Patent Abstract:
This invention relates to an enhanced method and apparatus for providing notification to a telecommunications customer using prepaid service that his/her prepaid balance is below a pre-specified threshold. The number of notifications is limited to a specified number within a specified interval. Advantageously, the customer is spared the nuisance o receiving multiple notifications when he/she is already aware of the problem.

Full Description:
TECHNICAL FIELD 
     This invention relates to an enhanced method and apparatus for notifying prepaid telecommunications customers that their balance is below a threshold or is actually zero or negative. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     Many telecommunications customers choose to pay for their service through the establishment of a prepaid service account. This account maintains a balance of the amount of telecommunications services either in units or in dollars that a customer has in his/her account and can use for telecommunications services. In general, the account can be replenished via a call in which the customer supplies a credit or debit card number and the amount to be added to his/her account or the account can be replenished through the use of “scratch” cards purchased from vendors and communicated by the customer to the telecommunications service provider. Some retailers also provide a service whereby the customer pays a retailer and the retailer purchases telecommunications services provider for the customer. Scratch cards or retailer purchased services offer the possibility of promotions wherein the balance added to a customer&#39;s account exceeds the amount that the customer pays to the scratch card vendor or the retailer. Some customers use a service wherein they provide a credit or debit card number to the service provider and the service provider automatically replenishes the account when the account goes below a threshold. 
     However, many customers prefer to have a more active role in controlling their accounts. For these latter customers, provisions are made to notify them through a voice or data message that their account is below some threshold so that they can arrange to add to their account before service is denied. 
     A problem of the prior art is that after a customer&#39;s balance goes below a threshold, the notification systems cause a notification message to be sent to the customer on every call. If the calls are short message service (SMS) calls, these frequent notifications can become annoying to the customer and can lead to complaints to the service provider; these complaints are very expensive to process. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The above problem is solved and a contribution is made over the prior art in accordance with this invention wherein a number of notifications and the timing of these notifications are controlled by a notification class of service for prepaid service customers. Customers may specify that no more than N notifications, wherein N is generally in the range of 1-3, are to be supplied per interval, wherein an interval is typically is typically one day. Different rules are available for notification that a customer&#39;s balance is zero or negative with a warning that service is about to be cut off. 
     In accordance with one feature of Applicants&#39; invention, notification messages can be sent to the customer at every opportunity (e.g., on every call) unless the customer provides a notification acknowledgement indication to the service provider. If the acknowledgement indication includes a personal identification number (PIN), then users other than the main user (for example, the children of the main user) will not be able to suppress further notifications. Advantageously, this arrangement ensures that the customer has heard the notification message without pestering the customer further. 
     In accordance with another feature of Applicants&#39; invention, both the service provider and the customer can change the notification class of service so that if, for example, a customer finds that two notifications in each period are inadequate the customer can increase this number. 
     In accordance with another feature of Applicants&#39; invention, the vendor of prepaid service can provide one or more pre-packaged notification classes of service, and use the choice to promote the vendor&#39;s service. Advantageously, customers can be spared the complexities of initializing their own class of service or having a vendor service representative perform this function. 
     In accordance with another feature of Applicants&#39; invention, when money is automatically withdrawn from a customer&#39;s credit or debit card account because the balance has gone below a threshold for that customer, the customer receives a notification. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a block diagram illustrating the operation of Applicants&#39; invention; 
         FIG. 2  is a flow diagram illustrating the application of low or zero balance notification messages; 
         FIG. 3  illustrates the operations carried out when a low or zero balance notification treatment is requested; and 
         FIG. 4  is a flow diagram illustrating the modification of the customer&#39;s class of service in the notification database. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       FIG. 1  is a block diagram illustrating the operation of Applicants&#39; invention. A customer station  101  accesses a switch arrangement  105  via an SS7 or internet protocol (IP) network  103 . The switch can be a land line switch, a mobile switching center (MSC), or simply a call session control function (CSCF) for steering data packets or data messages in accordance with the requirements of specific calls, such as in Internet Protocol (IP) Multimedia Subsystem (IMS). If the call is recognized to be a short message call, as indicated by signals originating in a cellular station  101 , then the call is routed to a short message service center (SMSC)  107 . The switch or SMSC access the prepaid service complex  109  in order to arrange that the customer be charged for the call by having his/her account debited by the amount of the charges for the call. The switch  105  or SMSC  107  access a prepaid call control unit  111  in the prepaid service complex  109 . The prepaid call control unit communicates with an account management unit  113  which administers the customer&#39;s account, stores the notification database for the customer, and decrements the account in accordance with the charges for the call. The prepaid call control accesses the rating engine  121  in order to find out how much the account should be debited for the call itself and for each minute or other interval of the call. The prepaid call control unit communicates with the account management unit  113  to cause the account management unit to decrement the customer&#39;s account for the call and its time increments. The account management unit then calls on a notification control rule engine  115  when the customer&#39;s account goes below a threshold indicating that notification action may be required. The notification control rule engine then calls on notification control  117  to cause a notification to be sent to the customer from an intelligent peripheral (IP) or media server  119  which communicates with a customer via switch  105  and network  103 . The protocol will depend on networks, call types (voice, data, text messages (SMS, Instant Message, Email)), handset types. 
     Each of the blocks of the prepaid service complex comprises a software package operating under the control of a processor platform. Some physical processor platforms may control several of the blocks. One of the blocks, the account management unit in the preferred embodiment, includes a database  114  which stores the notification class of service of the customers having the flexible notification feature and served by the prepaid service complex. 
