JP3393489B2 - Billing method - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a billing method and a billing method in an exchange, and more particularly to a billing method and a billing method when one telephone terminal issues a hold instruction during a call.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Usually, the call charge is charged to the caller who made the call, so the caller must always make a call even if the call was put on hold for a long time during the call due to the convenience of the other party, that is, the callee. The caller will be charged for the call including the hold time. In order to eliminate the charge to the caller side due to such a hold state, a technique of excluding the hold time during a call from the charge target is disclosed in JP-A-11-168582 or JP-A-0-168582.
It is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 8-223320.

[0003]

In the above-mentioned conventional charging method, the caller who is on hold does not charge the pending charge, but since the on-hold charge itself is not covered, the line itself is not available for the telephone operator. Despite being used
There is a problem that the fee cannot be collected from anywhere.

An object of the present invention is to provide a charging system and a charging method which can charge the caller for a call charge for the hold time by holding the caller and can perform more appropriate charge.

[0005]

The charging method of the present invention is based on
The receiving side is the first telephone terminal and the receiving side is the second telephone terminal.
To the billing method when the end is connected call through the exchange
In order to hold the second telephone terminal.
Receiving start signal is received and identified to determine whether or not a hold tone is sent,
When there is a hold tone transmission, the hold state is recognized and specified.
When the billing destination information is received and recognized, and there is no hold tone
Recognizing the status of receipt and receiving and recognizing specified billing party information
The holding tone sending device for sending the holding tone to the first
Connect to the telephone terminal and count the hold time of the call
If a hold stop signal indicating release is detected,
The holding time so far is stored, and the first telephone terminal's
When the disconnection is detected, the communication path is released and the connection is made.
The billing information of the
For 1 telephone terminal, the hold time is
The subtracted amount is charged and charged to the second telephone terminal.
Is configured to charge the amount of the holding time,
If a hold tone is sent from the telephone terminal of the
And the caller between the non-holding party is not
If no hold tone is sent from the end, the telephone terminal of the non-holder side
Is switched to the hold sound transmitting means. Also, start the hold
The signal indicates the hold from the second telephone terminal to the network side.
From the second telephone terminal and the information specifying the charging destination in the signal
It may be configured to add information regarding presence / absence of sending of the hold sound of
Alternatively, the hold start signal indicates that the billing destination has been designated.
A new stay signal is provided to send a hold tone from the second telephone terminal.
It may be configured to add the presence / absence information.

[0006]

[0007]

[0008]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

Referring to FIG. 1 (a), the charging system of the present invention includes a telephone terminal for holding a charging instruction, an exchange for controlling the service for charging a caller for a holding time, and a charge. Comprised of a computing system. Telephone terminal
It includes a button (not shown) for outputting a signal for instructing or canceling the hold to the network side, the first information for designating the charging destination by pressing this button, and the second information for indicating whether or not the hold sound is transmitted. And a signal output unit that outputs a hold start signal. Although FIG. 1 shows an example in which the first telephone terminal A on the calling side and the second telephone terminal B on the receiving side are accommodated in the same exchange, even if they are accommodated in different exchanges. Good.

The exchange includes a speech path switch 1 for accommodating the telephone terminals A and B, a speech path control device 2 for controlling the operation of the speech path switch 1, and a hold indicating that the speech path switch 1 is accommodated and is on hold. A holding sound transmitting device 3 for transmitting a sound,
Storage device 4 for storing first and second information, holding time, and a program for controlling exchange operation
When a program is read from the storage device 4 and a call in progress is put on hold, either the holding party who holds the call or the non-holding party who holds the call bears the holding fee. The central control unit 5 that specifies and counts the hold time of the call and outputs the charging information based on the specification.

FIG. 1B is a diagram showing the internal configuration of the central control unit 5 in FIG. The central control unit 5 includes a signal receiving unit 51 that receives a signal from the telephone terminal B that holds the call.
And a hold signal identifying unit 52 for identifying whether the signal received by the signal receiving unit 51 is a hold start signal or a hold stop signal, and a hold state recognition and billing destination information identified by the hold signal identifying unit 52. The holding control unit 53 for controlling the storage of the holding time, the holding time counting unit 54 for counting the holding time during the call, and the storage control for holding the holding time counted by the holding time counting unit 54 in the storage device 4. The holding time storage control unit 55 is provided, and the charging information output unit 56 that outputs the holding time read by the holding time storage control unit 55 and the charging destination information. The charge calculation system 6 receives the output information of the central control unit 5 and performs a charge calculation process for the holding person and the non-holding person.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart for explaining the operation of the embodiment of the present invention. 1 and 2 below.
The operation will be described with reference to. There are two types of holding methods: a method of specifying each call and a method of specifying a contract based on a contract with a subscriber in advance.

