Patent ID: 7333796

Claim:
A method for providing a wireless telephone service, the method comprising: providing a dedicated programmable wireless telecommunication switch coupled to a public switched telephone network, a voice mail server, and a billing server; providing a wireless handset having a telephone number associated with it, the handset being capable of telephonic communication with the dedicated switch, and of placing and receiving telephone calls through a secured list of telephone numbers programmed in the dedicated switch; providing at least two billing accounts associated with the telephone number of the handset to provide substantial control over the cost of non-essential usage and provide substantially inexhaustible emergency communication “safety net”, the accounts comprising a secured account having a password and the telephone numbers of the secured list associated with it, and a dependent account having a password associated with it; detecting the telephone number of a caller of an incoming call to the handset, and if none is detected, then prompting the caller to provide a password; detecting the telephone number being called in an outbound call from the handset; debiting the secured account for completed incoming calls to the handset in which the detected number of the caller is on the secured list, or in which the caller provides the password of the secured account, and for completed calls from the handset to telephone numbers on the secured list; debiting the dependent account for completed incoming calls to the handset in which detected number of the caller is not on the secured list, or in which the caller does not provide the password of the secured account, and for completed outgoing calls from the handset to numbers that are not on the secured list; and detecting credit in at least one of the secured account and the dependent account in response to at least one of the incoming call to the handset or the outbound call from the handset.