Patent ID: 7761082

Claim:
A control device (D) for transferring units of connection time for a communication network (N 1 ) having accounting and/or billing equipment (ABE 1 ), characterized by the fact that it includes processing means PM designed, when a request is received to transfer a chosen quantity of units of connection time for the benefit of a beneficiary account, associated with the communication identifier of a beneficiary communication terminal (BT) connected to a communication network (R 1 ;R 2 ), to access a first set of accounting and/or billing equipment (ABE 1 ) managing an account of a donor associated with the communication identifier of a donor communication terminal (DT) connected to another potential communication network (R 1 ), to verify whether the quantity of units of connection time that said donor terminal (DT) has is at least equal to said chosen quantity, and if so, to instruct said first equipment and other potential accounting and/or billing equipment (ABE 1 ; ABE 2 ) managing said beneficiary account to proceed with a real-time transfer of a quantity of units of connection time at most equal to said chosen quantity from the donor account to the beneficiary account.