First, a method using call-by-call designation will be described. The call path controller 2 completes the call path between the telephone terminals A and B according to an instruction from the central controller 5 of the exchange (step 1: abbreviated as S1), and starts charging to the telephone terminal A, which is the calling side (S2). ). Here, the central control unit 5 receives and identifies the hold signal output by pressing the hold button of the telephone terminal B (S3), and determines whether or not the hold sound is transmitted from the telephone terminal B (S4). That is, the telephone terminal B notifies the exchange when the telephone terminal B instructed the on-hold charging destination (B) during a call. It should be noted that although the originating exchange normally controls the charging, the exchange that directly receives the instruction to start / stop the holding may be different from the switching that controls the charging. In such a case, for example, the progress indication message or call progress message of the network-to-network interface is used to notify the exchange that performs the billing control from the exchange that is directly instructed to hold the information indicating the hold start / stop and the billing destination. Add and notify.

As the hold start signal, for example, a method of adding information for designating a billing destination and information on whether or not a hold sound is transmitted from the telephone terminal to a signal for instructing the telephone terminal to hold the network using a hold message of a user / network interface. In addition to the above hold message, there is a method of newly providing a hold signal designating a charging destination and adding information on whether or not a hold sound is transmitted from the telephone terminal. The exchange sets the call state of the telephone terminals A and B on hold and stores the instructed charging destination.

In this case, the following two states are set in the hold state in the exchange.
There is a street condition. When there is a hold tone transmission from the telephone terminal B, the exchange stores the charge destination of the hold time,
No path control is performed between the telephone terminals A and B (S5). On the other hand, when there is no on-hold tone transmission from the telephone terminal B, the exchange stores the charge destination of the on-hold time and connects the path to the telephone terminal A to the on-hold tone transmitting device as in the conventional on-hold (S6). ).

The exchange counts the hold time (S7), and detects the hold stop signal notified from the telephone terminal B to the switch (S8). When the path to the telephone terminal A is connected to the hold tone sending device, the path between the telephone terminals A and B is connected. The hold stop signal corresponds to the hold start signal described above, and information indicating that the telephone terminal has instructed the network to hold and designated the billing destination and information indicating whether or not the telephone terminal sends a hold sound. There is also a method of adding a hold stop signal designating a charging destination and a method of adding information on whether or not a holding sound is transmitted from a telephone terminal.

Next, the exchange stores the stored hold time of the charging destination (S9). When the exchange detects disconnection of the telephone terminal A (S10), it releases the call path and line (S1).
Along with 1), the billing information necessary for the bill settlement of the telephone terminals A and B is notified to the bill calculation system 6 (S12). The charge calculation system 6 calculates and bills the telephone terminal A for the amount obtained by subtracting the holding time from the call time, and the telephone terminal B for the holding time (S13).

Next, a method using contract designation will be described. Basically, the flow is the same as that of the above-mentioned operation, so that the illustration is omitted. In advance, the information specifying the charging at the time of holding and the presence / absence of transmission of the holding sound at the time of holding are stored in the storage device 4 as the subscriber information of the telephone terminal B.

In response to an instruction from the central control unit 5 of the exchange, the call path control unit 2 completes the call path between the telephone terminals A and B (step 1: S1) and starts charging to the telephone terminal A, which is the calling side. Yes (S2). Here, the central control unit 5 receives and identifies the hold signal output by pressing the hold button of the telephone terminal B (S3), and determines whether or not the hold sound is transmitted from the telephone terminal B (S4). That is, the telephone terminal B notifies the exchange when the telephone terminal B instructed the on-hold charging destination (B) during a call. It should be noted that although the originating exchange normally controls the charging, the exchange that directly receives the instruction to start / stop the holding may be different from the switching that controls the charging. In such a case, for example, the progress indication message or call progress message of the network-to-network interface is used to notify the exchange that performs the billing control from the exchange that is directly instructed to hold the information indicating the hold start / stop and the billing destination. Add and notify.

