Patent Application
20050286490
The present invention relates to a method for automatically selecting the lowest rate for dialing a phone call via a wireless telecommunication device, more particularly to a method enabling a wireless telecommunication device to download the latest phone rate from each Internet phone service provider through a wireless network and store the lowest rate into a data storage medium thereof so that, if a phone call is made via the wireless telecommunication device, a central processor thereof will automatically find the lowest rate stored in the data storage medium as the main determination basis for selecting the Internet phone service provider.
As the rise of extensive applications of Internet, the Internet phone (IP) creates a tremendous impact on the traditional telephone industry by its low telephone rate and promising market prospective. Within a short period of two years, the Internet phones spread all over the world rapidly, so that all major telecommunication device manufacturers and service providers invest huge amount of money in the area of Internet phone. Many famous market analysts repeatedly make predictions on the excellent development of the IP market.
The Internet phone (i-phone) makes use of Internet to transmit voices, which is similar to making a phone call. Using an i-phone to make an international call, the charge rate will be based on the rate for making local calls. Therefore, the i-phone can save a big amount of telephone costs. The theory of Internet phone operation is to convert an analog audio signal into a digital signal, and then enter the digital signal into a computer, and the computer converts the digital signal into a packet for transmission. The receiving end of the computer converts the packet into voice. Therefore, both of the caller and the receiver must have basic computer equipments including a sound card, a speaker, a microphone, a modem, and an account (for dialup users). If the cost of these equipments is not included for the calculation, i-Phone is considered to be the cheapest way of making international calls.
As the telecommunication industry blooms, our daily life is impacted greatly and people are attached to communications almost every second. Undoubtedly, the development trend of the world closely integrates our life with the wireless terminal, fixed network (fixed telecommunication network service), and computer network. The wireless terminals (such as mobile phone) have the fastest growth per year in the telecommunication industry. Therefore, we can foresee that the importance of mobile phone goes far beyond the fixed type telephone. Therefore, the trend of telecommunication companies tends to provide a total solution and more add-on values to mobile phones such as offering the functions of providing financial quotations, weather information, stock information, and sending or receiving emails.
Therefore, using a mobile phone to dial an Internet phone to save telephone cost is a mainstream of telecommunication application now. In general, mobile phone users can apply for several Internet phone accounts from different service providers. A user will select a service provider of the lowest rate to dial an Internet phone call. Since each Internet phone service provider changes the rate from time to time, the mobile phone user needs to collect the most updated information on the telephone rates of each Internet phone service provide all the time, which will keep mobile phone users constantly on the run. Users are expecting to have a method to help them to actively select the lowest rate among the most updated rates provided by different Internet phone service providers. Such arrangement is definitely a great contribution to the extensive consumers.
In view of the wireless technology, personal computer, personal digital assistant and telephone tending to be developed as wireless and the functions of wireless network are enhanced, the data of the foregoing wireless network can be transmitted among different wireless equipments. Therefore, the present invention is created based on this idea. Since the competition among wireless terminal manufacturers is very severe, therefore any consideration design for the consumers may become a key factor of bring in successful sales. To overcome the shortcomings of the prior art, the inventor of the present invention conducted extensive researches and experiments and finally invented a method of automatically selecting the lowest rate for dialing an Internet phone call via a wireless telecommunication device.
The primary objective of the present invention is to automatically find the lowest rate for dialing an Internet phone call via a wireless telecommunication device as a main determination basis for selecting the Internet phone service providers which mainly include the wireless telecommunication device, a wireless network, and a modem service provider; wherein the wireless telecommunication device comprises a central processor, an automatic determination program, and a data storage medium, so that the wireless telecommunication device is linked to the modem service provider by the wireless network, and thus the modem service provider can provide the latest phone rate of each Internet phone service provider to the wireless telecommunication device, and overwrites the old phone rate stored in the data storage medium. If a phone call is made via the wireless telecommunication device, the central processor will use the automatic determination program to find the lowest rate stored in the data storage medium as the main determination basis for selecting the Internet phone service provider.
The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description taken with the accompanying drawings.
The invention discloses a method of automatically selecting the lowest rate for dialing an Internet phone call via a wireless telecommunication device. Please refer to
Please refer to
The modem service provider 3 according to the invention as shown in
Further, the automatic determination program 12 of the invention as shown in
The wireless network 2 of the invention as shown in
The communication protocol used among the wireless telecommunication device 1, the wireless network 2 and the modem service provider 3 according to the invention as shown in
With the description of a profound idea in simple language, it is believed that our examiner should be familiar with the invention already. The following real-life example is given to let our examiner have a better understanding about the invention.
For example, the telephone charges of the following companies are listed below:
Therefore, if the user of a wireless telecommunication device 1 wants to dial a domestic long-distance call via an Internet phone, the central processor 1 will use an automatic determination program 12 to find the lowest rate (Northeastern Telecom Company has a rate of $0.30/minute) in the data storage medium 13. If the user of the wireless telecommunication device 1 wants to dial an international long-distance call via the Internet phone, the central processor 11 uses the automatic determination program 12 to find the lowest rate (Outstanding Telecom Company has a rate of $2.40/minute) in the data storage medium 13.
The Internet phone service provider 4 of the invention as shown in
While the invention has been described by means of specific embodiments, numerous modifications and variations could be made thereto by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention set forth in the claims.
