Patent ID: 6968048

Claim:
A system for providing augmented billing messages comprising: a message accounting record creation apparatus being in communication with a signaling network and a switching network, said message accounting record creation apparatus to receive a plurality of call records from said signaling network and a plurality of message accounting records from said switching network and output a plurality of augmented message accounting records, each of said output plurality of augmented message accounting records being generated using one of the plurality of signaling network call records and one of the plurality of switching network message accounting records, wherein said message accounting record creation apparatus comprises: a switching network automatic message accounting record receiver component to receive said switching network automatic message accounting record; a signaling network call record receiver component to receive said signaling network call record; a comparison component in communication with said switching network automatic message accounting record receiver component and said signaling network call record receiver component, said comparison component to output each of said switching network message accounting record and said signaling network call record as one of a matched record and an unmatched record; a selection component in communication with said comparison component, said selector component to output a selected matched record, if said switching network automatic message accounting record and said signaling network call record are matched; a message accounting record generation component in communication with said selection component and said comparison component, said message accounting record generation component to generate final message accounting information; and a message accounting record formation component in communication with said message accounting record generation component, said message accounting record formation component to output said final message accounting information as said augmented message accounting record.