The present invention generally relates to the field of pre-paid calling cards, and in particular where the purchaser wants the card to be restricted to calling a single phone number, a list of phone numbers or other desired restrictions.
Pre-paid calling cards have been in public use for many years. These cards are sometimes lost or stolen, and sometimes not used for what the purchaser intended. In order to prevent misuse, it may be desirable to restrict the set of phone numbers that the prepaid calling card can be used to call. For example, a parent who purchases a phone card for a child who is in college at a location where they might incur toll charges to call home. The parent may want to give the child a prepaid calling card, but may not want the child to be free to call anybody else using that prepaid calling card. When the prepaid calling card is purchased, the parent may want to set up a restriction list that contains phone numbers that can be dialed using the card so that the child can only use that card to call the parent. This list may be established when the card is activated, perhaps using the equipment already in place for activating the card. Presently, there is no method for a purchaser to do so at the place of purchase.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,903,633 to Lorsch, “Method and Apparatus for Prepaid calling card Activation and Billing,” which is hereby included by reference, explains how prepaid calling cards may be distributed to retailers, each having an account number. This patent shows how to activate one of a plurality of pre-paid calling cards at a retail location using a point of sale terminal that reads an identification code from the prepaid calling card, perhaps an identification code that is encoded on a magnetic strip of the prepaid calling card. This patent does not include an important feature of the present invention, but provides a mechanism for activating the prepaid calling cards at the point of purchase.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,825,863 to Walker, “Prepaid Limited Usage Calling Card,” hereby included by reference, presents a system for restricting a prepaid calling card, but requires the purchaser to activate the card, then call an 800 number to administer phone numbers and limits by entering various combinations of digits, “*” and “#” on a standard phone keypad. Although this may produce similar results, it requires extra steps by the purchaser and creates a very limited user interface because of the limitations of the standard phone keypad. The difficulty in understanding and setting up restrictions may deter a large population of potential users from taking advantage of this feature. Furthermore, someone using a rotary dial phone cannot administer this system.
Throughout this description, prepaid phone card, prepaid calling card, calling card and phone card are used interchangeably to describe a card that has associated with it an account code, which is, preferably, unique. This number is likely encoded onto a magnetic strip or stripe, stored in a memory, encoded into a barcode, or encoded in many other ways known in the industry. Furthermore, this account code may be printed on a surface of the card so that the user can enter this number when establishing a call. Additionally, instructional information as well as an access number, preferably a toll-free number, may be also printed on the card so that a user may be able to use the card by dialing the access number, entering the account code, then after being authorized, entering the number they wish to call, all using the keypad of a telephone.
The present invention is directed to a means of restricting a prepaid calling card so that it can be used to dial only certain phone numbers and/or can be used at specified times, and/or can be used on specified dates and/or can be restricted as to the number of calling units per time period allowed (for example, allow 100 minutes per week). The restricted list may reside in the magnetic stripe of the phone card itself, in any other memory means located in or on the phone card or the list may reside within the telephone network, perhaps on a storage device such as a hard disk, perhaps in a database that may be accessed when the card is used. The present invention has a feature, whereby the desired restrictions are captured at the point of purchase, possibly on a point of sale terminal. In this manner, the customer may request a large variety of restrictions and a trained salesperson or the customer may enter this information into the point of sale terminal for association with the purchased calling card. The restrictions may be, one or more allowed numbers that can be called, one or more prohibited numbers that can't be called, the number of calling units per time period allowed, usage time or date restrictions, etc. For example, a calling card can be restricted to be allowed to call either a first phone number or a second phone number, only on Saturdays or Sundays, only between 9:00 AM and 9:30 PM and a maximum of 100 calling units may be used per week. Calling units are usually prepaid minutes.
In one embodiment, the restrictions are entered in a point-of-sale terminal and programmed into or onto the prepaid calling card's memory for use when the card is swiped.
In another embodiment, the restrictions are entered in a point-of-sale terminal and forwarded to a central database along with other activation information so that when the card is used, the number (or numbers); time or date; and/or limits per period are checked at the same time the card is authorized is checked for making the desired call.
