Handling insufficient account balance of subscribers

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9614980-B1
Application number	US-201615251069-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Aug 30, 2016
Priority date	Sep 19, 2007
Publication date	Apr 4, 2017
Grant date	Apr 4, 2017

Abstract

A system, method, and computer readable medium comprising instructions for handling insufficient account balance of subscribers in a mobile communications network is disclosed. A request for communication is received from a mobile station. A determination is made as to whether a subscriber of the mobile station has an insufficient account balance. If the subscriber has an insufficient account balance, the request is withheld and the mobile station is notified by a short message.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method, comprising:
determining if a subscriber of a destination mobile station has an insufficient account balance;
withholding a request for communication from a mobile station;
notifying the destination mobile station if the subscriber has an insufficient account balance; and
notifying the mobile station of the insufficient account balance, regardless of whether a voice call or a short messaging service via the mobile station is in progress, wherein the notification comprises instructions regarding how to recover the withheld request for communication.

2. The method of claim 1 , comprising determining if a subscriber of the mobile station has an insufficient account balance, wherein the determining comprises:
sending a query for an account balance of the subscriber to a server;
receiving the account balance from the server; and
determining if the account balance is below a predetermined threshold amount.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the query is sent to the server periodically.

4. The method of claim 2 , comprising notifying the mobile station automatically if the account balance is above the predetermined threshold amount.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the notifying comprises sending a short message indicating an insufficient account balance to the mobile station and wherein the short message comprises time and date of the request.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the short message is sent to the mobile station periodically.

7. The method of claim 3 , wherein the short message comprises instructions on how to replenish funds.

8. The method of claim 1 , comprising receiving a request for the communication from the mobile station.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising forwarding the request to the destination mobile station if the subscriber has a sufficient account balance.

10. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions that when read by a processor cause the processor to perform:
determining if a subscriber of a destination mobile station has an insufficient account balance;
withholding a request for communication from a mobile station;
notifying the destination mobile station if the subscriber has an insufficient account balance; and
notifying the mobile station of the insufficient account balance, regardless of whether a voice call or a short messaging service via the mobile station is in progress, wherein the notification comprises instructions regarding how to recover the withheld request for communication.

11. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 10 , comprising determining if a subscriber of the mobile station has an insufficient account balance, wherein the determining comprises:
sending a query for an account balance of the subscriber to a server;
receiving the account balance from the server; and
determining if the account balance is below a predetermined threshold amount.

12. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 11 , wherein the query is sent to the server periodically.

13. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 11 , comprising notifying the mobile station automatically if the account balance is above the predetermined threshold amount.

14. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 13 , wherein the notifying comprises sending a short message indicating an insufficient account balance to the mobile station and wherein the short message comprises time and date of the request.

15. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 14 , wherein the short message is sent to the mobile station periodically.

16. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 12 , wherein the short message comprises instructions on how to replenish funds.

17. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 10 , comprising receiving a request for the communication from the mobile station.

18. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 10 , further comprising forwarding the request to the destination mobile station if the subscriber has a sufficient account balance.

19. A system, comprising:
at least one mobile station;
at least one mobile switching center communicably connected to the at least one mobile station and at least one short message service center;
at least one short message service center communicably connected to at least one mobile switching center; and
a server communicably connected to the at least one short message service center,
wherein the at least one short message service center:
determines if a subscriber of a destination mobile station has an insufficient account balance;
withholds a request for communication from a mobile station;
notifies the destination mobile station if the subscriber has an insufficient account balance; and
notifies the mobile station of the insufficient account balance, regardless of whether a voice call or a short messaging service via the mobile station is in progress, wherein the notification comprises instructions regarding how to recover the withheld request for communication.

20. The system of claim 19 , wherein the at least one short message service center receives a request for the communication from the mobile station.

Assignees

• West Corp

Inventors

• Hwang Kuen-Yih
• Snapp John Lawrence

Classifications

• H04W4/24

  Accounting or billing · CPC title

• H04W4/14

  Short messaging services, e.g. short message services [SMS] or unstructured supplementary service data [USSD] · CPC title

• H04M15/852 Primary

  Low balance or limit reached · CPC title

• H04W4/12

  Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements · CPC title

• H04M2017/243

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