WO2000018106A1

WO2000018106A1 - Method and system for prepayment of telephone call charges by sending short messages, sms

Info

Publication number: WO2000018106A1
Application number: PCT/FI1999/000765
Authority: WO
Inventors: Ville Järvinen
Original assignee: Elisa Communications Oyj
Priority date: 1998-09-17
Filing date: 1999-09-17
Publication date: 2000-03-30
Also published as: FI113727B; FI982011A; FI982011A0

Abstract

The publication discloses a method and system for prepayment of telephone call charges. According to the method, a connection is established between a user (1) and a telephone network operator. According to the invention, the user (1) is provided with unique code information (10) against a prepayment, from the user (1) is received at a predetermined call service number a short message containing said code information (10) in a predetermined format, the user (1) is identified by the user A number, the content of the short message is evaluated and, on the basis of the code information obtained from the evaluation of the short message content and the user (1) A number identity, an amount of prepaid call time corresponding to the amount of the user's prepayment is added to the call time credit of the user (1).

Description

METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PREPAYMENT OF TELEPHONE CALL CHARGES BY SENDING SHORT MESSAGES, SMS

The invention relates to a method according to the preamble of claim 1 for prepay- 5 ment of telephone call charges.

The invention also concerns a system for prepayment of telephone call charges.

Methods and systems discussed herein are conventionally used for handling the pre- 10 payments of telephone call charges. The arrangement according to the invention is particularly intended for use in telephone systems capable of transmitting short- message information.

It is an object of the invention to provide a system in which a client can purchase 15 prepaid call time for his connection.

In the art are known embodiments in which prepaid call time is loaded for use either by visiting a service point performing the loading operation or, alternatively, it has been possible to purchase coupons of prepaid call time. These coupons may then be 20 used by calling a certain service call number and entering a code printed on the coupon.

In some prior systems the prepaid call time is subsequently loaded on the SIM card of a mobile phone via different kinds of arrangements. An other method is to store 25 the amount of prepaid call time in either a switching office computer or billing system or in a separate server, wherein the prepaid call time is decremented according to charged calls and when the prepaid amount is exhausted, the connection will be blocked out of service until more call time is paid and loaded in the system.

30 Also such embodiments are known in which the SIM card is preloaded with a given amount of prepaid call time and, when the amount is exhausted, a new card must be purchased. The major disadvantage of the above-described arrangements is associated with the loading operation of the prepaid call time. Obviously, this does not concern the last mentioned solution above. In short, sites capable of performing the loading operation are not available anywhere and, when possible, it needs the dialing of a specific code^" and then verifying the success of the operation by listening to an announcement. Hence, the flexibility of the prior-art solutions described above is inferior.

The problem of the last one of the above-described embodiments is the cost of the SIM cards and the fact that the A number changes after each replacement of the card.

It is an object of the invention to overcome the above-mentioned disadvantages and to provide an entirely novel type of method and system for prepayment of telephone call charges.

The goal of the invention is achieved through an arrangement in which call time is distributed as coded coupons made available against the transfer of a monetary instrument and the information stored in the coupons is loaded by short messages.

According to the invention, call time is purchased as individually coded coupons of different prepaid values. The code of the coupon is transferred to the call time vending system by sending the code as a short message to a given service call number. Then, the connection transmitting the SMS message is allocated to use a certain amount of call time corresponding to the prepaid value of the coupon.

The prerequisites of the embodiment according to the present invention include the facility of sending a short message so as to simultaneously communicate the user A number of the calling party, thus permitting the system therefrom to identify the coupon user. In a typical case, the embodiment also requires the transmission of the short messages from the short-message center to the call charge prepayment server and back. Further prerequisites in the implementation of the invention are a digital telephone network, advantageously a wireless network. Additional components in a typical embodiment of the invention are a switching center, a billing system, distribution of the prepayment coupons and a plurality of users thereto.

More specifically, the method according to the invention is characterized by what is stated in the characterizing part of claim 1. ^~

Furthermore, the system according to the invention is characterized by what is stated in the characterizing part of claim 4.

The invention offers significant benefits.

An advantage to the user of the invention is its ease of use. To load more call time, the user needs to send only one short message containing the code of the prepayment coupon. No other action is required and the user receives an immediate response to the loading operation. A further advantage is the speed of the loading operation as the delay from the instant of short-message transmission to the loading of prepaid call time into the system is typically in the order of 10-15 seconds.

To the telephone network operator, the system offers easy maintainability at a low cost and minimal work.

The invention also facilitates the use of coupons of different prepaid values.

