Methods for Providing Overdraft Protection for Post-Paid Communication Service Plans
AssigneeAT&T Mobility II LLC
InventorsCoulter C. Henry, JR., Francis Richard Lazaro, JR., Andrew Lamont Hines, JR., Derek Ekow-Badu Johnson
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Methods for adding minutes to a calling plan having a calling plan period. The methods including determining whether a threshold number of minutes have been reached during the calling plan period; and incrementally adding minutes to the calling plan when the threshold number of minutes has been reached. The cost per minute of the added minutes is less than the high-cost per minute rate normally associated with exceeding the threshold number of minutes during the calling plan period.
Claims1
A method for implementing an overdraft protection plan by adding data blocks to an account subscribed to a data subscription plan having a data subscription plan period, comprising:
- determining, using a billing system server, whether a threshold number of data blocks has been reached during the data subscription plan period;
- and
- adding data blocks, using a billing system server, to the data subscription plan when the threshold number of data blocks has been reached, the billing system server being configured to charge the account for the added data blocks, the cost per data block of the added data block being less than the cost per data block normally associated with exceeding the threshold number of data blocks during the data subscription plan period.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.