The hold start signal is a conventional hold signal or, for example, a signal for instructing the hold from the telephone terminal to the network using a hold message of the user / network interface, and information indicating the charging destination and whether or not the telephone terminal sends a hold tone. In addition to the above-mentioned hold message, a hold signal for designating a charging destination is newly provided to add information on whether or not a holding sound is transmitted from the telephone terminal, or a method using hooking. The exchange sets the call state of the telephone terminals A and B on hold and stores the instructed charging destination.

In this case, the following two states are set in the hold state in the exchange.
There is a street condition. When there is a hold tone transmission from the telephone terminal B, the exchange stores the charge destination of the hold time,
No path control is performed between the telephone terminals A and B (S5). On the other hand, when there is no on-hold tone transmission from the telephone terminal B, the exchange stores the charge destination of the on-hold time and connects the path to the telephone terminal A to the on-hold tone transmitting device as in the conventional on-hold (S6). ). If the hold signal and the information set in the subscriber information are different, the hold signal is given priority.

The exchange counts the hold time (S7), and detects the hold stop signal notified from the telephone terminal B to the switch (S8). When the path to the telephone terminal A is connected to the hold tone sending device, the path between the telephone terminals A and B is connected. The hold stop signal corresponds to the hold start signal described above, and information indicating that the telephone terminal has instructed the network to hold and designated the billing destination and information indicating whether or not the telephone terminal sends a hold sound. There is a method of adding a holding stop signal designating a charging destination, a method of adding information on whether or not a holding sound is transmitted from a telephone terminal, and a method of using hooking.

Next, the exchange stores the stored hold time of the charging destination (S9). When the exchange detects disconnection of the telephone terminal A (S10), it releases the call path and line (S1).
Along with 1), the billing information necessary for the bill settlement of the telephone terminals A and B is notified to the bill calculation system 6 (S12). The charge calculation system 6 calculates and bills the telephone terminal A for the amount obtained by subtracting the holding time from the call time, and the telephone terminal B for the holding time (S13).

In the conventional hold service, even if a telephone terminal has a hold tone, when the hold signal is sent to the exchange, the exchange connects to the hold tone sending device, so the hold tone set at the telephone terminal is sent to the non-holder. I can't send it out,
In the present invention, this is made possible by notifying the presence / absence of the hold tone transmission.

[0025]

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to charge the holding party a call charge for the holding time due to the holding of the other party, and it is possible to perform more appropriate charging.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1A is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention. (B) is a figure which shows the internal structure of the central control unit in (a).

FIG. 2 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Call path switch 2 speech path control device 3 Hold sound sending device 4 storage devices 5 Central control unit 6 Charge calculation system 51 signal receiver 52 Hold signal identification section 53 Hold controller 54 Hold time counter 55 Hold time storage controller 56 Billing information output section

Front page continued (58) Fields surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) H04M 15/00 H04M 3/428

Claims (4)

(57) [Claims] 1. A billing method when a first telephone terminal which is a calling side and a second telephone terminal which is a receiving side are connected and talking via an exchange, in which a hold is made from the second telephone terminal. The hold start signal for performing the hold identification is received to determine whether or not the hold tone is transmitted.When the hold tone is transmitted, the hold state is recognized and the designated billing party information is received and recognized. When the hold tone is not transmitted, the hold state is recognized. Receiving and recognizing specified billing party information, and connecting a holding tone sending device for sending a holding tone to the first telephone terminal to count the holding time of the call and release the holding When the hold stop signal is detected, the hold time until then is stored, and when the disconnection of the first telephone terminal is detected, the communication path is released and the charging information of the connection is extracted and notified to the charging calculation system. And the first The billing method is characterized in that the telephone terminal is billed for a portion obtained by subtracting the holding time from the call time, and the second telephone terminal is billed for the holding time. 2. When the on-hold tone side telephone terminal sends out the on-hold tone, the communication path control between the on-hold person and the non-on-hold person is not performed, and when the on-hold side telephone terminal does not on-hold tone output. 2. The charging method according to claim 1, wherein the telephone terminal on the non-holding party side is reconnected to the holding sound transmitting means. 3. The hold start signal includes information for designating a charging destination and presence / absence information for sending a hold sound from the second telephone terminal to a signal for instructing the second telephone terminal to hold on the network side. The charging method according to claim 1, wherein: 4. The holding start signal is newly provided with a holding signal designating a charging destination, and information on presence / absence of transmission of a holding sound from the second telephone terminal is added.
2. The charging method according to any one of 2.