TELEPHONE SUBSCRIPTIONS WITH SERVICE ACCOUNTS

Abstract: The present invention includes a system and a procedure for service differentiated cost control in telephone subscriptions (3) existing in a telecommunication system, such as mobile telephone subscriptions and fixed telephone subscriptions. The invention particularly relates to a system and a procedure for prepaid telephone subscriptions with/to which one or more service accounts (4) are associated/connected. The present invention allows a user to utilize the services which are identified by the receiver's ISDN-number (ISDN = Integrated Services Digital Network), which are associated with/connected to the user's existing service accounts (4). The invention further includes that a subscriber and/or a user via a control unit (1) can update service accounts (4), that is create or delete a service accounts (4) and add or subtract part of a service in a service accounts (4) which they have created themselves. Since the telephone subscription (3) is a prepaid telephone subscription, the one who has created a service account (4) is allowed to pay money into the service accounts (4). Further, a user can, by means of voice control or other access method, activate a specific service, at which the service accounts (4) of the service in question is debited.

Description: TELEPHONE SUBSCRIPTIONS WITH SERVICE ACCOUNTS FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a system for service differentiated cost control in telephone subscriptions existing in a telecommunication system, such as mobile telephone subscriptions and fixed telephone subscriptions. The invention particularly relates to such a system including prepaid telephone subscriptions with/to which one or more service accounts are associated/connected. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION With/to traditional prepaid mobile telephone subscriptions only one account is associated/connected, which is debited all kinds of utilization of mobile telephone services. In the American patent US 5,719,926 a system for prepaid telephone subscriptions is shown. Each user has an account of his/her own, and a group of users can have a common group account, at which a user in a group can select if a service shall be debited the user' s own account or the group account. In WO 92/19078 a system for mobile telephones including an active card, for instance a SIM-card (SIM, Subscriber Identity Module) is shown, which can be placed in two different positions corresponding to two different identities . A disadvantage with/of the system above is that the subscriber, who does not necessarily need to be the same as the user, cannot in a simple way decide who shall be debited for a certain service. Another disadvantage is that the subscriber and/or the user cannot continuously update an account profile, that is create or delete service accounts, for which they are liable for payment. For instance, parents who provide their child with a prepaid mobile telephone subscription to make it possible for the child to, when required, make telephone calls home cannot make sure of if there is money on the account when the child need to make a call home, since the child perhaps has called or sent SMS-messages to his/her mates so that coverage is lacking on the prepaid subscription. Further, there are companies which provide their employees with prepaid mobile telephone subscriptions for use on duty and which do not want that the employees make use of the subscription for, for instance, private international calls. The traditional procedure is to completely block certain services, for instance international calls. Further, the employer perhaps allows the employee to use the mobile telephone subscription privately, but wants to have possibility to separate the costs of/for service calls and private calls, which is not possible in a simple way in known systems. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a system and a procedure for service differentiated cost control in telephone subscriptions existing in one by a network operator provided telecommunication system, such as mobile telephone subscriptions and fixed telephone subscriptions. The invention especially relates to such a system including prepaid telephone subscriptions with/to which one or more service accounts are associated/connected. The present invention further includes that a subscriber and/or a user can update service accounts, that is create or delete a service account, and add or subtract parts of a service in a service account, which they have created themselves and pay money into these. Further, the one who has created a service account, that is the subscriber or the user, will be liable to payment. The invention further includes that a user by means of voice control or other access method can activate a specific service, at which the service account of the service in question is debited. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS The present invention will be described in more details with reference to enclosed drawing, which is not intended to limit the present invention, at which Figure 1 shows a schematic drawing of an embodiment of the system according to the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a system, provided by a network operator, for service differentiated cost control in telephone subscriptions, such as mobile telephone subscriptions and fixed telephone subscriptions, and particularly such a system including prepaid telephone subscriptions with/to which one or more service accounts are associated/connected, and such a system which does not show above mentioned disadvantages. The system according to the present invention will be described in more details with reference to Figure 1. One embodiment of the telecommunication system, as is shown in Figure 1, includes a control unit 1 which, from a communication point of view, is connected to a database 2. A subscriber and/or user can by means of the control unit 1 create a telephone subscription 3 with/to which one ore more, by the subscriber and/or the user selected, service accounts 4 are associated/connected. The system further includes that the subscriber and/or the user by means of the control unit 1 can update the service accounts 4, that is create or delete a service account 4 and add or subtract parts of a service in a service account 4, which they have created themselves. Further, the one who has created a service account 4, that is the subscriber or the user, will be liable for payment. The system makes possible that a service account 4 can be associated with/connected to a specific service, such as a carrier service, access service or a part of these. The carrier services consist of, for instance, speech, data, fax, GSM-speech (GSM, Global System for Mobile communication) , GSM circuit