Recharging prepaid accounts within a telecommunications network
AssigneeT-Mobile USA, Inc.
InventorKarthik Chandrasekaran
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Systems and methods are described herein for recharging prepaid accounts within a telecommunications provider, such as a network carrier, using information provided by postpaid account subscribers. For example, the systems and methods facilitate the receipt of instructions from mobile devices associated with postpaid accounts. Upon receipt of the messages, the systems and methods (such as systems within a charging system of the network carrier or provider) identify intended or recipient mobile devices associated with prepaid accounts. Once identified, the systems and methods recharge the prepaid accounts, based on the instructions received from the postpaid account mobile devices.
Claims20
A non-transitory computer-readable medium whose contents, when executed by a network server associated with a telecommunications network, causes the network server to perform a method for providing telecommunications services to a mobile device over the telecommunications network, where the mobile device is associated with a prepaid subscriber of a service provider for the telecommunications network, the method comprising:
- receiving, via an evolved node B of the telecommunications network, a message from a first mobile device that is associated with a postpaid subscriber of the telecommunications network,
- wherein the message includes contents that identify a second mobile device associated with a prepaid subscriber of the telecommunications network, an identifier for the postpaid subscriber of the telecommunications network, and information that identifies an amount to recharge a prepaid account for the prepaid subscriber of the telecommunications network;
- transferring the received message from evolved node B of the telecommunications network to a core network component of the telecommunications network;
- at the core network component of the telecommunications network, generating a request to recharge the prepaid account for the prepaid subscriber of the telecommunications network,
- wherein the generated request is based on the contents of the message received from the first mobile device;
- and
- at a charging system of the telecommunications network, recharging the prepaid account for the prepaid subscriber of the telecommunications network in response to receiving the request from the core network component.
A method, comprising:
- receiving, at a charging system of a telecommunications service provider, a message from a mobile device associated with a subscriber of a postpaid account for telecommunications services provided by the telecommunications service provider over a telecommunications network,
- wherein the message includes a charging code that identifies a mobile device associated with a subscriber of a prepaid account for telecommunications services provided by the telecommunications network;
- identifying, within the charging system of the telecommunications service provider, the mobile device associated with the subscriber of the prepaid account based on the charging code;
- and
- recharging or crediting, via the charging system of the telecommunications service provider, the prepaid account using the postpaid account associated with the mobile device from which the message was received by the charging system.
A charging system of a network carrier that provides telecommunications services to mobile devices over a telecommunications network, the charging system comprising:
- a message reception component that receives input from users associated with postpaid accounts provided by the network carrier;
- and
- a cross-account component that recharges or credits mobile devices associated with prepaid accounts provided by the network carrier based on receiving the input from the users associated with from the postpaid accounts provided by the network carrier.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.