WO2010009737A1

WO2010009737A1 - Method for accessing cellular telephone minute loans or credits

Info

Publication number: WO2010009737A1
Application number: PCT/DO2008/000004
Authority: WO
Inventors: Francisco de Jesús CRESPO MINAYA; Luis Manuel Minier Mena; Genrry Rafael MINIER MATÍAS
Original assignee: Mao Inventions, S.A.
Priority date: 2008-07-25
Filing date: 2008-07-25
Publication date: 2010-01-28
Also published as: WO2010009737A8

Abstract

The invention relates to cellular telephone services and, in particular, to a method enabling cellular telephone users to access a system or IVR from his/her cellular telephone, using an access code authorised by one or more telecommunication companies for the purpose of lending minutes or credits to the members thereof in order for the user to request a minute loan or credits which will be deducted from a membership fee so that his/her cellular communication service remains active.

Description

METHOD FOR ACCESSING CREDITS OR LOANS OF MFNUTS IN CELL PHONE.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to cell phone services and in particular refers to a method that makes it easier for cell phone users to access credits or request a loan of minutes, in order to keep their communication service active. Similarly, the application of the method proposed by the present invention allows telecommunications companies to reduce costs, by not having to maintain the traditional prepaid card system, and be more efficient from using better installed capacity they have.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART:

The unprecedented development in telecommunications and in particular the cellular telephony is one of the main elements that dominates daily life. The possession of a cell phone and with it the immense potential of access to services of all kinds that derives from elf, has gone from being a service of difficult access or restricted, as it happened in its origins, to become one of the services of mass consumption considered essential in modern life, and one of the fastest growing services sectors worldwide.

Telecommunications services and, in particular, the ones referred to cellular telephony have been incorporated into all activities of daily living. The trend is clear, in underdeveloped countries, the cell phone is rapidly taking an important place as a means of communication. According to the report of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) dedicated to information and communications technologies (ICT) held in Geneva in February 2008, one in two inhabitants of the countries in which Development routes currently have mobile phones, which shows a vertiginous growth when comparing this indicator with the year 2005, when statistics indicated that only one in four people made use of mobile telephony in developing countries.

On the other hand, companies that provide telecommunication services in general are in a strong competition that leads them to make available to their real and potential customers a wide range of possibilities of use, credits and flexibilities that allow them to enhance the level of loyalty of their customers, while acquiring new users of their services,

The advancement of technology related to telecommunications and in particular with cell phones has made these devices incorporate functions that not long ago seemed futuristic such as games, MP3 music playback and other formats, email, SMS (Short Message Service), PDA (Personal Digital Assistaπt) electronic agenda, digital photography, digital video, video calls, Internet browsing and even digital television. Mobile phone companies are already thinking about new applications such as different payment methods associated with electronic commerce and people locators and identifiers; however, its main use value is the communication service.

There are multiple ways and means that companies that provide cell phone services make available to the general public to access this important service. The range of variants is wide, however, the post-payment and prepaid system predominate; the latter being without a doubt the fastest growing service,

It is known that to access cell phone services, once contracted with a company that provides this type of services, the user can keep their service active in one of the following ways:

1, In the case of services known as post-paid services or clients, the client can make use of the service, against a plan previously contracted with the company, making effective the payment of what was consumed at the end of a certain period, generally of a month. This type of plan has the disadvantage that means that the contracted plan may not be sufficient on certain occasions and in consequence the client will be temporarily without communication once the minutes or money available for the post-payment plan that he contracted with the provider company has been exhausted of the communication service; until the new recharge of your plan, prior payment of the consumed, or until you introduce a new prepaid card or credit. The cell phone service companies have discreetly entered into the variant of the loan of minutes, especially associated with post-paid customers, allowing this special type of clients to access the one-minute connection loan after dialing a code determined on your cell phone for which you are given a minute that is then reflected on the bill you have to pay; this time or minute acquired by loan will allow your 5. User an emergency and short conversation, all of which indicates that it is a limited service and of little relevance when taking advantage of installed capabilities is concerned.

2. If it was a prepaid service to keep the service active, the user needs to buy a physical prepaid card, from those available in dissimilar points of sale enabled for this purpose or provided by retailers. However, this recharge system is particularly expensive to maintain for telecommunications companies, they mean an inventory related to the acquisition of the prepaid card itself and the logistics associated with it, and on the other hand it inevitably generates significant levels of contamination as Thrown these 5 prepaid cards indiscriminately after being used. On the other hand, the prepaid service user can obtain from an ATM of the type used in the money supply, a credit or PIN to recharge his phone or use it in calls. This system has the disadvantage of the fact that ATMs may be temporarily out of service, which adds that they do not exist in sufficient quantities, nor are they located in all the places that are required, so as to allow to the user recharge his mobile or residential phone without demαca,

3. Get minutes from transfers of minutes between cell phones,) or that can be used interchangeably by customers or post-paid users or prepaid.

