KR20030089145A - Rechargement Method of Prepaid Communication Fare - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A recharging method of prepaid communication charges is provided to enable a mobile communication provider to inform a wireless terminal of a subscriber that a charging process is necessary for the communication charges, when all pre-charged money is consumed, thereby recharging the communication charges by automatically transmitting an SMS. CONSTITUTION: A charge management server transmits a signal for requesting to transmit an SMS for a wireless communication terminal to an SMS server(S300). The SMS server transmits the SMS and a telephone number to the wireless communication terminal(S302). When a subscriber wants to recharge communication charges, the subscriber presses the telephone number or a send button(S304). A signal delivered from the wireless communication terminal is transmitted to an ARS server, and the wireless communication terminal is connected to the ARS server(S306). The ARS server transmits an announcement related to the charging to the wireless communication terminal(S308). The subscriber recharges the desired communication charges according to the announcement(S310).

Description

Rechargement Method of Prepaid Communication Fare

The present invention relates to a method for recharging a fee in a communication fee prepaid service. More specifically, a short text message (Short Message Service: "") notifying the subscriber's wireless terminal that the subscriber's wireless terminal needs to be charged when the subscriber's prepaid amount has been exhausted. SMS ") and an auto reply number to recharge the communication charge.

Since the Internet communication service, which is symbolized by the World Wide Web, has been in the spotlight, communication service has already made a big difference in human life in all aspects of society, economy and politics. It is hard to imagine life without the Internet, and the Internet is a part of life. Therefore, in recent years, the use of various high-speed communication networks, such as in order to use a variety of communication services in a better environment has increased significantly.

However, communication services such as the Internet using a computer have advantages in that the transmission speed is high and data input is convenient. However, when the communication service is no longer available, communication services cannot be used anymore. It has a disadvantage to use.

Therefore, in recent years, many telecommunication companies have spurred the development of new technology called wireless Internet to provide communication services such as the Internet beyond the space. Wireless Internet refers to an environment and technology in which a user can use an Internet service through a wireless network while using a wireless communication terminal. The development of wireless communication technology and the rapid increase of wireless communication terminal penetration further promoted the development of this wireless Internet environment.

Thanks to the development of the wireless Internet environment, mobile operators and other telecommunication operators are further promoting users' use of the wireless Internet by providing various and useful services to the users of the wireless Internet. Such wireless Internet services, for example, text messages, e-mails, cards, letters, games, geography / life information, learning, cartoons, and the like using wireless communication terminals are provided. It is increasing.

However, as the usage time of the wireless Internet service increases, the communication fee also increases according to the usage time of the service or the amount of data transmitted and received. In order to reduce the burden of heavy communication charges of subscribers using wireless Internet service, each mobile operator or a separate carrier is changing the billing method to lower the service usage fee. It is becoming.

On the other hand, in recent years, each mobile communication provider or a separate telecommunications service provider is in fact indiscriminately enrolling even minors as its members in order to secure more members. In the case of minor subscribers, the use of the wireless Internet service is very frequent or even addicted to the wireless Internet service. As a result, minor subscribers who are unable to pay the communication fee are becoming a social problem due to excessive communication charges and discord among parents.

A method to solve such a problem of excessive communication charges is a communication charge prepaid system. The communication fee prepaid system usually pays a certain amount of communication fee in advance on a monthly basis and uses a wireless Internet service within the limit of the previously paid communication fee. In other words, if the communication fee paid in advance is exhausted, the origination restriction is first set in the user's terminal, and thus the wireless Internet service cannot be used. Therefore, a user who has set a call limit exceeding a previously paid rate limit may recharge the communication rate again by using a carrier of the corresponding carrier, the Internet, an audio response system (hereinafter referred to as "ARS"), or the like. You can use the wireless Internet service after removing the calling restriction.

However, it is not only cumbersome and time-consuming for a user to visit a dealership in order to recharge a communication fee.How to use an Internet website means that the user does not know the address of the website or uses the Internet. Many people are unfamiliar with how to recharge their communications bills. On the other hand, the method using the ARS is most often do not know the phone number for using the ARS service, it takes a lot of time due to the nature of the ARS service step by step while listening to the announcement (Announcement) through the wireless communication terminal, It is uncomfortable and not used much.

