Method and apparatus for generating billing data in a telecommunication system
View Patent ↗A billing center for a mobile communications system is provided which allows groups of subscribers sharing a single account to be identified both during the call rating procedure, during which call detail records are related to add a charge to the call detail record, and/or to add a usage of a pre-paid usage allocation to be added to the call detail records, and during the production of billing details at the end of a billing period. A relational database holds usage allocation records which pertain either to a single subscriber, or to a group of subscribers. The group of subscribers may consist of any of 2 to 50, or more, subscribers, depending on the subscription type held by the group.
1. A method of generating billing data for subscribers in a telecommunications system by administering a shared usage plan, comprising:
registering a plurality of groups of subscribers, each of said groups comprising a plurality of subscribers for which a single shared usage plan is held;
assigning a shared usage allocation of an original magnitude to each of said groups that is available for usage by the group at a beginning of a predetermined period, wherein the original magnitude of each shared usage plan is predetermined in accordance with the shared usage plan held by a group;
maintaining a record for each group of subscribers, wherein the record includes subscriber identification data for each subscriber and the shared usage allocation assigned to the group;
determining if a subscriber of one of said groups uses a telecommunications service;
accessing, upon determining that the subscriber uses the telecommunications service, the record for the group of which the subscriber is a member; and
analyzing call data so as to apply one of a number of different predetermined call charging tariffs to a call made by the subscriber, in dependence of the group of which the subscriber is a member, in order to generate charging data for said call and to allow a common charging tariff to be applied for each subscriber in a group for which a combined subscription is held when said shared usage allocation has been exhausted.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the original magnitude is a predetermined number of minutes.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the original magnitude is a predetermined amount of money.
4. A method of generating billing data for subscribers in a telecommunications system, said method comprising:
storing subscriber records for a plurality of groups of subscribers, each of said groups comprising a plurality of subscribers for which a combined subscription is held, said groups comprising different numbers of subscribers;
relating a shared usage allocation of an original magnitude to each of said groups at the start of each of a series of predetermined periods, the original magnitude of each of said shared usage allocation being predetermined in accordance with the subscription type held for each group, respectively; and
analyzing call data so as to apply one of a number of different predetermined call charging tariffs to a call made by a subscriber in one of said groups, in dependence of the group of which the subscriber is a member, in order to generate charging data for said call and to allow a common charging tariff to be applied for each subscriber in a group for which a combined subscription is held when said shared usage allocation has been exhausted.