service at a telecommunications and data communications system includes the steps that:

300 a user of a data communications network 106 visits a web page belonging to a service provider; 302 the user activates a wanted service; 304 a web server 108 contacts a payservice server 110; 306 said payservice server 110, via a telephony server

112, calls the user's telephone unit 116; 308 the user receives information about said service; 310 the user, by means of his/her telephone unit 116, accepts/acknowledges or denies/rejects the purchase of said service; 312 said service is presented/shown on the user' s computer unit 118 if the user has purchased the service; 314 said payservice server 110 stores the user's identity and the purchased service;

316 book the cost of/for the purchased service; and that 318 the user is billed the cost of/for one or more purchased services via his/her telephone bill.

The procedure according to one embodiment of the invention consequently includes in step 300 that a user of a data communications network, for instance an Internet surfer, visits a web page/home page belonging to service provider, for instance a portal owner. On the web page a number of different possible services can be accessible, for instance either as icons, links, drop-down menus etc. If the user wants to have a certain service, he/she can activate the service, step 302, by, for instance, clicking on the icon, the link, or select the service in a drop-down menu.

If it is the first time the user activates a service on the service provider's web page, the user can be requested to specify his/her telephone number. This number either can be to a mobile telephone or to a stationary telephone if the user has access to a free telephone line. Information about the user, such as the user's name and telephone number, and identity to the user' s computer unit after that can be stored in a database connected to the web server and/or in payservice database connected to the payservice server.

In step 304 a web server which provides the activated service contacts a payservice server. In connection with this contact, information about which service the user wants to activate is transmitted from the web server, and possibly also at which telephone number the user can be reached. Alternatively the user and the user's telephone number can be/exist stored in, for instance, a payservice database so that it is accessible to the payservice server. In one embodiment of the invention where the user and the user's telephone number are stored in a database, either in a database connected to the web server, or in a database connected to payservice server, the user can be requested to verify that the telephone number corresponds. This verification can be made by the stored telephone number being derived from the database and via the web page being shown to the user on his/her computer unit. The user after that can acknowledge the shown telephone number or present/indicate a new one. If a new telephone number is indicated, the database can be updated with this.

In step 306 the payservice server calls, via a telephony server, the user on the indicated telephone number or stored telephone number, at which the user in step 308 receives information about the wanted service. This information includes, for instance, data so that the user can verify that it is the wanted service and the cost of/for the service.

In step 310 the user accepts or rejects, by means of his/her telephone, the service in question. That the user accepts the service means that the user purchases the service, that is, that the user acknowledges that it is the wanted service and that the cost for the service is accepted. It should be understood that there are several possible ways for a user to accept/acknowledge or deny/ reject a purchase of a service. A user can, by means of his/her telephone, if it supports tone dialing, accept/ acknowledge a purchase by pressing a key of the telephone; for instance can pressing of a key marked J mean that the purchase is acknowledged, and pressing of a key marked N mean that the purchase is rejected. A user also can accept/acknowledge or deny/reject a service by means of voice answer/interactive voice response, for instance by saying YES if the purchase is acknowledged, and NO if the purchase is rejected. In one embodiment of the invention, a message is transmitted, for instance an SMS, to the user's telephone, at which the user can accept/acknowledge or deny/reject the purchase by answering the message by, for instance, Yes or No. In embodiments of the invention, it also can be so that the user when he/she specifies his/her telephone number also specifies how he/she wants to be contacted, that is, how he/she wants to accept/acknowledge or deny/reject to purchase, for instance by tone dialing, voice answer/interactive voice response, or message.

The mobile telephone also can be a so called WAP-telephone (Wireless Application Protocol) or any other type of mobile telephone which supports wireless applications. If the user has accepted/acknowledged a service, that is accepted the purchase of the service, is in step 312 the service shown/presented on the user's computer unit, at which said payservice server in step 314 stores user identity and the purchased service, for instance in the payservice database which, from a communication point of view, is connected with the payservice server.

In step 316 the cost of/for the purchased service is debited or registered on a user specific account, for instance can the cost for the purchase be charged by the telecommunications operator on the user's telephone subscription. In step 318 the user is billed the cost for one or more purchased services.

The present invention has been described by means of exemplified embodiments, but it should be understood that these can be modified without being outside the scope of the idea of invention.

