Patent ID: 7720709

Claim:
A method for controlling and operating a vending machine when a user has an account at a bank and there are sufficient funds in the user's account, the vending machine incorporating a mobile radiocommunication transmit/receive unit and configured to be called from the user's mobile telephone unit over a mobile telephone network via an abbreviated mobile telephone number affixed on the vending machine, comprising: upon receipt of a call from the user's mobile telephone unit to the abbreviated mobile telephone number on the vending machine, establishing a connection to the bank, prompting, via the vending machine, the user to select a merchandise item, after the merchandise item has been dispensed, generating a billing entry in the vending machine, settling the billing entry via a payment gateway, the step of settling comprising accessing the user's account, and determining the account number based on the user's mobile telephone number, issuing a request to the payment gateway, with a reference to the vending machine, to reserve a certain maximum amount from the account of the user who has been uniquely identified based on his telephone number, determining the actual telephone number of the vending machine in an intelligent-network control point, establishing a connection from the intelligent-network control point to the payment gateway, making the reservation of the certain maximum amount with the reference to the telephone number of the vending machine, positively acknowledging the reservation in the intelligent-network control point, holding the reserved amount unavailable for other payments until the reserved amount has been cleared, if an acknowledgement from the payment gateway is positive, informing, via the intelligent-network control point, a mobile switching center of an unabridged telephone number for the vending machine, establishing a voice connection, via the mobile switching center, to the vending machine, identifying, in the vending machine, from the ISDN signal, the telephone number of the user, and wherein the step of prompting the user, via the vending machine, to select the merchandise item comprises prompting the user in such a way that the user communicates with the automatic vending machine via his mobile telephone unit, wherein after the user is prompted to select a merchandise item, the GSM connection between the user and vending machine is initiated by the vending machine, wherein when the user presses a selection button, the selected merchandise item is dispensed, and wherein the step of generating a billing entry comprises causing the vending machine to generate an electronic billing entry.