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US 9,462,138 B2Granted
Cellular airtime management
AssigneeVodafone IP Licensing Limited
InventorsPeter Cornforth, Jason Downing, Gregory Reeve
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Method and system for crediting cellular accounts with airtime comprising exchanging funds within a mobile telephone based money transfer system account for airtime. Crediting a plurality of cellular accounts with the airtime.
Claims24
A method of crediting cellular accounts with airtime comprising the steps of:
- allocating portions of a total quantity of airtime to be distributed amongst a plurality of cellular accounts;
- accessing, via a server having an interface for communicatively coupling to a mobile telephone based money transfer system, a mobile telephone based money transfer system account that is maintained in association with a corresponding mobile telephone to debit an amount of electronic funds from the mobile telephone based money transfer system account for the total quantity of airtime that is allocated to be distributed amongst the plurality of cellular accounts;
- and
- crediting the plurality of cellular accounts with the allocated portions of airtime.
1 more element
A system for crediting cellular accounts with airtime, the system comprising:
- a server having an interface for communicatively coupling to a mobile telephone based money transfer system, the server being configured to:
- receive an instruction transmitted from a client system to credit a plurality of cellular accounts with portions of a total quantity of airtime that are allocated from the total quantity of airtime to be distributed amongst the plurality of cellular accounts;
- direct, by accessing a mobile telephone based money transfer system account that is maintained in association with a corresponding mobile telephone via the interface, a debit of an amount of electronic funds within the mobile telephone based money transfer system account for the total quantity of airtime that is allocated to be distributed amongst the plurality of cellular accounts;
- and
- credit the plurality of cellular accounts with the allocated portions of airtime.
2 more elements
A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having program code embodied thereon, the program code executable by a processor to implement a method of crediting cellular accounts with airtime, the method comprising:
- allocating portions of a total quantity of airtime to be distributed amongst a plurality of cellular accounts;
- directing an access of a mobile telephone based money transfer system account that is maintained in association with a corresponding mobile telephone via an interface for communicatively coupling to a mobile telephone based money transfer system to perform a debit of an amount of electronic funds from the mobile telephone based money transfer system account for the total quantity of airtime that is allocated to be distributed amongst the plurality of cellular accounts;
- and
- crediting the plurality of cellular accounts with the allocated portions of airtime.
1 more element
A computer apparatus, comprising:
- a processor, and a memory storing computer readable instructions for execution by the processor to perform a method of crediting cellular accounts with airtime, and wherein the method comprises:
- allocating portions of a total quantity of airtime to be distributed amongst a plurality of cellular accounts;
- directing an access of a mobile telephone based money transfer system account that is maintained in association with a corresponding mobile telephone via an interface for communicatively coupling to a mobile telephone based money transfer system to perform a debit of an amount of electronic funds from the mobile telephone based money transfer system account for the total quantity of airtime that is allocated to be distributed amongst the plurality of cellular accounts;
- and
- crediting the plurality of cellular accounts with the allocated portions of airtime.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.