Patent ID: 7013136
Filing Date: 2006-03-14
Classification: H04W

Abstract:
1. A method for gathering data from a plurality of wireless communication networks comprising the steps of: deploying a plurality of data gathering nodes at various geographic locations in a plurality of wireless communication networks; gathering data at said plurality of data gathering nodes from each wireless communication network of said plurality of wireless communication networks; processing the data at a control center; and using a data mining application to process the data gathered by said plurality of data gathering nodes to produce marketing and usage characterization information, wherein said step of processing the data at said control center to produce marketing information on each wireless communication network of said plurality of wireless communication networks comprises calculating the share of subscribers for each wireless communication network for a given time period, and wherein said method of calculating the share of subscribers for each wireless communication network of said plurality of wireless communication networks for a given time period comprises: sorting through the data gathered from each data gathering node of said plurality of data gathering nodes during the given time period and counting a base number of different unique subscriber identifiers for each wireless communication network of said plurality of wireless communication networks; extrapolating the base number of different unique subscriber identifiers for each wireless communication network to an adjusted number of unique subscriber identifiers; summing the number of adjusted unique subscriber identifiers counted for each wireless communication network of said plurality of wireless communication networks to produce a total number of subscribers for said plurality of wireless communication networks; and dividing the number of adjusted unique subscriber identifiers for each wireless communication network of said plurality of wireless communication networks by said total number of subscribers for said plurality of wireless communication networks.