There is associated with this whole process, in which the client does not use the service because they do not have or have used up their credit, a significant loss for the telecommunications companies that provide this service; loss derived from the time in which the installed capacity of the telecommunications company is not being used efficiently because it has a significant number of users who have used up their credit and are outside the system and therefore cannot make calls to! not having been able to recharge or buy minutes for not having, at that time, a point of sale of physical prepaid cards, an ATM to which5 to go or any other device enabled for this purpose, all the difficulties and consequences that arise for the user who cannot use his cell phone.

In the state of the art, self-service terminals for electronic point of sale in general and technologies associated with POS devices are known, to the electronic commerce of goods and services that combine Web technology and cellular telephony in said transactions, but which only describe the general state of the art and do not solve the problems and inconveniences mentioned above. Thus, the inventors do not know in the state of the art a method that allows obtaining credit or requesting loans of minutes without limitations and without the need to acquire prepaid cards or a PJN accessing ATMs or a POS device, nor died unless allow telecommunications companies to make more efficient use of their installed capabilities by reducing the time in which their customers do not use the system because they do not have minutes on their cell phones.

DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

In order to solve this and other inconveniences not indicated, the present invention is proposed, in which a method is presented that allows recharging minutes or accessing a loan of minutes, without the need to use physical prepaid cards, ATMs or POS devices , contributing in this way to substantially improve the telephony service, maximize and make more efficient the useful time of use of the installed capacity that the telecommunications companies possess, reducing the costs of maintaining a physical prepaid card system , while reducing the environmental pollution resulting from indiscriminately throwing prepaid phone cards once used,

Therefore, it is the objective of the present invention to provide a quick, simple, economical and viable solution so that cell phone users can acquire a loan of minutes or credit from the companies that provide telephone services without having to acquire Prepaid cards or moving to the headquarters of these companies, much less running out of communication for not having minutes on their phones.

It is also an objective of the present invention to provide telecommunications companies that provide cell phone services with a method that allows Jes to optimize the use of their installed capabilities by minimizing the time in which their customers do not use their services for not having minutes or credits

Another objective of the present invention is to provide a method that allows telecommunications companies that provide cell phone services to reduce operating costs by having to use smaller amounts of physical prepaid cards for sale. 5. A final objective of the present invention is to contribute to the reduction of pollution derived from the use of physical prepaid phone recharge cards.

The above objectives, and other advantages, are achieved by the present invention, which is directed to a method that allows mobile phone users to acquire credit or 0 minute loans that allow them to keep their communication service active without the need to acquire prepaid cards , access ATMs, or any other similar system, since the entire operation of access to credit or loan of minutes and its subsequent accreditation in a number is carried out from the same cell phone with just dial a code that the company providing the service Cell phone service has been enabled5 to allow access to the credit or loan system for minutes.

The invention will be described in detail below, and with reference to the drawing attached, where) to Figure 1 shows the scheme or diagram of the method for accessing a credit or loan application for minutes, also indicating, in numerical order, and ) 0 time at which each step of the method object of the present invention occurs,

The method in question includes the following steps:

From a cell phone the customer proceeds to dial a code preset by the company5 providing the credit or loan service for minutes, allowing through that code to enter a system or IVR. The IVR system will receive the incoming call & identify if the mobile number is registered as a member. If the cell phone number is not registered, the system will be asking the customer if they are interested in registering and will give them the membership offers available at that time. If the client's answer is NO, the system will give a farewell message. On the other hand, if the answer is Sl, the system will give the user, who for the first time uses the credit or loan system for minutes, the possibility of obtaining an access PIN consisting of four or more digits at the user's choice. Once registered, the client will be listening to a message with everything related to the newly activated membership. The IVR will request the entry into the system5 using the authentication PIN number. In the event that said PIN is not correct, the system will be giving you three opportunities to place the correct PIN before saying goodbye and hanging up the call. Once the correct PIN has been entered, the IVR will verify in its database if the mobile number does not have an active prior agreement and will decide the delivery minutes. The IVR will give a message of the outstanding fees and will give a message of 0 farewell in the event that the mobile number to which the PIN belongs does not have available credit or owes debts with the company providing services cell phone. In the event that the mobile number to which the PIN belongs does not have debts and its credit or membership is in force, the system or IVR will record the charges and will pass to the telephone company providing the service the amount authorized for said recharge, sending The last one is a message or SMS notifying (when recharging or activating the requested credit or borrowed minutes, as shown in Figure 1.

