Granted Patent B2

US 7,734,282 · App. 10/652,719 · Granted Jun 8, 2010

Abstract

Claims (44)

1. A method of provisioning telecommunication offerings, comprising:

receiving from a first provider a message at a services clearing house to provision a telecommunication offering at a customer's premises;

processing the request into a provisioning message;

directing the provisioning message to the customer's premises, thereby causing the offering to be provisioned at the customer's premises;

maintaining the offering at the customer's premises;

receiving a request for the service from the customer;

directing the request to the first provider;

receiving from a second provider a message at the services clearing house to provision a different telecommunication offering at a different customer's premises;

processing the request into a provisioning message; and

directing the provisioning message to the different customer's premises, wherein the second provider is different from the first provider.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein directing the provisioning message to the customer's premises comprises directing the provisioning message to customer premises equipment at the customer's premises.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the customer premises equipment comprises a network interface device configured to receive provisioning information via a wireless transmission.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the customer premises equipment is selected from the group consisting of network interface device, video receiver, broadband modem, and telephone receiver.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein maintaining the offering at the customer's premises comprises querying customer premises equipment.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein maintaining the offering at the customer's premises comprises sending a diagnostic request to the customer's premises.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the diagnostic request comprises data update and equipment reboot commands.

8. A method of provisioning telecommunication offerings, comprising:

receiving from a provider a message comprising an offering;

receiving from a consumer of telecommunication offerings an enrollment message;

providing a list of offerings to the consumer;

receiving a request to provision at least one telecommunication offering to the consumer, wherein receiving of the request to provision at least one telecommunication offering to the consumer comprises receiving the request from a provider;

comprising verifying the provider's authority to provision the service, wherein verifying the provider's authority to provision the service comprises confirming the provider's identity using a digital certificate;

preparing a provisioning message relating to the request;

transmitting the provisioning message to a location of the consumer, thereby causing the offering to be provisioned; and

maintaining the offering at the location of the consumer.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein receiving from a provider a message comprising an offering comprises receiving a type of offering, information indicating a type of customer premises equipment used to receive the offering, and information from which eligible consumers may be determined.

10. The method of claim 8 , further comprising storing information relating to the message in a centralized services database.

11. The method of claim 8 , wherein receiving from a consumer of telecommunication offerings an enrollment message comprises receiving customer information comprising a type of customer premises equipment of the customer and information used to determine telecommunications offerings the customer is eligible to receive.

12. The method of claim 8 , wherein receiving a request to provision at least one telecommunication offering to the consumer comprises receiving the request from the consumer.

13. The method of claim 8 , wherein preparing a provisioning message relating to the request comprises preparing the provisioning message using XML.

14. The method of claim 8 , wherein maintaining the offering at the location of the customer comprises querying a customer premises equipment.

15. The method of claim 8 , wherein maintaining the offering at the location of the customer comprises sending a diagnostic request to the location of the customer.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the diagnostic request comprises data update and equipment reboot commands.

17. A telecommunication provisioning system, comprising:

a services clearing house configured to receive telecommunication offerings from a plurality of providers and direct the telecommunication offerings to a plurality of customers via customer premises equipment; and

a provisioning arrangement configured to receive requests to provision and maintain telecommunication offerings from a plurality of service providers to a plurality of customers at each customer's premises, receive a request for the service from a first customer from the plurality of customers, direct the request to a first provider from the plurality of providers;

wherein the services clearing house is further configured to receive, from a second provider from the plurality of providers, a message to provision a different telecommunication offering at a different customer's premises, process the request into a provisioning message, and direct the provisioning message to the different customer's premises, wherein the second provider is different from the first provider.

18. The system of claim 17 , wherein the telecommunication offerings are selected from the group consisting of video programming, broadband access, and telephone service.

19. The system of claim 17 , further comprising a billing system that periodically provides to providers information relating to the telecommunication offerings provisioned to customers.

20. The system of claim 17 , further comprising a distribution network through which both telecommunication offerings and provisioning messages are provided from the services clearing house to customers.

21. The system of claim 17 , wherein the provisioning arrangement comprises means for communicating with each of the plurality of providers in a common provisioning language.

22. The system of claim 17 , wherein the provisioning arrangement comprises an arrangement configured to query customer premises equipment.

23. The system of claim 17 , wherein the arrangement configured to query customer premises equipment includes an arrangement configured to send a diagnostic request to customer premises equipment.

24. The system of claim 23 , wherein the diagnostic request comprises data update and equipment reboot commands.

Assignments (7)