Thomas A Howe

US Patent:

50035843, Mar 26, 1991

Filed:

Apr 16, 1990

Appl. No.:

7/509662

Inventors:

Irving Benyacar - Englishtown NJ
Elizabeth V. Courte - Fair Haven NJ
Albert Friedes - East Brunswick NJ
Thomas P. Howe - Whitehouse Station NJ
David D. Kaufman - Atlanta GA
James R. Magura - Basking Ridge NJ
Rachelle E. Rees - Holmdel NJ
Pamela A. Steinert - Farmingdale NJ
Mohan Venkataramana - Tinton Falls NJ
Yong Zhou - Washington Township, Morris County NJ

Assignee:

AT&T Bell Laboratories - Murray Hill NJ

International Classification:

H04M 1504
H04M 1508

US Classification:

379119

Abstract:

A call billing method and apparatus specifies, on a call-by-call basis, the calling charges incurred by a caller during a call to a sponsor-provided value-added service. The method provides the sponsor real time access to rate tables to specify call billing parameters needed to rate calls made to a sponsor number. A billing number is determined and validated and used to identify the party to receive a billing record for the call. A separate billing record is created for each call to the sponsor's number which includes sponsor-specified charges determined using the call billing parameters. Another feature enables the caller or called party to provide call billing parameters for billing and identificaiton purposes.