Systems for enabling subscriber monitoring of telecommunications network usage and service plans

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9544751-B2
Application number	US-201414554187-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 26, 2014
Priority date	Apr 26, 2011
Publication date	Jan 10, 2017
Grant date	Jan 10, 2017

Abstract

Methods, servers and systems for directly accessing and modifying charging information maintained within a telecommunications operator's business and operating systems' infrastructure from user equipment. A mobile application server may receive a charging request from a user equipment, identify a relevant charging system based on the received request, send a charging request to the identified charging system for processing, receive a first response message including charging information from the identified charging system, generate a second response message based on the charging information included in the first response message, and send the generated second response message to the user equipment. The received charging request may include various types of information, including information for transferring cost or billing information from a first billing category to a second billing category.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of accessing information in a telecommunications network, comprising:
receiving, via a processor in a server device, a request message from a user equipment device;
identifying, via the processor in the server device, a charging system and a policy management system based on information included in the received request message;
sending by the server device a charging request message to the identified charging system and a policy request message to the identified policy management system;
receiving in the server device a charging response message from the identified charging system and a policy response message from the identified policy management system;
generating in the server device a response message based on information included in the received charging response message and information included in the received policy response message; and
sending by the server device the generated response message to the user equipment device.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein receiving in the server device the request message from the user equipment device comprises receiving a communication message that includes at least one of:
charging information;
loyalty information;
information for obtaining network connectivity information; and
information for transferring cost information from a first billing category to a second billing category.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein sending by the server device the charging request message to the identified charging system comprises sending a communication message that instructs the identified charging system to modify charging information.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
setting by the server device a threshold based on the information included in the received request message; and
sending by the server device a notification message to the user equipment device in response to determining that the threshold is breached.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein identifying the charging system comprises:
receiving in the server device information from subscriber repository;
determining in the server device a charging system type based on the information received from subscriber repository; and
identifying in the server device one of an online charging system (OCS) and an offline charging system (OFCS) based on the determined charging system type.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein generating in the server device the response message based on information included in the received charging response message and information included in the received policy response message comprises the server device generating a communication message that includes at least one of:
harassment prevention information;
service level restriction information;
content filtering information;
network utilization information;
user group information;
dynamic pricing information; and
parental control information.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising predicting in the server device one of a future balance and a future rate based on the information included in the charging response message.

8. A server computing device, comprising:
a processor configured with processor-executable instructions to perform operations comprising:
receiving a request message from a user equipment device;
identifying a charging system and a policy management system based on information included in the received request message;
sending a charging request message to the identified charging system and a policy request message to the identified policy management system;
receiving a charging response message from the identified charging system and a policy response message from the identified policy management system;
generating a response message based on information included in the received charging response message and information included in the received policy response message; and
sending the generated response message to the user equipment device.

9. The server computing device of claim 8 , wherein the processor is configured with processor-executable instructions to perform operations such that receiving the request message from the user equipment device comprises receiving a communication message that includes at least one of:
charging information;
loyalty information;
information for obtaining network connectivity information; and
information for transferring cost information from a first billing category to a second billing category.

10. The server computing device of claim 8 , wherein the processor is configured with processor-executable instructions to perform operations such that sending the charging request message to the identified charging system comprises sending a communication message that instructs the identified charging system to modify charging information.

11. The server computing device of claim 8 , wherein the processor is configured with processor-executable instructions to perform operations further comprising:
setting a threshold based on the information included in the received request message; and
sending a notification message to the user equipment device in response to determining that the threshold is breached.

12. The server computing device of claim 8 , wherein the processor is configured with processor-executable instructions to perform operations such that identifying the charging system comprises:
receiving information from subscriber repository;
determining a charging system type based on the information received from subscriber repository; and
identifying one of an online charging system (OCS) and an offline charging system (OFCS) based on the charging system type.

13. The server computing device of claim 8 , wherein the processor is configured with processor-executable instructions to perform operations such that generating the response message based on information included in the received charging response message and information included in the received policy response message comprises generating a communication message that includes at least one of:
harassment prevention information;
service level restriction information;
content filtering information;
network utilization information;
user group information;
dynamic pricing information; and
parental control information.

14. The server computing device of claim 8 , wherein the processor is configured with processor-executable instructions to perform operations further comprising predicting one of a future balance and a future rate based on the information included in the charging response message.

15. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having stored thereon processor-executable software instructions configured to cause a server processor to perform operations comprising:
receiving a request message from a user equipment device;
identifying a charging system and a policy management system based on information included in the received request message;
sending a charging request message to the identified charging system and a policy request message to the identified policy management system;
receiving a charging response message from the identified charging system and a policy response message from the identified policy management system;
generating a response message based on information included in the received charging response message and information included in the received policy response message; and
sending the generated response message to the user equipment device.

16. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15 , wherein the stored processor-executable software in

Assignees

• Openet Telecom Ltd

Inventors

• Mcnamee Alan
• Dunne Cameron Ross
• Hogan Joe
• Lehane Bart
• D'Souza Andrew

Classifications

• H04L12/1467

  involving prepayment · CPC title

• H04M15/70

  Administration or customization aspects; Counter-checking correct charges · CPC title

• H04M15/8351

  before establishing a communication · CPC title

• H04M15/72

  by the user · CPC title

• H04M15/85

  characterised by the type of condition triggering a notification · CPC title