Claims
- 1. A method of generating a billing record by a telecommunication service provider for at least one telecommunication service subscriber, the method comprising:
retrieving sample telephone call transaction data for the subscriber; processing the sample telephone call transaction data in accordance with service rate plans of competitive telecommunication service providers; generating an estimated toll amount for the transaction data for each service rate plan; comparing estimated toll amounts; based on the comparison, determining a lowest toll amount; deducting a constant amount from the lowest toll amount; based on the deduction, forming a final toll amount; and generating the billing record for the subscriber based on the final toll amount.
- 2. The method of claim 1 wherein retrieving sample telephone call transaction data comprises retrieving transaction data for a plurality of telephone calls placed by the subscriber during a time period.
- 3. The method of claim 1 wherein retrieving sample telephone call transaction data comprises retrieving transaction data for calls placed by the subscriber during a monthly billing period.
- 4. The method of claim 1 wherein retrieving sample telephone call transaction data comprises retrieving a time of day, a date, a duration and a call destination for a plurality of calls.
- 5. In a network for providing telecommunication service to a plurality of network subscribers, a method of generating a billing record for a network subscriber, the method comprising:
comparing toll amounts produced in accordance with a plurality of competitor rate plans to determine a lowest toll amount, the rate plan associated with the lowest toll amount being a lowest-cost rate plan of the plurality of rate plans; forming a final toll amount which is a fixed amount less than the amount that would be billed in accordance with the lowest-cost rate plan of the plurality of rate plans; and generating the billing record for the network subscriber based on the final toll amount.
- 6. The method of claim 5 further comprising:
receiving a transaction record including transaction data corresponding to at least one sample telephone call; and processing the transaction data by a plurality of rate plans, each rate plan generating a toll amount corresponding to the at least one sample telephone call.
- 7. The method of claim 6 wherein processing the transaction data comprises calculating toll amounts as a function of time of day, day of week or total monthly call volume.
RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application is a continuation of application Ser. No. 10/274,617, filed Oct. 21, 2002, pending, which is a continuation of application Ser. No. 09/888,946, filed Jun. 25, 2001, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,498,840, which is a continuation of application Ser. No. 09/304,944, issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,252,951 B1 on Jun. 26, 2001, which is a continuation of application Ser. No. 08/846,155, filed on Apr. 25, 1997, issued as U.S. Pat. No. 5,881,138, and is also a continuation of application Ser. No. 08/845,173, filed Apr. 25, 1997 and issued as U.S. Pat. No. 5,920,613, all of which are incorporated herein in their entirety by this reference.
Continuations (5)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
10274617 |
Oct 2002 |
US |
Child |
10823992 |
Apr 2004 |
US |
Parent |
09888946 |
Jun 2001 |
US |
Child |
10274617 |
Oct 2002 |
US |
Parent |
09304944 |
May 1999 |
US |
Child |
09888946 |
Jun 2001 |
US |
Parent |
08846155 |
Apr 1997 |
US |
Child |
09304944 |
May 1999 |
US |
Parent |
08845173 |
Apr 1997 |
US |
Child |
09304944 |
May 1999 |
US |