Patent ID: 8369500

Claim:
A system for funding a pre-paid wireless account in a revenue management system of telecommunications network, the system comprising: a network layer including a telecommunications network adapted to deliver communication services to a first user of a plurality of users, the plurality of users comprising at least one user accessing telecommunication services under each of a plurality of payment models including a prepaid model, a post-paid model, and a now-paid model and wherein the first user comprises a user under the pre-paid model and wherein the communication services are delivered to the plurality of users via a plurality of protocols; a gateway layer communicatively coupled with the network layer and adapted to receive a request for service from the first user via the network layer and request authentication of the first user and authorization of the service requested and wherein gateway layer performs mediation and translation between the plurality of protocols and failure detection and recovery; a revenue capture layer communicatively coupled with the telecommunication network and adapted to receive the request for authentication of the first user and authorization of the service requested from the gateway layer and perform authentication of the first user and authorization of the service requested, the revenue capture layer further adapted to receive a payment from a sponsoring entity, wherein the sponsoring entity comprises a second user of the plurality of users and the payment is made using the sponsoring entity's method of payment for the telecommunication services, and apply the payment from the sponsoring entity to an account of the first user wherein the sponsoring entity's method of payment if under the post-paid model and the account of first user is under the pre-paid model; and a revenue management layer communicatively coupled with the revenue capture layer and adapted to maintain one or more data stores of information including customer account information for the first user and pricing information for the communication services, wherein the revenue capture layer performs authentication of the first user based on the customer account information and performs authorization of the service requested based on the customer account information and the pricing information for the telecommunication services.