Claims

PATENT CLAIMS

1. System for payment of a service at a telecommunications and data communications system, including: a telecommunications network (102, 104) and a data communications network (106) which, from a communication point of view, is connected with said telecommunications network (102, 104), which data communications network (106) includes: a web server (108); a payservice server (110) which, from a communication point of view, is connected with said web server (108); and a telephony server (112) which, from a communication point of view, is connected with said payservice server (110) c h a r a c t e r i z e d in, a gateway (114) which, from a communication point of view, is connected with said telephony server (112) and said telecommunications network (102, 104), that said telephony server (112), from a communication point of view, is connected with a database including user information, such as the user's name and telephone number and identity to the user's computer unit (118); that said telephony server (112), based on said stored user information, is arranged to automatically call a telephone unit (116) belonging to a user when the user via said computer unit (118) has indicated that he/she wants to activate a service provided via said data communications network (106) , that the user by means of said telephone unit (116) can accept/acknowledge or deny/reject the choice/ selection of service, that said web server (108) is arranged to immediately provide said service to the user via said computer unit (118) if the user has accepted/acknowledged the service, that said payservice server (110) is arranged to store information about the user and said provided service, and that a billing device is arranged to bill said user' s telephone subscription for said provided service .

2. System as claimed in patent claim 1, c h a r a c t e r i z e d in, that said data communications network (106) is arranged to make possible for a service provider to, in real time, provide a service to said user.

3. System as claimed in any of the previous patent claims, c h a r a c t e r i z e d in, that said data communications network (106) is a WAN, for instance Internet .

4. System as claimed in any of the previous patent claims, c h a r a c t e r i z e d in, that said data communications network (106) is a LAN, for instance Ethernet .

5. System as claimed in any of the previous patent claims, c h a r a c t e r i z e d in, that said payservice server (110) includes IVR.

6. System as claimed in any of the previous patent claims, c h a r a c t e r i z e d in, that said telephony server (112) is a SIP-proxy.

7. System as claimed in any of the previous patent claims, c h a r a c t e r i z e d in, that said telephone unit (116) is arranged to support DTMF, at which the user can accept/acknowledge or deny/reject a service by pressing a key on his/her telephone unit (116) .

8. System as claimed in any of the previous patent claims, c h a r a c t e r i z e d in, that said telecommunications network (102, 104) is a communications network (102) for mobile telephony and that said telephone unit (116) is a mobile telephone.

9. System as claimed in patent claim 8, c h a r a c t e r i z e d in, that said communications network (102) for mobile telephony is a PLMN.

10. System as claimed in any of the patent claims 1-7, c h a r a c t e r i z e d in, that said telecommunications network (102, 104) is a communications network (104) for wire-based telephony and that said telephone unit (116) is a wire-based telephone.

11. System as claimed in patent claim 10, c h a r a c t e r i z e d in, that said communications network (104) for wire-based telephony is a PSTN.

12. System as claimed in any of the previous patent claims, c h a r a c t e r i z e d in, that a database (120) , from a communications point of view, is connected with said payservice server (110) and arranged to store information about the user, purchased services and information about service providers and their services .

13. Device for payment of a service in a system as claimed in any of the patent claims 1-12, including a payservice server (110), c h a r a c t e r i z e d in, that said payservice server (110), from a communication point of view, can be connected with a web server (108) and with a telephony server (112), which, from a communication point of view, is connected with a database including user information, such as the user' s name and telephone number and identity to the user's computer unit (118), that said payservice server (110) is arranged to control said telephony server (112) to, based on said stored user information, automatically call a telephone unit (116) belonging to a user when the user via a computer unit (118) has indicated that he/she wants to activate a service, and that said payservice server (110) is arranged to control that said web server (108) immediately provides said service to the user via said computer unit (118) if the user has accepted/ acknowledged the service, and that said payservice server (110) is arranged to store information about said user and said provided service, at which said user' s telephone subscription can be billed for said provided service.

14. Device as claimed in patent claim 13, c h a r a c t e r i z e d in, a payservice database (120) which, from a communication point of view, can be connected with said payservice server (110) and arranged to store information about said user and said provided service.

15. Device as claimed in patent claim 13 or 14, c h a r a c t e r i z e d in, that said payservice database (120) further is arranged to store information about a service provider who provides said service to said user.

16. Procedure for payment of a service at a telecommunications and data communications system, including the steps that: a user of a data communications network (106) , by means of a computer unit (118), visits a service provider's web page (step 300); the user activates a wanted service (step 302); a web server (108) contacts a payservice server (110) (step 304) ; - said payservice server (110), via telephony server (112) and based on stored user information, such as the user's name and telephone number and identity to the user's computer unit (118), calls the user's telephone unit (116) (step 306) ; the user receives information about said service

(step 308) ; the user, by means of his/her telephone unit

(116) accepts/acknowledges or denies/rejects the purchase of said service (step 310); said service is presented/shown on the user's computer unit (118) if the user has purchased the service (step 312); said payservice server (110) stores the user's identity and the purchased service (step 314); book the cost for/of the purchased service (step

316); and bill the user's telephone subscription for the cost of/for one or more purchased services (step 318) .

17. Procedure as claimed in patent claim 16, at which the user visits a service provider's web page by surfing in on the service provider's web page.