In the following, the invention will be examined with the help of exemplifying embodiments by making reference to the attached drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 shows a system layout according to the invention;

Fig. 2 shows a flow diagram of a first operation step according to the invention;

Fig. 3 shows a flow diagram of a second operation step according to the invention; and Fig. 4 shows a flow diagram of a third operation step according to the invention.

Referring to Fig. 1 , therein is elucidated the technique of loading prepaid call time into the system. First, a user 1 makes a short message of a given format from the ^~ code printed on a prepayment coupon 10. The code may contain both alphabetic and numeric characters. Later in this description, the code is referred to as "code information". The short message is sent over a wireless digital telephone network 2 to a short-message center 3 that further routes the SMS message to a call charge prepayment server 4. From its database, the server retrieves the amount of call time paid by entering the code of the prepayment coupon 10 and, resultingly, increments the call-time credit of the connection from which the user 1 calls by the amount of the prepayment coupon 10. The user 1 is identified by the user A number of the connection transmitted along with the short message. The prepayment server 4 also checks the validity of the code information and earlier attempts to enter the code information into the system. On the basis of these checks, the result of the loading operation is transmitted as a short message from the system to the user 1. If the loading operation is successful, that is, correct code information has been received and earlier attempts to send the information to the system have not been detected, the system tags the code information not valid for further use in the system. The prepayment server 4 maintains a list of all released codes and the prepaid values thereof.

The user may perform a limited number of code information entries to the system over a given time period, thus preventing fraud entries to the system by way of trying to guess a valid code.

An exemplary implementation of the above-described function toward the user could be, e.g., such as shown in Fig. 2, wherein the user 1 sends to a predetermined service call number (e.g., number 1234567) as a short message in the form "PRE 5570249..." that is routed to the call time prepayment server 4. An acknowledgment message on an accepted payment is sent to the user 1 in the short-message form "CALL TIME WORTH FIM100 LOADED".

As shown in Fig. 3, the user can request the credit of his prepaid call time account by sending a text message having, e.g., the form "PPP. CREDIT" to a predetermined service call number, wherefrom the message is routed to the prepayment server 4 that responds to the user 1 by sending a short message in the form "CREDIT: FIM113.00" to the connection having the identified user A number.

Fig. 4 shows the links between the prepayment server 4, the switching center 5 and the billing system 6. When the user calls the system or sends an SMS message thereto from a connection whose subscriber is served by the SMS call time prepayment system, the switching center 5 transmits charge data about the user's call to the billing system 6 that computes the billing value of the call. Next, the billing data of the call is passed to the prepayment server 4 that decrements the user's call time credit by the amount calculated by the billing system 6. If the prepaid call time credit approaches zero, the prepayment server 4 instructs the switching center 5 to commence a stepwise closing procedure of the connection so that in the first step the connection is still allowed to send a few short messages intended for loading more call time for the connection. After the permitted number of short messages is exhausted and no more prepayments have been detected, the connection will be closed. This does not hinder the telephone network operator from loading more call time for the connection.

As the charges imposed on different types of calls vary, the terms related in the fore- going description to call time may as well be understood to refer to money. In modern systems, conversion of call time to money and vice versa is simply a matter of definition.

Claims

What is claimed is:

1. Method for prepayment of telephone call charges in a digital telephone network, said method comprising the steps of - establishing a connection between a user (1) and a telephone network operator,

characterized in that

- the user (1) is provided with unique code information (10) against a prepayment,

- from the user (1) is received at a predetermined call service number a short message containing said code information (10) in a predetermined format,

- the user (1) is identified by user A number, - the content of the short message is evaluated, and

- on the basis of the code information obtained from the evaluation of the short message content and the user (1) A number identity, an amount of prepaid call time corresponding to the amount of the user's prepayment is added to the call time credit of the user (1).

2. Method according to claim 1 , characterized in that an acknowledgment message to the user (1) about the accepted code information is sent as a short message telling the new call time credit or amount of money after the prepayment operation.

3. Method according to claim 1, characterized in that from the user (1) is received a short message in a predetermined format and, as a response thereto, the system sends information to the user (1) as a short message telling the new call time credit or amount of prepaid call charges.

. System comprising

- a digital cellular telephone network (2),

- at least two users (1), and

- a short-message server (2) for passing short messages between said users ^~ (1),

characterized in that

- the system comprises an information-carrying instrument (10) for submitting unique code information to the user (1), and - an information-processing means (4) which communicates with said short-message server (2) and is capable of evaluating and processing the code information stored in said information-carrying instrument (10) in short- message format.

5. Short message containing digital information, characterized in that said short message contains such code information (10) in a predetermined format that allows the user (1) sending the short message to enter a prepayment of his call time charges.