Network support for minute usage alerting

A system for providing automatic notification, by a telecommunications network, to a subscriber that the subscriber has talked on a mobile terminal for a subscriber-defined amount of time, the system comprising:

• a mobile terminal that is operatively connected to a telecommunication network;
• a call controller in the telecommunication network for controlling a call for the mobile terminal;
• a plurality of categories of usage of a mobile terminal;
• a respective interval for each category of the plurality of categories of usage;
• a storage in the telecommunication network operatively connected to the call controller, the defined intervals and the respectively associated categories of usage being stored in the storage;
• determination module operatively connected to the storage and to the call controller, the determination module determining for the call a current applicable category of the plurality of categories for the mobile terminal;
• monitoring module operatively connected to the call controller, the monitoring module monitoring a time that the call has been active on the mobile terminal;
• comparator module operatively connected to the monitoring module and to the storage, the comparator module comparing the time the call has been active to the stored interval tat is associated with the current applicable category;
• and
• notification module operatively connected to the comparator module and to the call controller, the notification module sending a predetermined notification signal from the telecommunication system to the mobile terminal when the time that the call has been active exceeds the stored interval that is associated with the current applicable category.