WO1997029607A1

WO1997029607A1 - Method for restricting or preventing a service in a mobile phone network

Info

Publication number: WO1997029607A1
Application number: PCT/FI1997/000066
Authority: WO
Inventors: Tuomo Hokkanen; Tuomo GRÖHN; Jouko Saras; Mika KESKI-HEIKKILÄ
Original assignee: Telecom Finland Oy
Priority date: 1996-02-09
Filing date: 1997-02-05
Publication date: 1997-08-14
Also published as: AU1604397A; FI960618A; FI960618A0; FI102024B

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method for restricting or preventing of a positional service outside a predetermined area. To the system for carrying out the method belong a mobile station network (1) and a terminal device (2) comprising a mobile station (3) and a dock station (4) to receive the service from the mobile station network. The location area of the terminal device is monitored preferably based on the measurements performed by the mobile station, and on the grounds of the monitoring the use of the service is restricted or prevented outside the predetermined area.

Description

Method for restricting or preventing a service in a mobile phone network

This invention is related to a method for restricting or preventing a service in a mobile phone network as defined in the introduction of claim 1.

In a region, where the establishment of a stationary so- called wired phone network is not recommendable for economic or other reasons from the view of the operator, mobile sta¬ tion services are offered to consumers for calling and data communications. One problem in the mobile station services is that the capacity needed for each region as the case may be is difficult to forecast. In any case in order to guarantee the customer satisfaction, the mobile station network should be established as wide as possible, whereby there is often overcapacity in remote areas. Therefore the network has to be built more comprehensive than needed, whereby the costs for the network establishment and upkeep rise, increasing the call rates.

Upon replacing a stationary network by a mobile station net¬ work, it is essential to know the regional distribution of the capacity demand. One way to influence the capacity dis- tribution by operator's action is to offer to a mobile sta¬ tion, which is connected to e.g. a dock station or similar stationary docking device to form a terminal device, cheaper services in a predetermined restricted area. This is called as a positional mobile station service. In this way it is achieved by terminal devices and the mobile station network a stationary, but however wireless network, in which the ter¬ minal devices are in the same way positional as in a normal fixed network.

A problem in this kind of a positional mobile station service is that when the terminal device is transferred outside the predetermined area, it is not profitable to offer to it cheaper services, because it represents then a normal mobile station, the capacity demand of which is not fully predic¬ table. Offering of services to a docking station and to the mobile station connected to it should be limited within the predetermined area. Before it is known a service preventing system, in which the use of a service is prevented mechani¬ cally in the docking station for instance by burning a suit¬ able fuse or emptying a suitable memory circuit. A drawback in this kind of a system is that breaking off the prevention of use requires an introduction of the device or the place identification made either by a service man or by a secret order sent by the network. A further problem is that in the above-mentioned solution the device becomes absolutely silent, whereat the use of the service can only be prevented, not restricted.

The object of the present invention is to eliminate the above-mentioned problems. The object of the present invention is particularly to provide a more simple and more automatic method than before to prevent or restrict a positional ser¬ vice outside a predetermined area.

A further object of the present invention is to provide a reliable and economically advantageous method to prevent or restrict a positional service outside a predetermined area.

A further object of the present invention is still to provide a method, in which breaking of the prevention of use can be made by an agreement between the user and the operator with- out a separate introduction or visit of the service man.

Regarding the characteristic features of the present inven¬ tion reference is made to claims.

In the method according to the invention for restricting or preventing the use of a positional service outside the prede¬ termined area, a service is transmitted in the mobile station network to the terminal device. This service may consist of cheaper telephone call fees for both outgoing and incoming calls or it can comprise any other teleservice offered by the teleoperator. In this method it is also defined the location of the terminal device in relation to the mobile station net¬ work, and the use of the service is restricted or prevented, if the terminal device is situated outside a predetermined area. This predetermined area comprises advantageously an area covered by certain base station, certain cell of the cellular area covered by certain base station or any other corresponding area that can be determined in the mobile sta¬ tion network. According to the invention the terminal device defines its location based on the signals transmitted by the mobile station network and/or the terminal device and sends in accordance with its location to the mobile station network a signal, based on which the mobile station network restricts or prevents the use of the service by the terminal device.