switched data, SMS (Short Message Service) , GSM GPRS-traffic (GPRS, General Packet Radio Service) associated with/connected to a certain APN (Access Point Name) , and access services consisting of, for instance, HTTP (Hyper Text Transport Protocol) , mobile Internet-access and WAP-access (Wireless Application Protocol) . Further, the system includes that the control unit 1, by means of the user's ISDN-number (ISDN, Integrated Services Digital Network), identifies the user's telephone subscription 3 and belonging service accounts 4. One by the user defined specific service is identified by the control unit 1 by means of the receiver's ISDN-number. When, for instance, a service account 4 belonging to the user is associated with/to a part of a carrier service or access-service, for instance that GSM-speech is allowed only to a specific telephone number, the control unit 1 makes identification of the service and service account 4 in question possible by means of the receiver' s ISDN- number, at which the service is executed if the receiver' s ISDN-number is included in any of the user' s service accounts 4, and at which the service is debited the service account 4 in question. Since the telephone subscription 3 is a prepaid telephone subscription, the specific service is executed only if there is coverage on the service account in question 4. Further, the system according to the invention allows that the one who has created the service account 4 can pay money into this. If the receiver's ISDN- number is not included in the service account 4, the system will not allow the specific service. The control unit 1 included in the system according to the present invention further includes that a subscriber, for instance a company, can create a common group subscription 3 for the employees or a group of employees, at which the employees, by means of their mobile telephones or their telephones, have access to common service accounts 4, and at which the employees can create their own private service accounts 4 associated with/connected to the group subscription 3. Further, the system includes activation of a certain service by means of voice control, or other access method. The present invention further includes a procedure for service differentiated cost control in telephone subscriptions existing in a telecommunication system, such as mobile telephone subscriptions and fixed telephone subscriptions, and particularly a procedure for prepaid telephone subscriptions with/to which one or more service accounts are associated/connected. When a user of a telephone subscription 3 wants to utilize a service by means of his/her mobile telephone 5, or his/her telephone 5, the control unit 1 identifies the user's subscription 3 and belonging service accounts 4 by means of the user' s ISDN-number. Further, the specific service is identified by the control unit 1 by means of the receiver's ISDN-number. If the user has a service account 4 for the specific service, the service is executed and the service account 4 is debited. Since the telephone subscription 3 is a prepaid telephone subscription, the specific service is executed only if there is coverage on the service account 4 in question. Further, the procedure includes that a subscriber and/or user can update the account profile, that is create or delete a service account 4, and add or subtract parts of a service in/of a service account 4, which they have created themselves. If the telephone subscription 3 is a prepaid telephone subscription, the procedure further includes that the one who has created a service account 4 can pay money into the service account 4. The procedure according to the present invention further includes that a subscriber, for instance a company, can create a common group subscription 3 for the employees or a group of employees, at which the employees have access to common service accounts 4 by means of their mobile telephones or their telephones, and at which the employees can create their own private service accounts 4 associated with/connected to the group subscription 3. Further, the procedure includes that a user can activate a specific service by means of voice control or other access method. The present invention will be made clearer below by means of two examples including prepaid mobile telephone subscriptions . Example 1. Many parents provide their children with prepaid mobile telephone subscriptions to make it possible for them to make calls home if required. By having separate accounts for different services, the parents can select to pay money into, for instance, a GSM-speech account which only relates to the home telephone number. If the children then want to use for instance SMS to send messages to their friends, the child himself/herself can pay money into his/her SMS- account. Example 2. A company provides its employees with prepaid mobile telephone subscriptions. The employer pays a certain sum of money per month into each employee's GSM-speech account. This money each employee can only use for speech calls, at which these calls can be associated with/connected to certain ISDN-numbers. If some of the employees participate in an experiment where the company uses a WAP-service for its internal time account, the company pays money into the WAP-access account of these employees, at which this account is debited for the WAP- service when the employee accounts for his/her time. Further, the system allows that the employees can use for instance WAP privately by paying money into a private WAP- access account themselves. PATENT CLAIMS 1. System for service differentiated cost control in telephone subscriptions existing in a telecommunication system, for instance mobile telephone subscriptions or fixed telephone subscriptions, including control unit (1) , database (2) and telephone subscription (3), c h a r a c t e r i z e d in that with/to each subscription (3) one or more, by the subscriber and/or user selected, service accounts (4) are associated/connected. 2. System as claimed in patent claim 1, c h a r a c t e r i z e d in that the control unit (1) is arranged to, by means of the user's ISDN-number, identify the user's telephone subscription (3) and belonging service accounts (4). 3. System as claimed in patent claim 1 or 2, c h a r a c t e r i z e d in that said service account (4) is associated with/connected to a specific service, at which the service account (4) is debited the specific service. 4. System as claimed in patent claim 3, c h a r a c t e r i z e d in that said specific service includes a carrier service, such as speech, data, fax, GSM-speech, GSM circuit-switched data, SMS or GSM GPRS. 5. System as claimed in patent claim 3, c h a r a c t e r i z e d in that said specific service includes an access service, such as HTTP, mobile Internet-access or WAP-access.