It is to be understood that both the forgoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary only and are not restrictive of the invention as claimed. The general functions of this invention may be combined in different ways to provide the same functionality while still remaining within the scope of this invention. The embodiments have a point-of-sale terminal as the device in which the restricted set of phone numbers is entered, but said device can be any device that resides at the point of purchase, including a point-of-sale terminal, a credit-card authorization device, a kisok, a device made specially to program prepaid calling cards or any other device that has the ability to allow entry of the restrictions and can effect the system changes required to transfer the set of restrictions for access when the prepaid calling card is used.
The numerous advantages of the present invention may be better understood by those skilled in the art by reference to the accompanying figures in which:
Reference will now be made in detail to the presently discussed embodiment of the invention, an example of which is illustrated in the accompanying drawings.
Referring now to
Once the scanned information is present in point of sale controller 130, the retailer may be presented with a form on display 135, allowing the retailer or customer to input restrictions that the purchaser of the card may desire. These restrictions may be entered using a keypad 140 or other similar data entry device such as a keyboard, set of switchers or touch-screen input. A sample of this form is shown in
Referring now to
Once all restrictions are entered at the point of sale terminal, the point of sale terminal connects with the centralized computer and transmits the restriction data along with other data read from the card and perhaps other data from the retailer to the centralized computer 230. The Communications may be any form of communications known, or a combination of communications, perhaps a dial-up connection, Ethernet link, wireless link such as 802.11, dedicated connection such as RS-232, Universal Serial Bus, IEEE 1394 (Firewire), DOCSIS (cable modem), DSL (Digital Subscriber Loop) or the like. An example of a combination might be wireless (802.11) through to an access point, then broadband (e.g., DOCSIS or DSL) to the centralized computer. The centralized computer system may be local to the retailer or it may be at a remote location where many retailers may access the same centralized computer. The central computer system 180 may then authorize the prepaid calling card and enter the authorization information along with the restrictions into authorization database 160 for access each time the prepaid calling card is used in step 240. Finally, in step 250, the central computer sends an approval back to point of sale terminal 170 to indicate that the prepaid calling card is now ready to use.
Referring now to
Continuing with
When all restrictions are set to values desired by the customer, the customer or retailer initiates a complete function to tell the point of sale terminal to send the information to the central computer (see description of
Referring now to
At step 430, the phone system accesses the database within the central computer to retrieve information about the prepaid calling card, using the account number as a key. This method is known in the industry and is already in use for determining validity of prepaid calling cards as well as keeping track of remaining message units. In addition, the information about the prepaid calling card also includes restriction information such as phone numbers or sets of phone numbers that can be dialed, phone numbers or sets of phone numbers that cannot be dialed, restricted days of use, restricted times of use, restricted message units that can be used per period of time (such as daily, weekly or monthly), etc.
At step 440, the user enters the phone number of the called party. This is done by methods known in the industry including entering the phone number on the phone keypad or abbreviated dialing using phone pre-stored phone numbers associated with the prepaid calling card, etc. In one embodiment, the abbreviated phone numbers may be the same as the restricted numbers, thereby allowing the user to dial the numbers that they are allowed to dial using an easier user interface.
At step 450, the desired caller phone number is checked against the restriction list as well as the time, date, day and message units counts to determine if the desired call is being made within the restrictions provided when the prepaid calling card was purchased. If the call is within the restrictions, the calling and called parties are connected 460, and the phone system proceeds as it would before this invention, tracing message units as they are used and debiting them from the prepaid calling card's account until no message units remain, at which time the call is disconnected. Other features may be present, without effect to the present invention, including warning before disconnect and allowing the user to pay for additional message units, perhaps using a credit card. If the call is not within restrictions at step 460, then the violation of restrictions is announced and the connection is disconnected 470. Note that the individual restriction may be announced, perhaps, “this prepaid calling card is not authorized to call this number,” or a predetermined announcement may say, “this prepaid card is restricted.”
Although the invention has been described with a certain degree of particularity, it should be recognized that elements thereof may be altered by persons skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. It is believed that restricted prepaid calling card and method of setting restrictions of the present invention and many of its attendant advantages will be understood by the foregoing description, and it will be apparent that various changes may be made in the form, construction and arrangement of the components thereof without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention or without sacrificing all of its material advantages, the form herein before described being merely an explanatory embodiment thereof, and further without providing substantial change thereto. It is the intention of the claims to encompass and include such changes.