Patent ID: 8369829

Claim:
An apparatus for providing billing solutions for advanced group services in a mobile phone network, comprising: a mobile phone network for making calls between mobile phones, wherein the calls are initiated by call setup and in-band signaling within the mobile phone network and voice frames for the calls are switched between the mobile phones by at least one mobile switching center across bearer paths in the mobile phone network; and a real-time exchange that interfaces to at least one mobile switching center in the mobile phone network to provide the advanced group services therein; wherein both the real-time exchange and the mobile phones that use the advanced group services communicate with each other using the call setup and in-band signaling within the mobile phone network, such that at least one mobile switching center routes an originating leg of the advanced voice services from an originating mobile phone to the real-time exchange, the real-time exchange initiates one or more terminating legs of the advanced voice services to one or more terminating mobile phones through at least one mobile switching center, and the real-time exchange switches the voice frames for the advanced group services between the originating and terminating mobile phones across the bearer paths and through at least one mobile switching center in the mobile phone network; and wherein a billing mechanism is provided for a prepaid or real-time billing subscriber of the advanced group services, in that: the mobile switching center identifies the originating mobile phone as the prepaid or real-time subscriber to the real-time exchange when routing the originating leg of the advanced voice services to the real-time exchange, the real-time exchange identifies the originating mobile phone as the prepaid or real-time subscriber to the mobile switching center when routing the terminating legs of the advanced voice services to the mobile switching center, and the mobile switching center communicates with a billing server to bill the originating mobile phone for the originating leg and all of the terminating legs, when the originating mobile phone is identified as the prepaid or real-time subscriber.