Patent ID: 6970692

Claim:
In a single unit cellular telephone with internal processor and memory and built-in display device and keyboard, a method of tracking available service plan minutes for a user of the cellular phone, comprising: providing a user-selectable option for tracking available usage time remaining within said service plan minutes, said user-selectable option being provided within a menu of available options provided by internalized applications of said cellular telephone; prompting a user for user-input of options for tracking service plan information and displaying available minutes information on said built-in display device, wherein said displaying information is selected from among displaying actual available minutes and displaying a time tracking bar indicative of a percentage of available minutes remaining, wherein said prompting is initiated when the available usage time menu option is selected; recording and storing service plan information in the memory of said cellular phone; monitoring time usage for calls on said cellular phone via said internal processor and memory; and displaying available time of said service plan on the built-in display device of said cellular phone.