Recharging prepaid accounts within a telecommunications network

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10582065-B2
Application number	US-201816183653-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 7, 2018
Priority date	Nov 7, 2017
Publication date	Mar 3, 2020
Grant date	Mar 3, 2020

Abstract

Systems and methods are described herein for recharging prepaid accounts within a telecommunications provider, such as a network carrier, using information provided by postpaid account subscribers. For example, the systems and methods facilitate the receipt of instructions from mobile devices associated with postpaid accounts. Upon receipt of the messages, the systems and methods (such as systems within a charging system of the network carrier or provider) identify intended or recipient mobile devices associated with prepaid accounts. Once identified, the systems and methods recharge the prepaid accounts, based on the instructions received from the postpaid account mobile devices.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A non-transitory computer-readable medium whose contents, when executed by a network server associated with a telecommunications network, causes the network server to perform a method for providing telecommunications services to a mobile device over the telecommunications network, where the mobile device is associated with a prepaid subscriber of a service provider for the telecommunications network, the method comprising:
receiving, via an evolved node B of the telecommunications network, a message from a first mobile device that is associated with a postpaid subscriber of the telecommunications network,
wherein the message includes contents that identify a second mobile device associated with a prepaid subscriber of the telecommunications network, an identifier for the postpaid subscriber of the telecommunications network, and information that identifies an amount to recharge a prepaid account for the prepaid subscriber of the telecommunications network;

transferring the received message from the evolved node B of the telecommunications network to a core network component of the telecommunications network;
at the core network component of the telecommunications network, generating a request to recharge the prepaid account for the prepaid subscriber of the telecommunications network,
wherein the generated request is based on the contents of the message received from the first mobile device; and

at a charging system of the telecommunications network, recharging the prepaid account for the prepaid subscriber of the telecommunications network in response to receiving the request from the core network component.

2. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 , further comprising:
sending, from the charging system to a billing system of the telecommunications network, one or more charging detail records that indicates the recharging of the prepaid account for the prepaid subscriber of the telecommunications network;
at the billing system, debiting a postpaid account for the postpaid subscriber of the telecommunications network in response to the recharging of the prepaid account for the prepaid subscriber of the telecommunications network; and
transmitting a notification from the billing system to the second mobile device that identities the prepaid account associated with the prepaid subscriber has been recharged in response to the message received from the first mobile device associated with the postpaid subscriber of the telecommunications network.

3. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 , further comprising:
sending, from the charging system to a billing system of the telecommunications network, one or more charging detail records that indicates the recharging of the prepaid account for the prepaid subscriber of the telecommunications network; and
at the billing system, debiting a postpaid account for the postpaid subscriber of the telecommunications network in response to the recharging of the prepaid account for the prepaid subscriber of the telecommunications network.

4. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the telecommunications network is a Long-Term Evolution (LTE) network.

5. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the telecommunications network is a 5 th Generation (5G) network.

6. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the message is received from the first mobile device over an Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) channel provided by the telecommunications network.

7. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the message is received from the first mobile device via a Short Message Service (SMS) protocol provided by the telecommunications network.

8. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the message received from the first mobile device includes information that identifies an amount of currency to recharge the prepaid account for the prepaid subscriber of the telecommunications network.

9. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the message received from the first mobile device includes information that identifies an amount of a data bucket to recharge the prepaid account for the prepaid subscriber of the telecommunications network.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the telecommunications network is a Telephony Application Server (TAS) configured to perform message control and handling operations for the telecommunications network.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the message is received from the first mobile device via a mobile application of the first mobile device associated with the service provider that provides the telecommunications network.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 , further comprising:
a signal transfer point component that routes the request generated by the core network component to the charging system of the telecommunications network.

13. A method for providing telecommunications services to a mobile device over a telecommunications network, where the mobile device is associated with a prepaid subscriber of a service provider for the telecommunications network, the method comprising:
receiving, via an evolved node B of the telecommunications network, a message from a first mobile device that is associated with a postpaid subscriber of the telecommunications network,
wherein the message includes contents that identify a second mobile device associated with a prepaid subscriber of the telecommunications network, an identifier for the postpaid subscriber of the telecommunications network, and information that identifies an amount to recharge a prepaid account for the prepaid subscriber of the telecommunications network;

transferring the received message from the evolved node B of the telecommunications network to a core network component of the telecommunications network;
at the core network component of the telecommunications network, generating a request to recharge the prepaid account for the prepaid subscriber of the telecommunications network,
wherein the generated request is based on the contents of the message received from the first mobile device; and

at a charging system of the telecommunications network, recharging the prepaid account for the prepaid subscriber of the telecommunications network in response to receiving the request from the core network component.

14. The method of claim 13 , further comprising:
sending, from the charging system to a billing system of the telecommunications network, one or more charging detail records that indicates the recharging of the prepaid account for the prepaid subscriber of the telecommunications network;
at the billing system, debiting a postpaid account for the postpaid subscriber of the telecommunications network in response to the recharging of the prepaid account for the prepaid subscriber of the telecommunications network; and
transmitting a notification from the billing system to the second mobile device that identities the prepaid account associated with the prepaid subscriber has been recharged in response to the message received from the first mobile device associated with the postpaid subscriber of the telecommunications network.

15. The method of claim 13 , further comprising:
sending, from the charging system to a billing system of the telecommunications network, one or more charging detail records that indicates the recharging of the prepaid account for the prepaid subscriber of the telecommunica

Assignees

• T Mobile Usa Inc

Inventors

• Chandrasekaran Karthik

Classifications

• H04M17/207

  using signaling, e.g. USSD, UUS or DTMF · CPC title

• H04M17/206

  by sending a message, e.g. SMS, MMS or EMS · CPC title

• H04M15/772

  per service, e.g. prepay or post-pay · CPC title

• H04M17/204

  on-line recharging, e.g. cashless · CPC title

• H04M17/02

  Coin-freed or check-freed systems {, e.g. mobile- or card-operated phones, public telephones or booths} · CPC title