Billing for replies in a communication system
AssigneeNokia Corporation
InventorsJukka-Pekka Iivonen, Ari-Pekka Simonen
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The invention relates to a method, a telecommunications system, a message server and terminal equipment enabling that the sender of a message can be billed for a reply to the message. In the method of the invention, an indication is added to a first message, indicating that the sender of the first message is billed for a reply to the first message, the message containing the first indication is transmitted (506) to the receiver, and when the receiver replies to the message, a second indication is added to the reply of the receiver, containing at least a part of the first indication, and on the basis of the second indication, the sender of the first message is billed (516) for the reply.
Claims19
A method for billing a sender of a message for a reply to the message, the method comprising:
- creating a first message;
- adding to the first message a first indication indicating at least to a message transmitting system that a sender of the first message is billed for a reply to the first message;
- transmitting the first message containing the first indication to a receiver;
- and
- when the receiver replies to the first message:
- adding a second indication to the reply of the receiver, the second indication containing at least a part of the first indication and indicating to the message transmitting system that this reply is a reply to the first message;
- and
- billing the sender of the first message for the reply on the basis of the second indication.
A communication system comprising
- at least one message server for transmitting a first message from a sender to a receiver;
- and
- at least two terminal equipment for transmitting a first message and answering to it, the terminal equipments being arranged to add to the first message and to a reply to the first message an indication indicating to the message server that the sender of the first message is billed for the reply to the first message;
- wherein
- the message server is arranged to identify the reply and to bill the sender of the first message for the reply.
A message server for transmitting messages from a sender to a receiver, the message server comprising memory and being arranged to identify a first message in response to an indication in the first message, the indication indicating that the sender of the first message will be billed for a reply to the first message, to generate an identifier in response to the first message, to add the identifier to the indication in the first message prior to transmitting the first message to the receiver, and to store into memory a first billing key comprising at least the identifier.
A message server for transmitting messages from a sender to a receiver, the message server being arranged to identify a reply to a first message in response to an indication in the reply, the indication indicating that the sender of the first message will be billed for the reply, to separate a second billing key from the reply, to check from information of a message server which transmitted the first message whether a first billing key corresponding to the second billing key is valid, and
- in response to a valid first billing key, to transmit the reply to the receiver and to bill the sender of the first message for the reply.
Terminal equipment arranged to transmit messages to a telecommunications system, wherein the terminal equipment is arranged to add to a message an indication indicating that the sender of the message pays for a reply to the message.
Terminal equipment arranged to receive messages from a telecommunications system and to reply to them, wherein the terminal equipment is arranged to identify a received message as a first message, whose reply will be paid for by a sender of the first message, from a first indication in the first message, and to add to a reply to the first message a second indication which indicates that the reply is a reply to the first message and which second indication contains at least a part of the first indication.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.