System for accumulating data over nondedicated telephone lines

A system for accumulating data at a central station from data accumulators at a plurality of remote locations over nondedicated telephone lines connected to telephone sets at the remote location while minimizing the possibility of interference with normal telephone service to the telephone set comprising:

• a selectively operable telephone dialing means and a data accumulator for accumulating data pertaining to billing for services used at the remote location connected to the nondedicated telephone lines at each of the remote locations;
• means at each of the remote locations connected to said dialing means for initiating the transmission of a predetermined pattern of sequential, periodic telephone dialing signals over the telephone lines to thereby place a call from the remote location to the central station over the telephone lines;
• means for selectively conditioning said initiating means at a time when the telephone set at the remote location is not normally in use in order to effect the transmission of said pattern of telephone dialing signals over the telephone lines and thereby initiate the transmission of telephone ringing signals to the central station;
• means at the central station for automatically receiving and answering the telephone ringing signals to place the central station in connection over the nondedicated telephone lines with the remote location initiating said ringing signals;
• means at the remote location for detecting the answering of the ringing signals by the central station;
• means at the remote location for transferring data from the data accumulator to the central station over the nondedicated telephone lines in response to said detecting means;
• and,
• means at the central station for receiving and storing said transferred data.

A telephone data accumulating system for collecting billing data from subscribers to a pay television system, the billing data being collected at a central station from each subscriber station over nondedicated telephone lines that provide telephone service to the subscriber station, the system comprising:

• a data accumulator for accumulating data pertaining to billing for television programs viewed at each of the subscriber stations;
• means including automatic dialing signal generating means at each of the subscriber stations connected to said nondedicated telephone lines for initiating telephone connection of the subscriber station to the central station over the nondedicated telephone lines;
• means for selectively conditioning said initiating means on a selection basis that is time determinable in order to effect the connection of the subscriber station to the central station over the nondedicated telephone lines while minimizing the possibility of interference with normal telephone service to the subscriber station;
• means at the subscriber station for effecting the transfer of data from the data accumulator to the central station over the connection made between the stations on the nondedicated telephone lines;
• means at the central station for receiving and storing said transferred data.