       FIG. 2  illustrates the notification process. A prepaid call comes in (action block  201 ). This can be either an outgoing-call from station  101  or, in the case of a cellular station  101 , an incoming call. Test  203  is used to determine whether pre-call notification treatment may be required by checking the balance (test  203 ). If the balance is zero, then the zero balance notification treatment is invoked (action block  205 ) and the call is terminated (action block  207 ). If the pre-call balance check of test  203  indicates a balance above the threshold, then the call is allowed to continue without any balance notification (action block  209 ). If the pre-call balance check test  203  indicates that the balance is equal to or below threshold, then a low balance notification treatment (action block  211 ) is invoked. The details of the low balance notification treatment  211  and the zero balance notification treatment  205  are presented in  FIG. 3 . 
     Following the execution of the low balance notification treatment, the call continues (action block  213 ). 
     In mid-call, at intervals specified by the rating engine and the account management system, the customer&#39;s balance is checked (test  215 ). If the balance is now zero, then the zero balance notification treatment (action block  205 ) is invoked. If the balance is now at or below threshold, then the low balance notification treatment is invoked (action block  217 ). If the balance is above threshold, then the call is allowed to continue until one party hangs up (action block  219 ). Test  215  may be invoked several times during the call as specified by the rating engine and the account management system. 
     When one of the parties hangs up (action block  219 ), then test  221  is used once more to determine whether notification treatment is required in this post-call situation. If the balance is now zero, then the zero balance notification treatment  205  is invoked. If the balance is at or below threshold, then low balance notification treatment is invoked (action block  223 ). If the balance is above threshold, then the call is simply terminated without further notification action (action block  207 ). 
     The notification class of service can be tailored to the individual customer or may be one of a plurality of classes offered by a vendor. 
       FIG. 3  is a flow diagram illustrating the application of low or zero balance notification. The test of whether the notification is to be applied is the same for a low or zero balance notification except that different counters are used to determine whether a low balance notification should be sent or whether a zero balance notification should be sent. A need for a low or zero balance notification has been detected (action block  301 ) in one of a number of places ( 205 ,  211 ,  217 ,  223 ) the flow diagram of  FIG. 2 . Test  303  is used to determine whether this is the first notification request in the period of the notification interval. This period is typically a day. Associated with the interval is a maximum number of notifications which should be provided to the customer during that interval. If this is the first notification treatment request during the period then, in the preferred mode, a balance notification is sent to the customer (action block  305 ). If this is not the first notification treatment request, test  306  is used to determine whether there are time of day or day of week restrictions; if such restrictions exist as part of the notification class of service, and if the present day and time is on the restricted list, no notification will be sent. In alternate embodiments, the time and day restriction can be applied to the first notification also. Time of day and day of week restrictions can be used to decrease notification traffic during busy hours. Subsequently, test  307  is used to determine whether fewer than N notifications have been transmitted in this period. If that is the case, then a balance notification message is sent to the customer (action block  305 ). If N notifications had already been sent, then test  309  is used to determine if this is the first request for a notification following a top up. This would occur if the customer topped up his/her account but made so many calls following this top up that the balance is again low. If that is the case, then the counter should be reset and a balance notification should be sent (action block  305 ). If this is not the first request following a top up, a check is made (test  311 ) whether an operator override has been received requesting that a balance notification be sent even if N notifications had already been sent. If that is the case, then a balance notification message is sent. If there is no operator override, then this is a situation (action block  313 ) in which no balance notification is to be sent at this point. 
     Following action block  305  (the playing of a balance notification), test  315  is used to ask whether acknowledgement is used for balance notifications to this customer. If the customer does not have this feature, then this is the end of the process of responding to the need for a balance notification. If the customer has the acknowledgement feature, then test  319  is used to determine if the customer has provided an acknowledgement along with a personal identification number (PIN). If the customer has not provided an acknowledgement, then this is the end of the notification procedure. If the customer has provided an acknowledgement, then the counter of notifications is set to exceed the maximum number N so that no further notifications will be sent to the customer (action block  321 ). 
     The type of notification is also part of the notification class of service. For ordinary handsets, an oral notification may be preferred. For fancier handsets, a message may be preferred. For data terminals, a message, possibly accompanied by an audible signal (e.g., a bell) may be preferred. 
       FIG. 4  illustrates the process of accessing the notification database by either the customer or the service provider. The customer accesses the database (action block  401 ). Test  403  is used to determine whether the customer provides a correct personal identification number (PIN). If the customer does provide a correct PIN then a dialog is allowed between the customer and the database to modify the database. Following either the modification of the database or the failure of the customer to provide a correct PIN, the process is ended (end block  405 ). If the service provider accesses the database (action block  411 ), then a dialog takes between the service provider and the database to modify the database (action block  413 ): Following the completion of action block  413 , end block  405  is entered. 
     The notification database contains fields for the following:
         1. threshold for notification   2. interval for providing N notifications   3. N the number of notifications to be provided during that interval   4. M the number of zero balance notifications to be provided during the interval   5. Is the customer provided with the acknowledgement feature?   6. PIN for the acknowledgement feature   7. PIN for modifying the database   8. Time of day and day of week restrictions   9. Type of notification to be used (e.g., oral, data message, data message plus audible signal)   10. Identification of vendor of prepaid service.       

     The data in the notification database supports the various features described above. 
     The above description is of one preferred embodiment of Applicants&#39; invention.

Technology Classification (CPC): 7