Calling-party-pays call processing for cellular and paging
AssigneeSBC Properties, L.P.
InventorsCarol Shifrin Gruchala, Gordon Lynn Blumenschein, Douglas Marshall, Roger Albert Sosa, Carlos Donoso
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An enhanced Calling Party Pays (CPP) or Paging Party Pays (PPP) system that enables 1) billing of calls originating from traditionally non-billable sources, 2) routing of incoming calls to voicemail if the caller does not wish to incur the additional charges, 3) allowing the caller to complete the call and charge the cellular (or paging) subscriber for additional air-time usage when the caller enters a PIN or security code, also referred to as a billing override code, and 4) allowing the caller to block CPP/PPP charges from being billed to the calling party
Claims18
A system for processing a calling party pays call initiated by a first subscriber device to a second subscriber device, the system comprising:
- a processor;
- a switch operative to transmit, to the processor, an automatic number identifier (ANI) of the first subscriber device comprising a calling number and a called number;
- and
- a database comprising a field comprising the billing preferences of the second subscriber device;
- wherein the processor is operative to determine that a billing status of the first subscriber device is nonbillable based on a charge party station type (CPST) of the first subscriber device and, in response to that determination, perform at least one of the following:
- route the call to a voice mail provider or route the call to a billing service provider;
- and
- wherein the processor is further operative to determine that the billing preference of the second subscriber is calling party pays and the processor determines that the billing preferences of the second subscriber is calling party pays by examining the field in the database.
A method of processing a call initiated by a first subscriber device to a second subscriber device, the method comprising:
- receiving an automatic number identifier (ANI) of the first subscriber device comprising a calling number and a called number
- determining a billing status of the first subscriber device based on a charge party station type (CPST) of the first subscriber device;
- determining billing preferences of the second subscriber device in response to the received called number, the billing preferences being calling party pays;
- receiving and verifying a calling party pays override code from a calling party associated with the first subscriber device;
- and
- in response to receiving and verifying the calling party pays override code, routing the call to the second subscriber device without charging additional fees to the calling party, even if the billing status is determined to be billable.
A method of processing a call initiated by a first subscriber device to a second subscriber device, the method comprising:
- receiving an automatic number identifier (ANI) of the first subscriber device comprising a calling number and a called number;
- determining a billing status of the first subscriber device based on a charge party station type (CPST) of the first subscriber device;
- determining billing preferences of the second subscriber device in response to the received called number, the billing preferences being calling party pays;
- and
- terminating the call if the CPST indicates that calling party pays billing is blocked from the calling number.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.