Japan Communications Inc.

Mitsuteru Okazaki

Naohisa Fukuda

Jun Tajima

Seiji Sanda

Nobuhisa Yoda

Marc Winn

Akihiko Sawa

Paul Royer

Frank S 1124 Gotenyama Trust Court Sanda

Provided is a technology that makes it possible for billing and balance management in the form of units that are difficult to understand for a user, to be expressed and managed in the form of units that are easy to understand from the viewpoint of the actual purpose of use. The network connection communication system is provided with means for expressing the unit price of network usage in terms of units that a user can understand more intuitively in the light of the purpose for which the network is used. For instance, the number of connection minutes (time), the number of books purchased and downloaded over the network, or the number of connections to a communicating partner can be used depending on the purpose of use of a service.

Network connection communication system

Network connection systems and methods for managing a variety of services over different kinds of networks. A network connection and communication system is provided that monitors and displays units of network usage over a selected network. The information can be displayed in terms of usage units that are easy to understand from the viewpoint of a user. For instance, a display screen can indicate the number of available or used usage units, eg, connection minutes (time), the number of books purchased and downloaded over the network, the number of connections to a communicating partner. Multiple conversions can occur between various services that are available depending on the type of service and selected network.

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Tokyo, Japan

Mitsuteru Okazaki