Method and apparatus for determining whether a cellular phone chip is dormant
OwnerHossein Alexander Sepehri-Nik, Marcelo Caneppeleinventors
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Methods and systems are provided for determining whether a cellular telephone chip is dormant. Determinations are drawn from testing telephone numbers associated with chips and data collected is used to generate statistics. Methods are provided for determining the percentage of a wireless service provider's subscriber-base that consists of abandoned, or non-revenue-generating, customers.
Claims20
A method for determining whether a cellular telephone chip is dormant comprising:
- sending a signal to at least one telephone number associated with the chip;
- interpreting a response to the signal to determine whether the chip is dormant.
A method for determining market statistics delineating the percentage of dormant cellular telephone chips for one or more wireless communications service providers comprising determining the total number of chips of a service provider, determining the active or dormant status of at least some of the total number of the chips, and calculating the percentage of dormant chips relative to the total number of chips of the subscriber.
A method of identifying whether a chip associated with a telephone number is dormant comprising
- determining whether the number is assigned or unassigned;
- determining whether the number is pre-paid or post-paid;
- testing to identify potentially dormant chips;
- and
- testing potentially dormant chips to identify dormant chips.
The method of claim 16 wherein the frequency and/or time is increased.
A system operable to determine whether a mobile telephone chip is dormant, the system comprising a call generator, a signaling monitor and server wherein the call generator is connected to a telephone exchange.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.