Of course, when a user requests a service using a wireless communication terminal, a service for transmitting a voice message indicating how much remaining charge of the user remains from the communication system is also provided. However, most users are reluctant to listen to these voice messages every time they use the service, and do not apply for such service when subscribing to the communication fee prepaid service.

Due to the disadvantages described above, the method of recharging the communication charges by using a direct agent visit, the Internet and the ARS is not widely used, which is a big obstacle to the settlement and development of the communication rate prepaid system.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides an SMS and an automatic reply that informs that the charge of the subscriber is required from the server of the mobile carrier to the subscriber's wireless terminal when the subscriber's prepaid amount of the subscription to the mobile communication prepayment service is exhausted. It is an object of the present invention to present a method of recharging a communication fee by transmitting a number.

1 is a block diagram schematically illustrating a system for recharging a prepaid communication fee according to the present invention;

2 is a flowchart illustrating a process until the service is stopped when all remaining charges are exhausted in the service for recharging communication charges according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

3 is a flowchart illustrating a process from when service usage is forcibly terminated until the communication fee is recharged according to the first embodiment of the present invention;

4 is a flowchart illustrating a process of recharging communication charges when a threshold of remaining charges is set according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

<Description of the numbers for the main parts of the drawings>

102: wireless communication terminal 104: mobile communication network

106: wireless base station 108: mobile communication switching center

109: PSTN / PSDN110: charge management server

111: Subscriber Database 112: SMS Server

114: ARS Server

To this end, the present invention provides a wireless communication terminal for a subscriber to use a service, a charge management server interworking with a subscriber database storing subscriber information for charging and charging a communication fee, and an SMS for transmitting an SMS to the wireless communication terminal. A method of recharging a prepaid communication fee, wherein a server and an ARS server for providing refilling of the communication fee are connected through a mobile communication network, the request signal of the service transmitted from the wireless communication terminal is transmitted through the mobile communication network. Transmitting to the rate management server, providing the service to the wireless communication terminal, updating the remaining rate by the rate management server, and when the charge rate server needs to be charged, the rate management server transmits the SMS server. Requesting the transmission of the SMS to the SMS server; Transmitting the SMS to the wireless communication terminal, the wireless communication terminal accessing the ARS server to receive the announcement, and a charge fee is transmitted from the wireless communication terminal to the charge management server, thereby reducing the remaining charge. A method of recharging a prepaid communication fee, comprising the step of updating.

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

1 is a block diagram schematically illustrating a system for recharging a prepaid communication fee according to the present invention.

The prepaid communication fee recharging system according to the present invention includes a mobile communication network 104 including a plurality of wireless communication terminals 102, a wireless base station 106 and a mobile communication switching center 108, a charge management server 110, and an SMS server ( 112 and ARS server 114.

The wireless communication terminal 102 can accommodate various wireless Internet services, and for this purpose, a virtual machine using Java is generally mounted. Java is simpler to code than other programming languages, supports distributed networking environments, provides excellent security, and has high portability to operate regardless of the system. In order to use the prepaid communication fee service using the wireless communication terminal 102, the user must apply for the service separately and register as a subscriber of the prepaid communication fee service. Hereinafter, the subscriber of the prepaid communication fee service will be referred to as a subscriber.

The base station 106 of the mobile communication network 104 is connected to the wireless communication terminal 102 wirelessly, the base station having a radio transceiver for transmitting a call request generated in the wireless communication terminal 102 to the mobile communication switching center 108 Say The mobile switching center 108 has a control function that allows the wireless base stations 106 to operate efficiently. In addition, the mobile communication switching center 108 is connected to a public switched telephone network (PSTN) / public switched data network (PSDN) 109 to make a voice call and data communication to the wireless communication terminal 102. To provide.

The fee management server 110 may include personal information of the subscriber such as a name, social security number, telephone number, password, etc., service information such as prepaid and remaining fees paid by the subscriber in advance, stop or stop calling, and service usage history. And the like are linked to the subscriber database 111 is stored. Here, the service includes both voice call and data communication using the wireless communication terminal 102.

The fee management server 110 manages a communication fee prepaid by the subscriber. When the service request signal is received from the subscriber, the fee management server 110 determines whether the service is provided using the subscriber information stored in the subscriber database 111. In addition, when the subscriber uses the service, the subscriber calculates the fee according to the service usage time or the amount of data transmitted and received. Here, a method of paying a fee based on the amount of data transmitted and received is generally applied in a packet data communication system. do.

