Cellular radiotelephone credit card paystation method

A method of operating a remotely programmable cellular telephone as a credit card telephone paystation, said method comprising the steps of:

• periodically receiving synchronization data from outside of said telephone, said synchronization data serving to set a time and date for a clock portion of said telephone;
• continually maintaining current time and date in said clock portion of said telephone;
• reading credit card information from a credit card;
• validating said credit card information;
• enabling operation of said telephone when said validating step successfully validates said credit card information;
• establishing a customer call through said enabled telephone;
• storing a call record in a call record buffer said call record including data describing said customer call and including said credit card information;
• monitoring said clock to determine the occurrence of a predetermined point in time;
• determining whether said call record buffer is full;
• automatically placing a system call with a host computer system when said determining step determines that said call record buffer is full;
• if said system call is successfully established, transferring said call record to said host computer system during said system call;
• automatically placing a second system call with a host computer system when said monitoring step detects the occurrence of said predetermined point in time;
• and
• if said second system call is successfully established, transferring said call record to said host computer system during said second system call.

A method of operating a remotely programmable cellular telephone as a credit card telephone paystation, said method comprising the steps of:

• periodically receiving synchronization data from outside of said telephone, said synchronization data serving to set a time and date for a clock portion of said telephone;
• continually maintaining current time and date in said clock portion of said telephone;
• reading credit card information from a credit card;
• validating said credit card information;
• enabling operation of said telephone when said validating step successfully validates said credit card information;
• establishing a customer call through said enabled telephone;
• storing a call record, said call record including data describing said customer call and including said credit card information;
• monitoring said clock to determine the occurrence of a predetermined point in time and to determine the occurrence of a second predetermined point in time;
• automatically placing a system call with a host computer system when said monitoring step detects the occurrence of said predetermined point in time;
• if said system call is successfully established, transferring said call record to said host computer system during said system call;
• revising said second predetermined point in time after said transferring step;
• and
• automatically placing a second system call with said host computer system when said monitoring step detects the occurrence of said second predetermined point in time, said second system call serving to inform said host computer system of the operational status of said telephone when no customer calls have been established since said transferring step.

A method of operating a remotely programmable cellular telephone as a credit card telephone paystation, said method comprising the steps of:

• periodically receiving synchronization data from outside of said telephone, said synchronization data serving to set a time and date for a clock portion of said telephone;
• continually maintaining current time and date in said clock portion of said telephone;
• reading credit card information from a credit card;
• validating said credit card information;
• enabling operation of said telephone when said validating step successfully validates said credit card information;
• establishing a customer call through said enabled telephone;
• storing a call record, said call record including data describing said customer call and including said credit card information;
• monitoring said clock to determine the occurrence of a predetermined point in time;
• automatically placing a system call with a host computer system when said monitoring step detects the occurrence of said predetermined point in time;
• if said system call is successfully established, transferring said call record to said host computer system during said system call;
• programming a data flag to indicate operation of said telephone in one of paystation telephone and non-paystation telephone modes of operation;
• performing said reading, validation, storing, clock monitoring, placing, and transferring steps when said data flag indicates operation in said paystation telephone mode;
• and
• omitting said reading, validation, placing, and transferring steps when said data flag indicates operation in said non-paystation telephone mode.

A method of operating a remotely programmable cellular telephone as a credit card telephone paystation, said method comprising the steps of:

• periodically receiving synchronization data from outside of said telephone, said synchronization data serving to set a time and date for a clock portion of said telephone;
• continually maintaining current time and date in said clock portion of said telephone;
• reading credit card information from a credit card;
• validating said credit card information by analyzing said credit card information only at said telephone;
• enabling operation of said telephone when said validating step successfully validates said credit card information;
• establishing a customer call through said enabled telephone;
• storing a call record, said call record including data describing said customer call and including said credit card information;
• monitoring said clock to determine the occurrence of a predetermined point in time;
• automatically placing a system call with a host computer system when said monitoring step detects the occurrence of said predetermined point in time;
• if said system call is successfully established, transferring said call record to said host computer system during said system call;
• recording parameters describing said customer call;
• comparing said parameters with a predetermined fraud alert usage threshold;
• when said predetermined fraud alert usage threshold is exceeded, automatically establishing a data communications session with a credit card authorization system to remotely validate said credit card;
• and
• if said credit card authorization system invalidates said credit card, disabling operation of said telephone.

A method of efficiently and automatically collecting billing information from a cellular radiotelephone, said method comprising the steps of:

• accumulating call records within said radiotelephone, each call record describing a single call and including data describing timing for said single call, data identifying a cellular system utilized in making said single call, and data identifying a credit card account number to which said single call is to be charged;
• at predetermined intervals, placing a system call from said radiotelephone to a host computer;
• engaging in an access security handshaking procedure wherein said radiotelephone transmits an electronic serial number (ESN) that uniquely identifies said radiotelephone to said host computer, and said host computer transmits a password to said radiotelephone, said password being determined from said ESN;
• if said password received during said security handshaking procedure matches a predetermined password stored within said radiotelephone, transmitting said call records from said radiotelephone to said host computer and
• associating, at said host computer, said ESN with each of said call records to identify to whom credit card charges are to be paid.