Patent ID: 6996216

Claim:
A method for billing for a call, said method comprising: responsive to detecting a call originated by a caller to a destination line, accessing a caller profile for said caller, wherein said caller profile specifies a limit for automatic acceptance of a tariff payment request for said call; responsive to detecting a callee answer said call at said destination line, accessing a callee profile for said callee, wherein said callee profile designates a first cost for access to said callee during a current time period and a second cast for access by said caller to said callee; initiating a request to bill said caller a tariff for said call, wherein said tariff is calculated from said first cost and said second cost in said callee profile; responsive to said caller limit for automatic acceptance exceeding or matching said tariff, automatically initiating negotiation of payment of said tariff; responsive to said tariff exceeding said limit for automatic acceptance, prompting said caller to accept payment of said tariff to initiate negotiation of payment of said tariff to receive access to a destination line during said call; and responsive to negotiating said payment of said tariff from a caller account provided specified in said caller profile to a callee account provider specified in said callee profile, connecting said caller with said destination line, such that said caller pays for access to said destination line.