The fee management server 110 calculates the service usage fee of the subscriber at predetermined time intervals and updates the remaining fee stored in the subscriber database 111. Therefore, if the remaining charge is used up while the subscriber is using the service, the used service is automatically disconnected.

Meanwhile, the fee management server 110 may set a threshold value of the remaining fee for requesting the transmission of the charge-charge SMS. That is, when the remaining charge of the subscriber stored in the subscriber database 111 reaches a preset threshold, for example, 500 won, a signal for transmitting the SMS to the subscriber's wireless communication terminal 102 is transmitted to the SMS server 112, which will be described later. do. Here, the reason for setting the threshold is that if the subscriber charges the SMS after the remaining charge is exhausted, the remaining charge is exhausted while the subscriber is using the service and may be interrupted while the service is provided.

When the SMS server 112 receives the SMS transmission request to the specific wireless communication terminal 102 from the charge management server 110, it informs the wireless communication terminal 102 of the wireless communication terminal 102 that it is necessary to charge the communication fee through the mobile communication network 104. Send a pre-stored SMS and reply phone number.

The ARS server 114 automatically checks the SMS and the reply telephone number transmitted from the SMS server 112 through the wireless communication terminal 102, and when the subscriber presses a call button or the like of the wireless communication terminal 102, the call is automatically transferred to the reply telephone number. A subscriber connected to the ARS server 114 may additionally charge a desired communication fee according to the announcement provided by the ARS server 114. The communication charge additionally charged through 114 is stored in the subscriber database 111.

2 is a flowchart illustrating a process until the service is stopped because all remaining charges are exhausted in the service for recharging communication charges according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

The subscriber who subscribes as a member to the prepaid communication fee service according to the present invention transmits a service request signal by using the wireless communication terminal 102 (S202). The mobile communication network 104 receives a signal transmitted from the wireless communication terminal 102 to determine whether the corresponding wireless communication terminal 102 is a terminal subscribed to a prepaid communication fee service, and transmits a service request signal to the fee management server 110. Information such as the number of the terminal is transmitted (S204). The fee management server 110 receiving the service request signal and the terminal information checks the state of the service information of the subscriber stored in the subscriber database 111 (S206).

If the call stop is not set, the subscriber uses a service such as voice call or data communication through the PSTN / PSDN 109 (S210). When the subscriber uses the service, the fee management server 110 checks the use time of the service or the amount of data transmitted and received at a predetermined time interval and applies the calculated service charge to the remaining charge stored in the subscriber database 111. The fee is renewed (S212). The fee management server 110 continuously determines whether the remaining charge becomes zero while updating the remaining charge (S214). If it is determined that there is a remaining charge, the process returns to step S210 to continuously provide a service to the subscriber. Otherwise, if it is determined that there is no remaining charge, the service is interrupted while the connection between the wireless communication terminal 102 and the mobile communication network 104 is lost ( S216). The process of transmitting the SMS to the corresponding wireless communication terminal after the service is stopped will be described in detail with reference to FIG. 3.

If outgoing stop is set in step S208, the process proceeds to step S300 of FIG. 3 to be described later in order to send an SMS for canceling the outgoing stop to the subscriber.

3 is a flowchart illustrating a process from when service use is terminated to recharging of communication charges according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

As described in FIG. 2, after the remaining charges are exhausted and the service connection is automatically stopped, the charge management server 110 transmits a signal to the corresponding wireless communication terminal 102 to request the transmission of the SMS to the SMS server 112. Send to (S300). Upon receiving the signal of the SMS transmission request from the fee management server 110, the SMS server 112 transmits the SMS and the return telephone number to the corresponding wireless communication terminal 102 (S302). In this case, it is preferable to use a specific SMS that has been previously created and stored, rather than a method in which the SMS server 112 generates an SMS each time an SMS transmission request signal from the fee management server 110 is received. Here, the SMS may be provided, for example, "You cannot use the service due to insufficient charges. If you want to charge the remaining charges, please press the call button or call XXX-XXXX." .

