Telecommunication Systems, Inc.

Carle S Johnson, Jr

Mark Titus

Dara Ung

Daniel J Hronek

Erik L Wallace

Phillip W Geil

Mike Dewey

Nikhil Bhadange

Robert T Calabrese

Margaret S Shepard

Karl Lebedda

A prepaid messaging solution that uses open networking standards and supports pre-payment of enhanced Internet messaging services. The prepaid messaging solution accurately determines if a subscriber has sufficient account balance to deliver a complete short message, prior to message delivery. Message delivery is prevented if insufficient funds are in the subscriber's account. A prepaid tariff engine, preferably extensible over a TCP/IP network, supports remote interaction with the SMSC and web chat servers to apply a real-time billing charge for each message. A service provider may create subscriber classes of service that define subscriber rates and/or tariffing plans used to apply real-time billing charges for sending/receiving messages. The prepaid short message tariff engine determines the appropriate message billing based upon, e.g., flat rate per message, character count, Time of Day, etc. The prepaid short messaging service preferably supports Internet web page access to subscriber's short messaging account balances and account status.

Prepaid short messaging

Wireless carrier networks can utilize multiple MMSCs all accessed by a message sender with a message addressed to a single Internet domain, providing a single point of entry for messages into the network of MMSCs and maintaining routing information sufficient to route messages to all subscribers via the MMSC.

Gateway application to support use of a single internet address domain for routing messages to multiple multimedia message service centers

A prepaid messaging solution using open networking standards (e.g., TCP/IP) to support pre-payment of Internet messaging services. The disclosed prepaid architectures/methods determine if a subscriber has sufficient account balance to deliver a short message, prior to message delivery. A message may be prevented from being delivered (at the source end or destination end) if a subscriber account has insufficient funds. A prepaid tariff engine supports remote interaction with the SMSC and web chat servers to apply real-time billing for each message. A service provider may define subscriber rates and/or tariffing plans to apply real-time billing for sending/receiving messages. Message billing may be based upon, e.g., rate per message, message count, character count, Time of Day, Day of Week, message type, and/or mobile location. The prepaid short messaging service preferably supports internet access to subscriber's account balances and status maintained in the prepaid short messaging database of the prepaid messaging server.

A prepaid messaging solution which uses open networking standards (e.g., TCP/IP) and which supports pre-payment of enhanced Internet messaging services. The disclosed prepaid architectures and methods accurately determine if a subscriber has sufficient account balance to deliver a complete short message, prior to delivery of the message. The short message may be prevented from being delivered (either at the source end or at the destination end) if insufficient funds are in the subscriber's account. A prepaid tariff engine is preferably extensible over a TCP/IP network, and supports remote interaction with the SMSC and web chat servers for the purpose of applying a real-time billing charge for each message. A service provider may create subscriber classes of service that define and uniquely identify subscriber rate and/or tariffing plans used to apply real-time billing charges for sending or receiving of messages. The prepaid short message tariff engine determines the appropriate message billing based upon, e.g., flat rate per message, message count (e.g., 10 messages @ $ 5.00), character count (e.g., $0.01/char.), Time of Day, Day of Week (i.e., peak & non-peak hours), type of message, and/or mobile location (i.e., network point code). The prepaid short messaging service preferably supports Internet web page access to subscriber's relating to their short messaging account balances and status maintained in the prepaid short messaging database of the prepaid messaging server.

A multimedia messaging service (MMS) intelligent content evaluator gateway is provided to allow use of a single address mailbox and Internet domain for receipt of either an MMS or an SMS message. The MMS intelligent content evaluator gateway evaluates the content of a received message, and then forwards the same to the appropriate system for delivery. The MMS intelligent content evaluator gateway makes use of database tables containing subscriber information and message routing tables necessary to derive the MMS and SMS destination addresses for each subscriber or range of subscriber addresses. Tables may also be implemented indicating the capabilities of each subscriber's handset, such as whether or not the handset can support MMS messages.

Method to qualify multimedia message content to enable use of a single internet address domain to send messages to both short message service centers and multimedia message service centers

A prepaid messaging solution which uses open networking standards (e.g., TCP/IP) and which supports pre-payment of enhanced Internet messaging services. The disclosed prepaid architectures and methods accurately determine if a subscriber has sufficient account balance to deliver a complete short message, prior to delivery of the message. The short message may be prevented from being delivered (either at the source end or at the destination end) if insufficient funds are in the subscriber's account. A prepaid tariff engine is preferably extensible over a TCP/IP network, and supports remote interaction with the SMSC and web chat servers for the purpose of applying a real-time billing charge for each message. A service provider may create subscriber classes of service that define and uniquely identify subscriber rate and/or tariffing plans used to apply real-time billing charges for sending or receiving of messages. The prepaid short message tariff engine determines the appropriate message billing based upon, e.g., flat rate per message, message count (e.g., 10 messages @ $5.00), character count (e.g., $0.01/char.), Time of Day, Day of Week (i.e., peak & non-peak hours), type of message, and/or mobile location (i.e., network point code). The prepaid short messaging service preferably supports Internet web page access to subscriber's relating to their short messaging account balances and status maintained in the prepaid short messaging database of the prepaid messaging server.

A technique and architecture that enables a Service Provider (SP) to hot-line a roaming WIN subscriber (e.g., a prepaid subscriber) to a closest WIN platform via a Least Cost Network (LCN), depending on the location, and optionally, on the time of a call from a roaming subscriber. Importantly, the present invention allows a service provider to significantly reduce the cost of routing a long distance call when the subscriber roams outside the service provider's network. A service provider may automatically provide one of a plurality of hot-line numbers to a roaming subscriber (e.g., a prepaid subscriber) of a wireless network (e.g., a Wireless Intelligent Network (WIN)) associated with a desired wireless network platform (e.g., a closest WIN platform, e.g., service node (SN), service control point (SCP), etc.) via a LCN. The LCN can be, e.g., an SS7 network, a PSTN, a TCP/IP (Internet), or dedicated trunks.

Growing community of inventors

Annapolis, MD, United States of America

Carle S Johnson, Jr