Patent ID: 8565720
Filing Date: 2013-10-22
Classification: H04M,H04W

Abstract:
1. A method of informing a portable electronic device of a number of available pre-paid text messages, comprising: billing a pre-paid subscriber account for a predetermined number of text messages to be sent by a portable electronic device; incrementing, by an application executing on a computer, a current balance of the pre-paid subscriber account by the predetermined number of text messages purchased to determine an initial number of pre-paid text messages available to the portable electronic device; determining, by the application, a count indicating a remaining balance of pre-paid text messages based on the initial number of pre-paid text messages available to the portable electronic device and how many text messages have been at least one of received and sent by the portable electronic device since billing the pre-paid subscriber account; and sending, by the application, a message comprising the count to the portable electronic device, wherein the message sent to the portable electronic device comprises a pair of numbers, wherein a first number of the pair of numbers comprises the count and a second number of the pair of numbers comprises the initial number of pre-paid text messages available to the portable electronic device, and wherein the pair of numbers is displayed each time the portable electronic device is in a text message display screen.