Patent ID: 8208895
Filing Date: 2012-06-26
Classification: G06Q,H04M

Abstract:
1. A method for use in a telecommunications system in which subscribers are provided with accounts against which services are billed, the system being of the type in which calls are normally billed to calling parties, comprising: receiving an initiate call signal from a telecommunications device of a particular caller; in response to receiving the initiate call signal and before establishing a usable voice channel between the particular caller's telecommunications device and a telecommunications device of a callee, automatically and independently of the particular caller's direct or indirect request for the callee to pay for an incoming call associated with the initiate call signal, providing the callee with a charging option to enable the callee to unilaterally opt to pay, from a subscriber account of the callee, for some or all of the cost of the incoming call; and in response to receiving, from the callee's telecommunications device, a signal indicating the callee's acceptance of the charging option, sending a charging instruction to a billing system associated with the subscriber account of the callee and establishing the useable voice channel, otherwise sending a billing instruction to a billing system associated with the caller.