In an advantageous embodiment of the present invention the terminal device transmits to the mobile station network a request signal including a request for restricting or pre¬ venting the use of the service. Advantageously as an answer to this request signal the mobile station network sends to the terminal device a signal, in which a predetermined code is asked from the terminal device to activate the prevention. This code is preferably concealed with the help of a prede¬ termined encryption algorithm and the code may be based on a character string or series, as on IMSI (International Mobile Subscriber Identity) or IMEI (International Mobile Station Equipment Identity) -code. The mobile station network com¬ pares further the code transmitted by the terminal device with the predetermined code in order to check the validity of the code sent by the terminal device, and based on this com¬ parison the mobile station network activates the restriction or the prevention and transmits to the terminal device a signal including the information about the activated restric¬ tion or prevention. Because situations may occur, in which the mobile station network does not answer to the request signal transmitted by the terminal device due to the overloading of the network, poor connection or other technical problem, so in one advan- tageous embodiment of the present invention the terminal device send the request signal, until it receives from the mobile station network information about the activated pre¬ vention. Thus it is assured that the measures caused by the transfer of the terminal device have been made and that for instance the mobile station may continue its operation with¬ out the dock station.

In one advantageous embodiment of the present invention the user of the terminal device is informed about the activated prevention by the terminal device. The information can be delivered either by a control lamp, an acoustic signal, si¬ lencing the device or any other perceptible signalling.

In one advantageous embodiment of the invention the user of the terminal device establishes a connection to the mobile station network and asks the mobile station network to deactivate the restriction or barring for the use of the service through the connection. This is made, when a service is desired to be connected for reuse in its full range or when the terminal device has for instance returned to its original location area. Also advantageously the mobile sta¬ tion transmits to the terminal device information about the deactivated restriction or barring, of which the user is informed by the means mentioned above.

To the terminal device belongs advantageously a mobile sta¬ tion and an adaptation device, which is electrically coupled to the mobile station. The mobile station comprises preferab¬ ly a usual mobile phone, to which belong means for attachment of accessories. To the adaptation device belong preferably also the means to couple the mobile station to i . In one preferable embodiment of the invention the mobile station is further coupled to normal operation, when the terminal device receives the information concerning barring of the service offered to it. This can be carried out at least so that to both the mobile station and the dock station belong a subscriber's own identification unit, as a SIM (Sus- bcriber Identity Module) -card. Depending on the operational mode of the terminal device and the service status - normal, restricted or barred - the identification unit of either the dock station or the mobil station is used. The identification unit of the mobile station can also be converted by suitable setting to an identification unit for the whole terminal device, when the mobile station is coupled to the dock sta¬ tion, whereby the dock station does not necessarily need its own identification unit, but the converted identification unit corresponds that of the dock station. The service of the terminal device is offered in accordance with the identifica¬ tion unit of dock station, whereby the connection between the terminal device and the mobile station network conforms with the agreed service and pricing in the identification unit of the dock station. When these services are barred, the ter¬ minal device begins to use the identification unit of the mobile station, whereat the connection between the terminal device and the mobile station network conforms with the agreed service and pricing in the identification unit of the dock station. Service restriction can advantageously be real¬ ized by changing the pricing basis outside the predetermined area.

The mobile station network can preferably advantageously transmit to the dock station a short message including the information about the deactivated restriction or barring.

An advantage of the present invention compared with the state of the art is that the deactivation of a restriction or bar¬ ring can, if the operator wants it, be performed by the cus¬ tomer service (ASP) immediately after the information is received from the customer. It is also advantageous that the terminal device may inform to the user a service restriction or barring, but the change of the indicator display by a command from the network need not be watertightly concealed. One advantage in the invention is that service settings can be altered by the network and there is no need to make such physical changes that make the device silent and require separate service in order to make the device functional.

The invention sill be described in the following with refer¬ ence to accompanying drawing, in which:

Figure 1 shows schematically one telecommunications system according to the invention;

Figure 2 shows the signalling between the mobile station network and the terminal device in one advantageous embodi¬ ment of the invention;

Figure 3 shows the signalling to be used in one method ac¬ cording to the invention.

In Fig. 1 there are shown the components needed for offering the positional mobile phone service according to the inven- tion. The customer or the service subscriber must have a terminal device 2, to which belongs the dock station 3, with a mobile phone 4 coupled thereto. Further on to the dock station shown in Fig. 1 has been coupled a traditional tele¬ phone apparatus 5, computer 6 and a facsimile device 7. Hence it can be stated that the user of the terminal device does not notice any difference, whether he uses a terminal device according to the invention or normal wired telephone. The mobile station network 1 comprises preferably a commonly used network, wherefore it is not herewith presented in detail. In the following is shown a preferred embodiment example. In Figs.2 and is presented signalling, which is used both in coupling of service restrictment or barring and in deactiva¬ ting the coupled restriction or barring, respectively. The dock station 3 analyses the measurements made by the mobile station 4 automatically from the network, as the signal in¬ tensity, telecommunication magnitude or other corresponding values, by which it can notice the change in the location of the terminal device 1. If the location of the terminal device 2 changes, the dock station 3 activates through the mobile service 4 to the mobile phone network 1 service barring, as the prevention of outgoing and incoming calls. In practice this is effected according to the signalling shown in Fig. 2 so that barring of incoming and outgoing call in the terminal device 2 through the mobile service network 1 is activated (BAIC & BAOC).

