Apparatus and method to identify potential work-at-home callers
A method of identifying work at home users of a telecommunications network based on call detail records. The phone numbers of the work at home users are identified from call detail records that exhibit characteristics of work at home users. In one embodiment this involves selecting records describing calls to phone numbers of known Internet Service Providers; excluding records describing calls less than a predetermined length of time; excluding records containing originating numbers with records describing calls to an ISP that occur on weekends; and excluding records containing originating numbers with records describing calls to an ISP that occur outside normal business hours.
1. A method of identifying work at home users of a telecommunications network, the method comprising:
retrieving records describing phone calls;
identifying phone numbers from the retrieved records that exhibit characteristics of work at home users;
eliminating duplicate entries of exclusive phone calls from the identified phone numbers; and
generating a list of the exclusive phone calls from the identified phone numbers after eliminating the duplicate entries.
2. A method, as set forth in claim 1 , wherein the step of retrieving records comprises retrieving call detail records from a database.
3. A method, as set forth in claim 2 , wherein the database is contained in a data management component.
4. A method, as set forth in claim 1 , wherein the step of identifying phone numbers comprises selecting records describing calls to phone numbers of known Internet Service Providers.
5. A method, as set forth in claim 1 , wherein the step of identifying phone numbers comprises excluding records describing calls less than a predetermined length of time.
6. A method, as set forth in claim 1 , wherein the step of identifying phone numbers comprises excluding records containing originating numbers with records describing calls to an ISP that occur on weekends.
7. A method, as set forth in claim 1 , wherein the step of identifying phone numbers comprises excluding records containing originating numbers with records describing calls to an ISP that occur outside normal business hours.
8. A method, as set forth in claim 1 , wherein the step of identifying phone numbers further comprises:
selecting records describing calls to phone numbers of known Internet Service Providers;
excluding records describing calls less than a predetermined length of time;
excluding records containing originating numbers with records describing calls to an ISP that occur on weekends; and
excluding records containing originating numbers with records describing calls to an ISP that occur outside normal business hours.
9. A method, as set forth in claim 1 , further comprising generating a list of ISP phone numbers for which associated call at homers are to be identified.
10. A system for identifying work at home users of a telecommunications network, the system comprising:
a CDR feed that generates call detail records;
means for identifying phone numbers from the call detail records that exhibit characteristics of work at home users;
means for eliminating duplicate entries of exclusive phone numbers from the identified phone numbers; and
means for generating a list of the exclusive phone numbers from the identified phone numbers after eliminating the duplicate entries.
11. A system for identifying work at home users of a telecommunications network, the system comprising:
a CDR feed that generates call detail records;
a storage device for storing the call detail records;
an application in communication with the storage device that retrieves call detail records and identifies phone numbers from the retrieved call detail records that exhibit characteristics of work at home users;
a device for eliminating duplicate entries of exclusive phone numbers from the identified phone numbers; and
a generator device generating a list of the exclusive phone numbers from the identified phone numbers after eliminating the duplicate entries.
12. A system, as set forth in claim 11 , wherein the application retrieves all call detail records for a certain timeframe from a database.
13. A system, as set forth in claim 12 , further comprising a database management system associated with the storage device for managing the call detail records.
14. A system, as set forth in claim 11 , wherein the application selects call detail records describing calls to phone numbers of known Internet Service Providers.
15. A system, as set forth in claim 11 , wherein the application excludes call detail records describing calls less than a predetermined length of time.
16. A system, as set forth in claim 11 , wherein the application excludes records containing originating numbers with records describing calls to an ISP that occur on weekends.
17. A system, as set forth in claim 11 , wherein the application excludes records containing originating numbers with records describing calls to an ISP that occur outside normal business hours.
18. A system, as set forth in claim 11 , further comprising a second application that identifies phone numbers of internet service providers.
19. A method for identifying phone numbers of interest, the method comprises:
selecting records describing calls to phone numbers of known Internet Service Provides (ISP);
excluding records from the selected records, the excluded records describing calls less than a predetermined length of time, containing originating numbers with records describing calls to an ISP that occur on weekends, and/or containing originating numbers with records describing calls to an ISP that occur outside normal business hours;
eliminating duplicate entries of exclusive phone numbers from the excluded records; and
generating a list of the exclusive phone numbers after eliminating the duplicate entries.