Claims: System as claimed in any of the patent claims 4-5, c h a r a c t e r i z e d in that said specific service includes a part of said carrier service or said access service. System as claimed in any of the patent claims 3-6, c h a r a c t e r i z e d in that the control unit is arranged to, by means of the receiver's ISDN- number, identify said specific service. 8. System as claimed in any of the previous patent claims, c h a r a c t e r i z e d in that said control unit(l) is arranged to allow a subscriber and/or a user to update the service accounts (4), that is create or delete service accounts (4) and add or subtract parts of a service of/in a service account (4), which they have created themselves. 9. System as claimed in any of the previous patent claims, c h a r a c t e r i z e d in a group subscription (3) including service accounts (4), which service accounts (4) are common to a group of users. 10. System as claimed in any of the previous patent claims, c h a r a c t e r i z e d in a voice control function by means of which the user can activate a service. 11. System as claimed in any of the previous patent claims, c h a r a c t e r i z e d in that said telephone subscription (3) is a prepaid telephone subscription, at which the one who has created a service account (4) is allowed to pay money into the service account (4), and at which the specific service is executed if there is coverage on the service account (4) . 10 12. Procedure for service differentiated cost control in telephone subscriptions existing in a telecommunication system, for instance mobile telephone subscriptions or fixed telephone subscriptions, including control unit (1), database (2) and telephone subscription (3), c h a r a c t e r i z e d in that a subscriber and/or user creates one or more service accounts (4) associated with/connected to the telephone subscription (3) . 13. Procedure as claimed in patent claim 12, c h a r a c t e r i z e d in that when the user utilizes a service, the control unit (1) identifies, by means of the user's ISDN-number, the user's telephone subscription (3) and which service account/accounts (4) that are associated with/ connected to the subscription (3) , further the control unit (1) identifies a specific service by means of the receiver's ISDN-number, if service account (4) exists for the specific service, the service is executed, at which the service account (4) is debited. 14. Procedure as claimed in patent claim 12 or 13, c h a r a c t e r i z e d in that the subscriber and/or the user via the control unit (1) updates the service accounts (4), that is creates or deletes service accounts (4) and adds or subtracts parts of a service in a service account (4), which they have created themselves, at which the one who has created the service account (4) will be liable to payment. 15. Procedure as claimed in any of the patent claims 12- 14, c h a r a c t e r i z e d in that the subscriber creates a group subscription (3) including service 11 accounts (4), which service accounts (4) are common to a group of users. 16. Procedure as claimed in any of the patent claims 12- 15, c h a r a c t e r i z e d in that the user activates a service by means of voice control. 17. Procedure as claimed in any of the patent claims 12- 16, c h a r a c t e r i z e d in that said telephone subscriptions (3) are prepaid telephone subscriptions, at which the one who has created a service account (4) pays money into the service account (4), and at which the specific service is executed if there is coverage on the service account (4) .

Inventors: ERIKSSON JONAS, HANSSON MIKAEL, URBY GOERAN, ERIKSSON, JONAS, HANSSON, MIKAEL, URBY, GOERAN
Applicants: TELIA AB, TELIA AB (PUBL)
Application year: 2001
Main classification: H04M15
IPC codes: H04M15, H04M17