Patent ID: 8929858
Filing Date: 2015-01-06
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 single respective cost to be charged for any number of minutes of use falling within that minute-range, wherein each of the minute-ranges defined by the banded pricing schedule spans a plurality of minutes; determining a number of minutes of telecommunication service that were used by a given subscriber during a given period; querying, by a microprocessor, the banded-pricing schedule to determine which minute-range the determined 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.