Bidding for telecommunications traffic with request for service

A method for routing a telecommunication call attempt presented by a Buyer of telecommunication service to a telecommunication switch, associated with a switching point on a telecommunications network, to a first telecommunication Carrier of a plurality of telecommunication Carriers in accordance with economic incentives arrived at through a bidding process involving a central processor, referred to as a Moderator, comprising the steps of, in the Moderator:

• a) receiving from the Buyer, a request for telecommunication service over at least one route or route segment on at least one telecommunications network during at least one specific future time interval;
• b) processing the request and distributing the processed request to a plurality of Carriers;
• c) receiving a response including the economic incentive data from at least the first telecommunication Carrier;
• d) transmitting at least a portion of the economic incentive data to at least a portion of the plurality of Carriers;
• e) entering the economic incentive data received from the first telecommunication Carrier in a database and processing the economic incentive data, to generate carrier selection data;
• and
• f) transmitting the carrier selection data to the switch for entry into the switch's data base for use in routing the call attempt to the first telecommunication Carrier.

A telecommunications traffic bidding Moderator for enabling a first telecommunication switch to route a call attempt presented by a Buyer of telecommunication service to a first telecommunication Carrier in accordance with economic incentives arrived at through a bidding process, comprising:

• a. a computer with a processor and a memory;
• b. means for receiving from the Buyer, a request for telecommunication service over at least one route or route segment on at least one telecommunication network during at least one specific future time interval and storing the request in the memory;
• c. means for processing the request to formulate a processed request;
• d. means for transmitting the processed request to the plurality of telecommunication Carriers;
• e. means for receiving a response including economic incentive data relating to the request for telecommunication service, from at least the first telecommunication Carrier and storing the response in the memory;
• f. means for transmitting at least a portion of the economic incentive data to at least a portion of the plurality of telecommunication Carriers;
• g. means within the processor for generating carrier selection data based on the economic incentive data;
• and
• h. means for transmitting the carrier selection data to the switch for entry into the switch database for use in routing the call attempt to the first telecommunication Carrier during the specific future time interval.

A method for billing a Buyer of telecommunication service for call attempts presented to a telecommunication switch, associated with a switching point on a telecommunications network, routed to a first telecommunication Carrier of a plurality of telecommunication Carriers in accordance with economic incentives arrived at through a bidding process involving a central processor, referred to as a Moderator, comprising the steps of:

• a. in the Buyer, formulating a request for telecommunication service over at least one route or route segment on at least one telecommunication network during at least one specific future time interval and transmitting such request to the Moderator;
• b. in the Moderator, processing such request and distributing a processed request to a plurality of telecommunication Carriers;
• c. in at least the first telecommunication Carrier, receiving the processed request, formulating a response to the processed request and transmitting such response, including economic incentive data, to the Moderator;
• d. in the Moderator, receiving the response from at least the first telecommunication Carrier, entering the economic incentive data from at least the first telecommunication Carrier in the Moderator's database, and processing the economic incentive data to generate carrier selection data;
• e. in the Moderator, transmitting at least a portion of the economic incentive data contained in the responses received by the Moderator, to at least a portion of the plurality of telecommunication Carriers;
• and
• f. in the Moderator, generating billing data and transmitting the billing data to the Buyer and the first telecommunication Carrier.