Patent ID: 6240167
Filing Date: 2001-05-29
Classification: G06Q,G07F,H04L

Abstract:
A method of automatic billing for consumption of a commodity provided on an on-demand basis by a commodity supplier to a user remote from said supplier, wherein a metering device is provided for measuring a consumption of said commodity and a coupling device is connected to said metering device, and wherein a connection to a billing service, using telecommunications services of a telephone service provider, is initiated by said coupling device, said method comprising the steps of:a. defining a billing unit of a commodity and a billing value for said billing unit, wherein said billing unit is a quantity of commodity consumed;b. defining a user telephone number that identifies a particular user;c. defining a billing telephone number that represents said billing value that is applied to said billing unit for each instance a connection is made between said user telephone number and said billing telephone number;d. monitoring a metering device for consumption of said billing unit of said commodity;e. notifying a billing service of said consumption of one said billing unit of said commodity by establishing a connection between said user telephone number and said billing telephone number, wherein said telephone service provider sets a flag for each instance said connection is made; andf. generating a user invoice for said consumption of said commodity by tallying each said flag to obtain an invoice tally that is equivalent to a total billing amount for all instances said connection was established.