If the subscriber confirms that the communication fee prepaid through the wireless communication terminal 102 has been exhausted, and wants to recharge the communication fee immediately, the subscriber presses a call back number or a call button in the received SMS (S304). The signal transmitted from the wireless communication terminal 102 is transmitted to the ARS server 114 through the mobile communication network 104, so that the wireless communication terminal 102 is connected to the ARS server 114 (S306). The ARS server 114 transmits the announcement stored in connection with the charging of the communication fee to the connected wireless communication terminal 102 (S308). The subscriber recharges the communication fee as much as desired according to the announcement sent through the wireless communication terminal 102 (S310). That is, the data input by the subscriber using the wireless communication terminal is transmitted to the fee management server 110 through the ASR server 114, and the fee management server 110 uses the data received from the ASR server 114. The remaining fee of the subscriber stored in the database 111 is updated.

4 is a flowchart illustrating a process of recharging communication charges when a threshold of remaining charges is set according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

The subscriber terminates the service used through the steps described in FIG. 2 (S400). When the subscriber finishes using the service, the fee management server 110 determines whether the remaining fee of the subscriber is smaller than a preset threshold (S402). If the fee management server 112 determines that the remaining fee is smaller than the threshold, the process returns to step S300 of FIG. 3 to recharge the communication fee (S404).

Of course, in Figure 4 it is described that only one SMS and the return phone number when the remaining charge of the subscriber is smaller than the threshold first, but every time the use of the service is terminated after the remaining charge falls below the threshold A method of transmitting an SMS and a reply phone number to the wireless communication terminal 102 may be possible. In addition, when the remaining charge is exhausted, the process described in FIG. 2 will be applied again.

As in the second embodiment according to the present invention, if a certain threshold is set, the communication fee can be recharged when the remaining charge is short, so that the remaining charge is exhausted while the service is being used. It can solve the problem and provide better service to the subscriber.

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, and that various modifications and changes can be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention.

As described above, the method of recharging the prepaid communication fee according to the present invention is convenient for the subscriber by using only the SMS and the reply telephone number which are automatically transmitted without the need for the visitor's visit to the agency, the website of the Internet, and the like. Can be recharged.

In addition, if the remaining rate falls below the threshold by setting a specific threshold for the remaining rate of the subscriber, the remaining rate can be recharged in advance by sending an SMS and a reply telephone number. You can prevent discomfort and discomfort.

Claims (10)

A wireless communication terminal for the subscriber to use the service, a charge management server interworking with a subscriber database storing subscriber information for charging and charging the communication fee, an SMS server for transmitting an SMS to the wireless communication terminal, and the communication fee A method of recharging a prepaid communication fee, wherein an ARS server providing a guide for recharging a mobile device is connected through a mobile communication network, (a) transmitting a request signal of the service transmitted from the wireless communication terminal to the fee management server through the mobile communication network; (b) providing the service to the wireless communication terminal; (c) updating, by the fee management server, the remaining fee; (d) requesting the SMS server to transmit the SMS to the SMS server when the communication fee is required to be charged; (e) the SMS server transmitting the SMS to the wireless communication terminal; (f) the wireless communication terminal accessing the ARS server and receiving the announcement; And (g) a charging fee is transmitted from the wireless communication terminal to the fee management server to update the remaining fee Recharging method of the prepaid communication charges comprising a. Between step (a) and step (b) of claim 1 And checking, by the fee management server, the subscriber information to determine whether an outage is set. The method of claim 2, And the transmission stop is set when the remaining charge is exhausted and becomes zero. The method according to claim 1 or 2, And if the transmission stop is set, the SMS is transmitted to the wireless communication terminal. The method of claim 4, wherein And the SMS includes a text and a reply telephone number indicating that the remaining fee is required to be charged. The method of claim 1, wherein in step (c) The renewal of the remaining charge is a method of recharging the prepaid communication charge, characterized in that for updating the remaining charge according to the use time of the service or the amount of data transmitted and received at a predetermined time period. The method according to claim 1 or 2, Recharging of the prepaid communication fee is characterized in that the case that the charge of the communication fee is required is the case that the remaining charge is less than the threshold or the transmission stop is set. The method of claim 7, wherein The threshold value is a method of recharging a prepaid communication fee, characterized in that any number stored in advance in the charge management server in order to charge before the remaining charge is exhausted. The method of claim 1, wherein in step (e) And the SMS is transmitted to the wireless communication terminal after the service is terminated. The process according to claim 1 or 2, wherein Connecting to the ARS server using the call back number.