Patent ID: 7068996
Filing Date: 2006-06-27
Classification: H04M

Abstract:
1. A banded billing method for telecommunication services comprising: maintaining in data storage a banded-pricing schedule that divides a continuum of minutes of use into a series of contiguous, mutually-exclusive minute-ranges and that specifies for each minute-range a respective cost; determining a number of minutes of telecommunication service that were used by a given subscriber during a given period; querying the banded-pricing schedule to determine which minute-range the number of minutes falls into, and to determine the cost specified by the banded-pricing schedule for that minute-range; and billing the determined cost to the given subscriber, for use of the telecommunication service during the given period, wherein the series of minute-ranges begins with a first minute-range of 0 to P minutes, and then continues with minute-ranges R