A first example of realization of this method, given by way of illustration but not limiting the scope of the present invention, consists of a user who wishes to register as a member of the credit access or loan of minutes system; For this, he uses a cell phone that has a prepaid service by dialing a code, for example * followed by a number, which your telecommunications company has enabled for the purpose of lending minutes or credits to its affiliates. When the system or IVR is connected, it will identify the number of the cell phone from which the call comes in and detects that said number is not affiliated and proceeds to ask if it wishes to join the loan system for minutes to what the user when answering the system or IVR You will be asked to choose a PIN consisting of at least four digits. Then the system or IVR communicates to the user, through a message, the different membership options to which he can join, these options will refer to different member plans or amounts in translatable money in minutes of use of the cell phone service. Def total amount of (a membership chosen by e) user is discounted every minute recharge or credit request that is made to the loan system of minutes until it runs out (at the amount of money constituting the membership, each membership will be valid for one year,

A second example of carrying out this method, given by way of illustration but not limited to the scope of the present invention, consists of a user who dials in his cell phone the access code that his telecommunications company has enabled for the purpose of lending minutes or credits to its affiliates, for example * followed by a number. When the system or IVR is connected, it will identify the number of the cell phone from which the call comes in and detects that said number is affiliated and proceeds to request that you enter the access or authentication PIN. Once the PIN has been correctly marked, the system or IVR verifies that it is a number that has an active membership that supports the request for credit or loan of minutes and that does not have debts with the system, proceeding to register the charges according to the Membership option that was chosen by the client when he became a member of the loan system of minutes or credits, deducting from said membership the amount of minutes requested by the member client, then the system or IVR indicates to the cell phone company the amount Authorized for recharging and the telephone will send a message (SMS) to the cell phone number affiliated to the minute loan system notifying the recharge.

A third example of carrying out this method, given by way of illustration but not limiting the scope of the present invention, consists of a user who dials in his cell phone the access code that his telecommunications company has enabled for the purpose of lending minutes or credits to its affiliates, example * followed by a number. When the system or IVR is connected, it will identify the number of the cell phone from which the call comes in and detects that said number is affiliated and proceeds to request that you enter the access or authentication PIN. Once the PIN has been correctly dialed, the system verifies in its database that it is a number that has an active membership but that it has debts with the telephone company of previous services that it has not paid or that its credit is not sufficient to cover the amount of minutes requested on loan, in this case system or IVR will give a farewell message indicating the reason for which the requested amount is not assigned.

Claims

SYSTEM TO ACCESS CREDITS OR LOANS OF MINUTES IN CELL PHONE.REIVINDICATIONS:

1. A method to access credits or loans of minutes in cellular telephony, of the type that allows to keep active a mobile telephone service using the cell phone to request said credit or loan, without the need to use prepaid cards, self-service terminals, ATMs, points of sale or POS devices, characterized in that it includes the following steps: a) From any cell phone the customer will dial a code preset by the company providing the credit or loan service for minutes, to enter a system or IVR. p) The system or IVR receives the incoming call and identifies if the mobile number is registered as a member, c) If the mobile number is not registered, the system or IVR asks the user if he is interested in registering and informs the available offers. d) If the client's response is NO the system or IVR gives a farewell message, e) If the response is Sl the system or IVR will give the user the possibility of obtaining an access PIN at the user's choice. f) The system or IVR requests the entry into the system using the authentication PIN number. g) In the event that the PIN entered is not correct, the system will be giving you three opportunities to place the correct PIN before saying goodbye and hanging up the call. h) Once the correct PIN has been entered, the system or IVR verifies in its database if the mobile number does not have an active prior agreement and will decide the delivery of minutes, i) The system or IVR will give a message of the pending fees and will give a farewell message in the event that the mobile number to which the PIN belongs does not have available credit or owes debts with the cell phone service provider, j) In the event that the mobile number to which The PIN does not have debts and your credit is in force the system or IVR will record the charges and will pass to the telephone company providing the service the amount authorized for such recharge, k) The telephone company sends a message or SMS notifying the recharge or activation of the requested credit or borrowed minutes.

2. The method of claim number 1 characterized in that the same access code to the credit system or minute loan can be used by one or more of a cell phone company.

3. The method of claim number 1 characterized in that the authentication PIN is composed of four or more digits.

4. The method of claim number 1 characterized in that it has one or several membership options.

5. The method of claim number 1 characterized in that the credit or loan requested by the user of the system is deducted from the charge of the membership fee.

6. The method of claim 1 characterized in that the system or IVR informs the client about the outstanding fees and debts.

7. The method of claim 1 characterized in that the system or IVR verifies in the database the status of the client's membership before approving or denying access to the loan of minutes or credit requested.

8. The method of claim 1 characterized in that the system or IVR delivers to the client automatically or by request of the client messages referring to membership request, membership options, available credits, expiration of membership, debts, denial of credits or loans, approval of credits or loans, balance of membership, and the deductions that are made of the credit that is introduced to the affiliated cell phone that are used by the system or IVR to cover previous debts that the member cell phone owns.