Single interface for provisioning collected data to requesting systems
AssigneeT-Mobile USA, Inc.
InventorsJonathan Soini, Timothy Shelton
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Systems and methods are described herein for providing multiple, different types of information for mobile devices and associated users to requesting systems, such as customer service systems provided by telecommunications carriers. The systems and methods may generate a single API that, when called by a requesting system (e.g., via a request transmitted by the requesting system that includes subscriber or device information), provides data collected from multiple, disparate data sources back to the requesting system via the single API.
Claims20
A system for provisioning data associated with a mobile device provided to a user by a telecommunications carrier to requesting systems, the system comprising:
- at least one hardware computer, wherein the computer is configured to execute software modules, including:
- an information request module that receives a request from a requesting system associated with a customer service center of the telecommunications carrier to provide multiple, disparate types of information associated with a mobile device to the requesting system via a single application programming interface (API) that receives calls from requesting systems for the multiple, disparate types of information;
- wherein the request includes a code that represents the mobile device and obscures an identity of a user associated with the mobile device;
- a user identification module that extracts an identity of the mobile device from the code;
- a data collection module that collects data associated with the extracted identity of the mobile device by accessing multiple, disparate, sources of data in order to obtain the requested multiple, disparate types of information, including:
- an internal source of data provided by the telecommunications carrier;
- and
- an external source of data provided by a third party unassociated with the telecommunications carrier;
- and,
- an information provision module that provides the collected data associated with the mobile device to the requesting system via the single API;
- wherein the collected data includes data collected from the first source of data and data collected from the second source of data.
A method for use in providing customer assistance to a mobile device subscriber, the method comprising:
- publishing a single application programming interface (API) at which calls for data are received from requesting systems associated with a wireless network carrier;
- receiving, via the single API, a data request from a requesting system that includes information identifying a mobile device or subscriber of the wireless network carrier that is associated with the mobile device;
- collecting data in response to the data request from multiple, disparate sources of data;
- and
- providing the data collected from the multiple, disparate sources of data to the requesting system via the single API, wherein the collected data is configured so as to be used in customer assistance to the mobile device subscriber.
A computer-readable storage medium whose contents, when executed by a computing system, cause the computing system to perform a method for obtaining information associated with a subscriber of a mobile device, the method comprising:
- generating a code that represents an identity of a subscriber of the mobile device and that is based on an international mobile station equipment identity (IMEI) of the mobile device. a mobile station international subscriber directory number (MSISDN) associated with the subscriber, or both the IMEI and the MSISDN, wherein the code has less than 7 alphanumeric characters;
- transmitting the generated code from the mobile device over an unstructured supplementary service data (USED) channel to an information provisioning system configured to collect data associated with the mobile device and the subscriber;
- and
- receiving data collected by the information provisioning system and associate with the subscriber of the mobile device at a customer service system configured to display information based on the data that includes information associated with characteristics of the mobile device, information associated with a wireless network provided by the telecommunications carrier to the mobile device, and information associated with a customer account for the user of the mobile device.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.