Patent ID: 7505451

Claim:
A meter rate fees charging apparatus for charging a meter rate fee to a sender by amount of use of a computer network offering Internet connection services, comprising: receiving means for receiving information transmitted to a recipient via the computer network as part of the services, the information being transmission information composed of communication information having the personal information of the sender, including a source IP address, and the personal information of the recipient, including a sink IP address, and zone information denoting a zone where the recipient is; detecting means for detecting the personal information and the zone information of the recipient in the transmission information; and charging processing means for determining whether to charge the sender, the recipient, or the sender and the recipient based on a classification of an edge router associated with the source IP address and an edge router associated with the sink IP address, wherein if the charging processing means determines to charge the sender, the charging processing means makes a charge of the meter rate fee to the sender based on the zone information and an amount of time for a flow of Internet communication to reach the edge router associated with the source IP address from the edge router associated with the sink IP address, wherein the edge router associated with the source IP address is connected to a user router corresponding to the sender and the user router corresponding to the sender is connected to a sender communication terminal, and wherein the edge router associated with the sink IP address is connected to a user router corresponding to the recipient and the user router corresponding to the recipient is connected to a recipient communication terminal.