US 6,529,592 B1 · Internet-based message delivery with PSTN billing

Abstract

A global computer network message delivery service is disclosed. A sender enters a short message for delivery to a recipient's telephone. The sender also enters the recipient's telephone number. The sender may also enter the telephone number that he can be reached at in case the recipient wants to converse live with the sender upon receipt of the message. The message and other entered information is authenticated and validated. The sender's billing telephone number is determined for billing purposes. A call leg is created from a service node to the switch hosting the sender's billing telephone number. The sender's inter-exchange carrier codes are determined and another call leg is created from the service node to the recipient's telephone. After the recipient answers, the service node plays the message (via text-to-speech technology) to the recipient. The inter-exchange carrier codes are used to bill the message service to the sender's billing telephone number.

Claims19

Dependent claims

A method for sending a message to a recipient's telephone over a global computer network and an advanced intelligent network (AIN) wireline network, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving, over the global computer network, the message in text format and receiving a directory number associated with the recipient's telephone;
determining a billing directory number associated with a sender of the message;
in the AIN network, creating a call from a service node assigned to the billing directory number to a service switching point (SSP) hosting the billing directory number;
determining at least one inter-exchange (IEC) carrier code associated with the billing directory number;
creating a call from the SSP hosting the billing directory number to the recipient's directory number;
converting the text message to an audio message;
playing the audio message over the recipient's telephone;
and
charging the billing directory number for fees associated with establishing the connection between the service node and the recipient's directory number.

6 more elements

A server in a global computer network for sending a message to an advanced intelligent network (AIN) wireline network, wherein the server comprises computer-readable instructions for performing the following steps:

transmitting data to a computing device to display a webpage on the computing device, wherein the webpage requests a user identification and a password from the user of the computing device;
receiving the user identification and the password as inputs from the computing device;
validating the user identification and the password by comparing them to a list of user identifications and passwords pairs;
if the user identification and the password match at least one of the pairs, then determining a billing directory number associated with the user identification and password;
transmitting data to a computing device to display a second webpage on the computing device, wherein the second webpage requests a message body and a recipient's telephone number;
receiving the message body and the recipient's telephone number as inputs from the computing device;
and
transmitting the message body, recipient's telephone number and the billing directory number to a public switched telephone network (PSTN), wherein the PSTN delivers the message body in audio format to a telephone set associated with the recipient's telephone number and wherein the costs for delivering the message body are billed to the billing directory number.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Internet-based message delivery with PSTN billing

Life of this patent

Internet-based message delivery with PSTN billing

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims19