At+t Corp.

Sandip Mukerjee

Ralph Utano

James A Tavares

Michael Edward McCarthy

Peter C Gorham

Ralph J Snyder

The airtime charge for a receiving wireless telephone station is assigned to an account that is not associated with the wireless telephone station receiving the call. For example, for a telephone call placed from a conventional home wired telephone station to a wireless telephone station, the airtime charge for the receiving wireless telephone station of the call is billed to the account associated with the home wired telephone station. In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, the airtime charge for a receiving wireless telephone station is transferred by a) receiving signaling from the caller that the airtime charge for the receiving wireless telephone station is to be billed to an account specified by the caller that is other than the account associated with the receiving wireless telephone station; b) marking the airtime charge record by the wireless telephone service provider serving the receiving wireless telephone station as one to be billed by another provider of telephone service; c) incorporating the wireless airtime charge of the receiving wireless telephone as part of the charges for the call billed by the other provider of telephone service to the account specified by the caller; and d) remitting the airtime charge collected from the other provider to the wireless telephone service provider. An indication of the transfer of the airtime charge is forwarded to the receiving wireless telephone station and a corresponding indication is supplied for the called party at the receiving wireless telephone station.

Method and apparatus for billing of wireless telephone calls

The lack of uniformity for accessing wireless carriers to reach roaming wireless telephones prevents nationwide wireless telephone service from being provided in a seamless manner by an automated system that accesses the roamer access ports to connect a caller to a wireless telephone station in a manner such that the roaming nature of the called wireless telephone station is transparent to the caller. This problem is overcome, by a method for placing a telephone call to a wireless telephone station, method including the steps of: a) storing in a data base an association between respective (i) roamer access ports, (ii) mobile switching centers and (iii) one of a predetermined set of instructions, i.e., rules, which are executed by the machine in order to access wireless telephone service at mobile switching centers; b) receiving an indication of the particular mobile switching center presently serving the wireless telephone station; c) looking up the indication in the data base to retrieve (i) a particular roamer access port associated with the particular mobile switching center serving the wireless telephone at the location and (ii) a rule to access wireless telephone service at the mobile switching center via the roamer access port associated with the mobile switching center; d) placing a call to the roamer access port; and e) executing the instructions of the retrieved rule for the roamer access port so as to cause the mobile switching center to attempt to establish a connection to the wireless telephone station.

Method and apparatus for facilitating the making of wireless telephone

Unnecessary expenses associated with exchanging data with wireless data stations that have become unavailable are avoided, in accordance with the principles of the invention, by a) transmitting the data to be transmitted to a store and forward unit; b) marking as unavailable a wireless data station to which the store and forward unit could not successfully complete the data transmission; c) waiting for the wireless data station to register, i.e., signal its availability to receive data transmissions; and d) transmitting the data from the store and forward unit to the data station once a registration is received from the wireless data station. Optionally, any data transfers to the wireless data station during this waiting period are queued at the store and forward data unit and no attempt is made to contact the wireless data station over the wireless service provider's network. Furthermore, if the data station shares communication facilities with a wireless voice telephone, any call attempts to the wireless telephone during the waiting period are disallowed, i.e., no attempt is made to contact the wireless telephone over the wireless service provider's network.

Method and apparatus for facilitating the ultimate making of wireless

The lack of uniformity for accessing wireless carriers to reach roaming wireless telephones prevents nationwide wireless telephone service from being provided in a seamless manner by an automated system that accesses the roamer access ports to connect a caller to a wireless telephone station in a manner such that the roaming nature of the called wireless telephone station is transparent to the caller. This problem is overcome, by a method for placing a telephone call to a wireless telephone station, method including the steps of: a) storing in a data base an association between respective (i) roamer access ports, (ii) mobile switching centers and (iii) one of a predetermined set of instructions, i.e., rules, which are executed by the machine in order to access wireless telephone service at mobile switching centers: b) receiving an indication of the particular mobile switching center presently serving the wireless telephone station; c) looking up the indication in the data base to retrieve (i) a particular roamer access port associated with the particular mobile switching center serving the wireless telephone at the location and (ii) a rule to access wireless telephone service at the mobile switching center via the roamer access port associated with the mobile switching center; d) placing a call to the roamer access port; and e) executing the instructions of the retrieved rule for the roamer access port so as to cause the mobile switching center to attempt to establish a connection to the wireless telephone station.

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Jackson, NJ, United States of America

Sandip Mukerjee