US 5,179,584 AGranted

Automatic billing system controller

AssigneeRicos Co., Ltd.

InventorMihoji Tsumura

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Abstract

The invention presupposes the operation by a telephone company of an automatic billing system which incorporates a means of calculating a utilization charge in accordance with the number of seconds during which a user who has called a special number is connected to that number, and then of adding the utilization charge to the user's call charge. At the user's end the invoice charge data is input and the number of seconds of connection to a special line number are set in accordance with the invoice charge and a network control means then connects with the special line number for the number of seconds which has been set. The telephone exchange's utilization charge computation means then adds the utilization charge to the call charge for collection from the user. In this way the telephone company is able to collect an invoice charge on behalf of the supplier of the corresponding service.

Claims13

Dependent claims

An automatic billing system controller responsive to invoice charge data and being in electrical communication with utilization charge computation means installed in a telephone exchange, said utilization charge computation means computing a call charge for a user including a utilization charge being computed as a function of total time the user is connected to the telephone exchange, the automatic billing system controller comprising:

first network control means located with the user and in electrical communication with the telephone exchange for connecting the billing system controller to the telephone exchange;
call time computation means having inputs responsive to the invoice charge data for
storing a plurality of special line numbers, said special line numbers representing different units of time utilization charges, and
computing periods of time associated with selected special line numbers as a function of the invoice charge data;
and
connection control means located with the user for connecting the first network control means to selected special line numbers for the periods of time associated with respective special line numbers whereby the telephone exchange is connected to the automatic billing system controller for a total time equal to the sum of the periods of time.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.