Advertising-subsidized PC-telephony
AssigneesGenuity Inc., Verizon Corporate Services Group Inc.
InventorRobert Olshansky
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A system subsidizes telephone calls over a network. The system includes a service provider 120 that establishes a telephone call between a calling party terminal 130 and a called party terminal 140 over the network 110. During the telephone call, the service provider causes at least one advertisement 312 to be displayed at the calling, or called party terminal. At any time during, or after, the telephone call, the service provider generates a bill based on a subsidized billing rate related to the display of the at least one advertisement.
Claims28
A method for subsidizing telephone calls over a digital network carrying VoIP traffic, said network including at least one client computer terminal and a VoIP service provider, said method comprising:
- establishing a telephone call between the client computer terminal and a receiving terminal over the digital network;
- causing the client computer terminal to display at least one advertisement during the telephone call;
- determining whether the receiving terminal accepts advertisements;
- causing the receiving terminal to display at least one other advertisement when the receiving terminal accepts advertisements;
- determining a subsidized billing rate based on the display of the at least one advertisement at the client computer terminal and the display of the at least one other advertisement at the receiving terminal;
- and
- generating a bill for the telephone call based on the subsidized billing rate.
A system for subsidizing telephone calls over a VoIP network including at least one client computer terminal and a VoIP service provider, said system comprising:
- means for establishing a telephone call between the client computer terminal and a receiving terminal over the VoIP network;
- means for causing the client computer terminal to display at least one advertisement during the telephone call;
- means for determining a subsidized billing rate based on the display of the at least one advertisement;
- means for determining whether the receiving terminal accepts advertisements;
- means for reducing the subsidized billing rate when the receiving terminal accepts advertisements;
- and
- means for generating a bill for the telephone call based on the reduced subsidized billing rate.
In a VoIP network including a first computer terminal for placing a telephone call over the network, a second computer terminal for receiving the telephone call from the first computer terminal, and a VoIP service provider, the service provider comprising:
- a memory storing instructions for establishing the telephone call between the first and second computer terminals, for causing the first computer terminal to display at least one advertisement during the telephone call, for determining whether the second computer terminal accepts advertisements, for causing the second computer terminal to display at least one other advertisement during the telephone call when the second computer terminal accepts advertisements, for determining a subsidized billing rate based on the display of at least one advertisement on the first computer terminal and the display of at least one other advertisement on the second computer terminal, and for generating a bill of said telephone call based on the subsidized billing rate;
- and
- a processor for executing the instructions received from the memory.
A system for providing subsidized telephone service in a VoIP network having a plurality of calling computer terminals and called terminals, the system comprising:
- a memory that stores data;
- and
- a processor, connected to the memory, that establishes a telephone call between a calling computer terminal and a called terminal, that causes at least one advertisement to be displayed at the called terminal during the telephone call, and that generates a bill for the called terminal based on a subsidized billing rate related to the display of the at least one advertisement.
A method for determining the status of a subsidized telephone service account, the method comprising:
- establishing a connection from a client computer terminal to a VoIP service provider:
- verifying the existence of a valid client computer terminal account;
- sending billing data from said VoIP service provider to said client computer terminal;
- and
- presenting billing data to a user of said client computer terminal.
A computer-readable medium containing instructions for controlling at least one processor to perform a method comprising:
- establishing a telephone call from a calling computer terminal to a called terminal;
- transmitting at least one advertisement during the telephone call to the calling computer terminal for display at the calling computer terminal;
- determining whether the called terminal accepts advertisements;
- transmitting at least one other advertisement during the telephone call to the called terminal for display at the called terminal when the called terminal accepts advertisements;
- and
- calculating a bill based on a subsidized billing rate related to the display of the at least one advertisement and the at least one other advertisement.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.