Patent ID: 7027799

Claim:
A method for PrePaid Charging of short messages in a telecommunications network, the method comprising the steps of: receiving a short message at a home Message Center (MC), the short message being originated by an A-subscriber and destined to a B-subscriber; responsive to the reception of the short message service, determining at the home MC that prepaid charging is applicable for the short message for at least one of the A-subscriber and the B-subscriber; sending from the home MC to a PrePaid Charging Service Control Point (PPC SCP) a Short Message Analyzed (SM ANLYZD) message for notifying the PPC SCP that prepaid charging is applicable for the short message for the at least one of the A-subscriber and the B-subscriber, the SM ANLYZD message including: a. a Short Message Service (SMS) Event parameter for indicating a chargeable SMS event; b. a SMS Bearerlength parameter for indicating a length of the short message; and c. a SMS BillingID parameter for correlating charging operations related to the short message; verifying at the PPC SCP a prepaid account balance of the prepaid account; determining at the PPC SCP that the prepaid account balance is sufficient; updating at the PPC SCP the prepaid account balance; determining at the PPC SOP that the at least one of the A-subscriber and the B-subscriber is to be charged for further processing of the short message; and charging at the PPC SCP a prepaid account of the at least one of the A-subscriber and the B-subscriber for the short message.