Signalling shown in Fig. 2 is the following. The dock station (DS) analyses the measurements made by the mobile station (MS) 4. From these it can conclude the change of the loca¬ tion. If the location changes, DS transmits via MS to the network 1 a request to activate barring of outgoing and inco¬ ming calls, signals Activate barring and Activate BX. The signal Activate BX proceeds through the mobile phone center (MSC) 9 and the visitor register (VLR) 10 to the home regis¬ ter (HLR) . For barring activation the home register (HLR) requires a password, the signal Get password, which is asked from DS. The password is obtainable by certain algorithm, e.g. from the IMSI or IMEI code of the device. After getting the right password, signal Password, HLR sends an acknow¬ ledgement to DS, signal Acknowledge. IF DS does not receive this acknowledgement, it tries to activate once again. After a positive acknowledgement DS indicates its unavailability to the user for instance by a red LED (not shown) .

Referring to Fig. 3 a preferable embodiment is shown to deactivate the service barring. Primarily the call barring is deactivated by the customer service 12 maintained by the mobile station network 1. No opportunity is permitted to the user 11 to deactivate the call barring from his own terminal device 2. This has been carried out for instance so that the functions in question have been disabled from the mobile sta¬ tion 4, when it is coupled to the dock station. The customer 11 takes contact to the customer service 12, signal Announce¬ ment, which can deactivate the barring directly from HRL 8, signal Deactivate barring. After receiving the acknowledge- ment, signal Acknowledge, the customer service 12 may trans¬ mit a short message, signals Indication from deactivation of barring with an SMS-message and Message, to DS of the cus¬ tomer. After receiving this message DS indicates to the user to be again available.

The invention will not be restricted only to the embodiments shown above, but many modifications are possible within the inventive concept defined in the accompanying claim.

Claims

1. A method for restricting or preventing the use of a posi¬ tional service outside the predetermined area, in which method a service is transmitted in the mobile station network (1) to the terminal device (2), the location of the terminal device is defined in relation to the mobile station network, and the.use of the service is restricted or prevented, if the terminal device is situated outside a predetermined area, c h a r a c t e r i z e d in that the terminal device ( 2 ) defines itε location based on the signals transmitted by the mobile station network (1) and/or the terminal device; and that the terminal device sends in accordance with its loca¬ tion to the mobile station network a signal for restricting or preventing the use of the service, based on which the mobile station network restricts or prevents the use of the service by the terminal device.

2. A method according to claim 1, c h a r a c t e r i z e d in that the terminal device (2) transmits to the mobile sta¬ tion network (1) a request signal including a request for restricting or preventing the use of the service; that the mobile station network sends to the terminal device a signal, in which a predetermined code is asked from the terminal device to activate the restriction or the prevention; and that the mobile station network compares further the code transmitted by the terminal device with the predetermined code, based on which the mobile station network activates the restriction or the prevention and transmits to the terminal device a signal including the information about the activated restriction or prevention.

3. A method according to claim 2, c h a r a c t e r i z e d in that the terminal device (2) transmits the request signal, until it receives from the mobile station network (1) infor¬ mation about the activated restriction or prevention.

4. A method according to any of the preceding claims 1 - 3, c h a r a c t e r i z e d in that the user of the terminal device (2) is informed about the activated prevention by the terminal device.

5. A method according to any of the preceding claims 1 - 4, c h a r a c t e r i z e d in that the user of the terminal device (2) establishes a connection to the mobile station network (1) , the user asks the mobile station network to deactivate the service restriction or prevention through the connection, the mobile station network transmits to the ter¬ minal network information about the deactivated restriction or prevention and the availability of the service is informed to the user via the terminal device.

6. A method according to any of the preceding claims 1 - 5, c h a r a c t e r i z e d in that to the terminal device belong a mobile station and (3) and the dock station (4) , which is electrically coupled to the mobile station.

7. A method according to claim 6, c h a r a c t e r i z e d on that the mobile station (3) is coupled to normal opera¬ tion, when the terminal device (2) receives information con¬ cerning the service restriction or prevention.

8. A method according to any of the preceding claims 1 - 7, c h a r a c t e r i z e d in that the service is restricted outside the predetermined area by changing the pricing basis of the service.

9. A method according to any of the preceding claims 1 - 7, c h a r a c t e r i z e d in that the mobile station network (1) transmits to the dock station (4) a short message includ¬ ing information about the deactivated restriction or preven- tion.

10. A method according to any of the preceding claims 1 - 9, c h a r a c t e r i z e d in that the code sent by the ter¬ minal device (2) is based on the code identifying the termi¬ nal device, as the IMSI or IM£I code of the device.