Method and apparatus for charging a fee to a party initiating a telephone call when the party is not on an authorization list associated with the called party

[0002] This document claims priority to and the benefit of the filing date of co-pending and commonly assigned provisional application entitled “A METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR BILLING A FEE TO A PARTY INITIATING A TELEPHONE CALL WHEN THE PARTY IS NOT ON A LIST OF AUTHORIZED PARTIES” assigned Ser. No. 60/095,939, filed Aug. 10, 1998, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein.

[0003] The present invention relates to communications and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for charging a fee to a calling party initiating a telephone call to a called party when the calling party is not on an authorization list associated with the called party.

[0004] Many businesses utilize telemarketing as a means of soliciting customers in order to promote or sell the company's products and/or services. Telephone companies have not yet successfully employed a mechanism which either allows the targeted party to avoid the telephone solicitation or to receive some type of pecuniary benefit for receiving the solicitation.

[0005] A service known as Caller-ID is now available which allows a party receiving a telephone call to visually review the telephone number and/or the identity of the calling party before deciding whether to accept the telephone call. However, Caller-ID has several disadvantages. First of all, when the called party receives a telephone call, the called party must visually review the caller's identity and/or the telephone number on the display of the Caller-ID device to determine whether he or she wishes to accept the telephone call. Therefore, the telephone rings regardless of whether or not the called party is interested in accepting the call, which interrupts the called party. Although the Caller-ID service does provide the subscriber with the option of blocking telephone calls, it does not provide for billing the calling party a fee in order to connect the calling part with the called party.

[0006] Secondly, many telephone calls show up on the Caller-ID display as “unknown” or “private” numbers, thereby preventing the called party from ascertaining the telephone number and/or identity of the calling party. Therefore, the called party often feels compelled to accept the call when this message is displayed even though the called party does not know the telephone number and/or the identity of the calling party.

[0007] Accordingly, a need exists for a method and apparatus that allows a receiving party of a telephone call to effectively block the call and/or accept the in exchange for some pecuniary benefit charged to the party initiating the call.

[0008] The present invention provides a method and apparatus for determining whether a party initiating a telephone call is on a list of parties authorized by the called party. If the calling party is not on the list of authorized parties, a fee is charged to the calling party. All or a portion of this fee may be paid to the called party or may be applied to the called party's telephone service billing account to reduce the called party's telephone bill. The present invention is not limited with respect to the manner in which the fee is collected and/or used after the calling party has been charged.

[0009] The present invention is also not limited with respect to the location at which the method and/or apparatus are located in the telephone network. Preferably, the present invention is implemented at the called party's central office, i.e., at the central office which services the called party. In accordance with common-channel signaling, commonly referred to as signaling system 7 (SS7), the calling party's telephone number and identity are received in the call signaling data transmitted to the central office which services the called party. Many services, such as, for example, caller-ID, are implemented at the called party's central office. Therefore, processing equipment is already available at central offices for detecting the calling party's identity and telephone number and for processing this information. Preferably, this processing equipment at the called party's central office is programmed in accordance with the present invention to compare the calling party's identity and/or telephone number with a list of authorized identities and/or telephone numbers associated with the called party to determine whether the calling party is an authorized party.

[0010] Preferably, the service provided by the present invention is optional and can be enabled or disabled at the called party's central office depending on whether the called party has subscribed to the service. Assuming the called party has subscribed to the service, if the calling party is not an authorized party, the processing equipment either automatically charges the calling party a connection fee and connects the calling party with the called party, or informs the calling party that it is not an authorized party and gives the calling party the option of being disconnected or being billed the connection fee and connected to the called party. In the later case, if the calling party authorizes the connection fee to be billed, the calling party is then connected to the called party. Otherwise, the calling party is disconnected.

[0011] These and other features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description, drawings and claims.

[0012] FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a typical telephone network implementing common-channel signaling, commonly referred to as signaling system 7 (SS7).

[0013] FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating the components of the central office shown in FIG. 1.

[0014] FIG. 3 is a flow chart functionally demonstrating the method of the present invention in accordance with a first embodiment.

[0015] FIG. 4 is a flow chart functionally demonstrating the method of the present invention in accordance with a second embodiment.

[0016] FIG. 4 illustrates a block diagram of a telephone system 1 in which the method and apparatus of the present invention may be implemented. For ease of illustration, only two customer premises 4 and 5 and the central offices 2 and 3 to which they are connected are shown in FIG. 1. Central offices 2 and 3 provide the switching operations for connecting a calling party located at a customer premises 5 with a called party located at another customer premises 4. A twisted, or copper, pair 6 connects the central office 2 to a telephone 8 located at the customer premises 4. The central office 2 is connected to central office 3 via a cable trunk 11. The central office 3 is connected to a telephone 9 located at customer premises 5 via a twisted, or copper, pair 7. Voice information is transmitted over trunk 11 between central offices 2 and 3.

[0017] Preferably, call signaling is accomplished in accordance with the common-channel signaling protocol which is well known in the communications industry and which utilizes a separate dedicated data channel to carry signaling information in the form of short packets of data. In accordance with this protocol, the packets of data contain call signaling information as well as the identification and/or telephone number of the calling party. These packets are transmitted between the signaling processors 13 and 15 via cable trunk 14. The signaling processors 13 and 15 determine the switching of the customer circuits to be performed by switching modules (not shown) located at the central offices 2 and 3 to cause the calling party located at customer premises 5 to ultimately be connected to the called party located at customer premises 4.

