Patent ID: 8583519

Claim:
A system determining billable transmission network usage for transmitting a broadcast message to a plurality of broadcast message receiving devices located within a broadcast target area by a broadcast transmission network serving a network serving area with a plurality of network transmission elements each serving a network element portion of the network serving area, the system comprising: a broadcast transmission network usage module having a computer with a processor, a memory having a broadcast message billing rate parameter stored therein, an input data interface and an output data interface and communicatively coupled via the input data interface to a broadcast message origination system and via the output data interface to the broadcast transmission network, and with computer executable instructions performing the steps of receiving a broadcast message record that includes the broadcast message, a broadcast message originator identifier, and the geographically defined broadcast target area over the input data interface from the broadcast message origination system; determining a set of one or more network transmission elements from among the plurality of network transmission elements within the broadcast transmission network having network element serving area portions that serve at least a portion of the received broadcast target area; calculating a broadcast message area served from the determined set of network transmission elements and the associated network element serving area portions; determining a density of broadcast message receiving devices associated with the calculated broadcast message area served; determining a length of the received broadcast message; generating over the output data interface an incurred network usage record for the broadcast message record as a function of the determined broadcast message length, the determined density, and the calculated broadcast message area served by the determined set of network transmission elements and their associated network element serving area portions; and generating over the output data interface a broadcast message billing amount associated with the received broadcast message record as a function of the broadcast message originator identifier, the broadcast message billing rate parameter and the generated incurred network usage record.