Patent ID: 8089943

Claim:
A computer-based method for providing communication between short-range wireless devices over the Internet or other digital communication network, comprising: providing first and second servers communicatively linked to a digital communication network, each of the servers being adapted for communicating wirelessly with the short-range wireless devices within a first cell and a second cell, respectively, about the first and second servers; detecting with the first server a user device adapted for short-range wireless communication within the first cell including determining an identifier of the user device; based on the identifier, retrieving a contact list from memory listing a set of users of communication devices adapted for short-range wireless communication; receiving a request from the detected user device to communicate with a target one of the user devices on the contact list; establishing a communication session between the detected user device and the target user device, wherein the communication session includes transferring data between the detected user device and the target user device via the first server, the communication network, and the second server; transmitting to the detected user device a request to media contents to the detected user device; receiving consent to receive the media contents from the detected user device; transmitting the media contents to the detected user device; modifying a user profile associated with the target user device to increase an amount of available free talk credit time associated with the target user device based upon receiving the consent to receive the media contents; prior to the establishing the communication session, determining an amount of available free talk credit time is eater than zero; monitoring a length of the communication session; and terminating the communication session when the length exceeds the amount of available free talk credit time.