[0018] FIG. 2 is a block diagram which illustrates the central offices 2 and 3 in more detail. Each of the central offices comprise an administrative module and a plurality of switching modules. The functions of these components will be described with respect to central office 2. The administrative module 18 receives the call signaling information from the signaling processor 13 and causes the switching modules 20 to be switched to set up call sessions for telephones 21. The administrative module 18 also handles all billing tasks for the central office 2 and creates billing files that are ultimately dumped to a location designated by the telephone company where they are used to generate customers' bills. The administrative module comprises a computer (not shown) running software for performing all of these tasks. The administrative module 18 also comprises a memory device (not shown) in communication with the computer with for storing any files used by or generated by the computer and any other software needed by the computer for performing all of its tasks.

[0019] The switching modules 20 perform the switching of the customer circuits. Preferably, the method of the present invention is implemented in part by the switching modules 20 and in part by the administrative module 18. Each of the switching modules comprises a computer for performing the switching functions. This computer preferably is utilized in accordance with the present invention to determine whether the identity and/or telephone number of the calling party is on a list of parties authorized by the called parties. Each switching module 20 contains a list which corresponds to each of the called parties serviced by that particular switching module. Once this determination is made by the switching module 20, the switching module 20 takes the appropriate action. The administrative module 18 calculates all billing information relating to the fee to be charged to and collected from the calling party.

[0020] This method of the present invention is shown in detail in FIG. 3 in accordance with a first embodiment. When a calling party initiates a telephone call, the call signaling information is decoded in the manner discussed above, as indicated at block 32. It will be understood by those skilled in the art that the method and apparatus of the present invention apply to all types of communications devices which utilize the telephone network including, but not limited to, for example, analog telephones, digital telephones, cordless telephones, hand-held devices, facsimile machines, pagers, cellular telephones, etc. It will be understood by those skilled in the art the manner in which the method and apparatus of the present invention apply to all such devices.

[0021] The information decoded at block 12 will include both the calling party's telephone number, as well as the called party's telephone number. This information may also contain the identity of the calling party. Preferably, the called party's telephone number is used to generate a memory address, or a block of addresses, at which the called party's list of authorized calling parties is stored. The computer of the switching module 20 then compares the calling party's telephone number with the telephone numbers contained in the list, as indicated at blocks 33 and 34 and makes a determination as to whether the calling party's telephone number is contained on the list of authorized calling parties.

[0022] If so, the calling party is connected to the called party by the switching module without a fee being charged to the calling party's account, as indicated at block 35. If not, the calling party is charged a fee and the calling party is connected with the called party, as indicated at block 36. The calling party's billing account is then updated, as indicated at block 37. The administrative module 18 then calculates the percentage of the collected fee to be added to the called party's account, as indicated at block 38. The administrative module then updates the called party's billing account, as indicated at block 39. It will be understood by those skilled in the art that the order in which steps 35 through 39 are performed is not critical to the present invention. For example, the operations occurring at block 37 may be performed prior to the calling party actually being connected to the called party. Similarly, the called party's account could be updated before the calling party's account is updated. Also, other determinations may also be made, such as, for example, whether the calling party's billing account is current, i.e., whether or not the calling party has been delinquent in paying its telephone bill or its toll fee bill.

[0023] FIG. 4 illustrates an alternative embodiment of the present invention which is similar to the embodiment shown in FIG. 3 except that, prior to billing the fee to the calling party's account, a determination is made as to whether the calling party has authorized these types of fees to be billed to its account, as indicated at step 45. This feature of the present invention is intended to prevent calling parties from being billed without their knowledge or consent. A determination is made at step 43 as to whether the calling party is on the list of authorized calling parties. If so, the calling party is connected with the called party without the fee being charged, as indicated at block 44. If the calling party is not on the list of authorized calling parties, a determination is made as to whether the calling party has authorized billings for these types of fees to be charged to its account, as indicated at block 45. If not, the calling party is informed that it has not authorized these types of billings, as indicated at block 47.

[0024] If the calling party has authorized such billings, the fee is charged to the calling party's billing account and the calling party is connected with the called party, as indicated at block 46. The calling party's billing account is then updated, as indicated at block 48. The percentage of the fee to be added to the called party's account is then calculated, as indicated at block 49, and the called party's billing account is updated, as indicated at block 51. Whatever percentage of the fee that is not added to the called party's account may be retained by the telephone company. However, as indicated above, the manner in which the fee is allocated is not critical to the present invention.

[0025] It should also be noted that the methods of the present invention described above can also be used with facsimile machines since these also make use of the telephone network and since the telephone number of the calling facsimile machine is contained in the common-channel signaling information. In this case, the steps performed in FIGS. 3 and 4 will also be performed for facsimile communications using the telephone number of the facsimile initiating the communication.

[0026] It should be noted that the present invention has been described with respect to particular embodiments, but that the present invention is not limited to these embodiments. It will also be understood by those skilled in the art that the manner in which an unauthorized calling party is billed with a fee and the manner in which the billing account of the calling or receiving party is updated is not limited to any particular method. Also, the location at which the billing of the fee and the updating of any accounts is performed is not limited to any particular location. This preferably is performed at the central office connected to the customer premises, but may also be performed at some location in the telephone network which is in communication with the customer premises. It will be understood by those skilled in the art that other modifications and variations to the embodiments of the present invention discussed above can be made which are in the scope and spirit of the present invention.