Patent ID: 8010080

Claim:
A method comprising: in the midst of a billing period, a billing controller determining a subscriber's rate of usage of telecom service so far in the billing period, wherein the subscriber operates under a service plan that grants the subscriber a base number of units of usage per billing period and that requires the subscriber to pay a set fee per unit of usage, if any, beyond the base number; the billing controller applying the rate of usage to predict a quantity of telecom service that the subscriber will use in the remainder of the billing period; the billing controller computing an overage charge for at least a portion of the predicted quantity of telecom service, wherein computing the overage charge for at least the portion of the predicted quantity of telecom service comprises: multiplying the set fee by the predicted quantity of telecom service to establish the overage charge if the subscriber does not have any unused base units of usage remaining in the billing period; and if the subscriber has any unused base units of usage remaining in the billing period, then (i) reducing the predicted quantity of telecom service by the unused base unit(s), and (ii) then multiplying the set fee by the reduced quantity, to establish the overage charge for at least the portion of the predicted quantity of telecom service; the billing controller causing a payment platform to refuse to provide telecom service to the subscriber for the remainder of the billing period until the subscriber pays at least the computed overage charge for at least the portion of the predicted quantity of telecom service; and, if the subscriber has not paid the computed overage charge, the billing controller causing a communication session initiated by the subscriber to be rerouted to the payment platform until the subscriber pays at least the computed overage charge for at least the portion of the predicted quantity of telecom service.