T-mobile Deutschland Gmbh

Uwe Michel

Thomas Dennert

Patrik Ljungström

Peter Brune

Leonhard Schmickler

Michael Langer

Walter Mohrs

Johann Reindl

Ulrike Feuser

Arthur Cyrankiewicz

Jörg Rass

Wolfgang Ptacek

A method for controlling and operating a vending machine that incorporates a mobile radiocommunication transmit/receive unit and can be called from a user's mobile telephone unit over a mobile telephone network via an abbreviated mobile telephone number affixed on the vending machine. The method includes, upon receipt of a call from the user's mobile telephone unit to the abbreviated mobile telephone number on the vending machine, establishing a connection to a bank and determining if the user has an account at that bank, and if so, whether there are sufficient funds in the user's account, if the user has an account and there are sufficient funds, prompting, via the vending machine, the user to select a merchandise item, after the merchandise item has been dispensed, generating, a billing entry in the vending machine, and settling the billing entry via a payment gateway, the step of settling comprising accessing a mini-payment account the user has opened with a bank, and determining the mini-payment account number based on the user's mobile telephone number.

Method for controlling a machine dispensing good and charging of goods thus dispensed

A method is provided for a mobile telephone users to pay small individual fees for certain content when surfing the Internet using a mobile telephone terminal, for example, a WAP-enabled terminal. The method establishes a payment gateway which is accessible by the mobile telephone Internet user via the mobile telephone terminal and by a provider via a provider server. Customer data of the user is held securely in a database of the payment gateway and is not transmitted over the Internet or held in the mobile terminal. A micropayment account opened at a bank is synchronized continuously with the payment gateway. To provide payment of fees for content, a reservation of a certain amount is made in the payment account via the payment gateway and is authorized by the user to the provider allowing the provider to debit amounts against the reservation. Actual charges are transmitted from the provider to the payment gateway and allocated against the reservation debiting the amounts from the micropayment account, crediting the provider and canceling the reserved amount.

Method for charging internet services via a mobile telephone

The invention relates to a method for the selection, transmission and playback of pieces of music by subscribers of a digital mobile network, whereby a plurality of pieces of music is saved in digital form on a database server. The inventive device is characterised in that the database server is dialled up by a mobile terminal via the mobile communication network and a desired piece of music is selected. The selected piece of music is then transmitted in the form of digital audio data from the database server to the mobile terminal via the mobile communication network and is played back on the mobile terminal. The invention also relates to a mobile radio terminal which is suitable for carrying out said method.

Method for the selection, transmission and playback of pieces of music by subscribers a digital mobile communication network

The invention relates to a method and a device for accessing a telecommunication network and for billing telecommunication services, whereby there are presented new processes, as compared to those of classical mechanisms of network providers, services are offered to their customers and fees are charged for providing the same. In this context the invention primarily concerns novel access mechanisms and access media to a telecommunications network, modified security mechanisms as well as innovative counting methods. The invention is characterized in that authentication methods are used in the telecommunication network, which permit a subscriber to certify at any one freely choosable point in time that a payment for a service which has been solicited or which is to be solicited, is provided or has already been provided.

Method and device for accessing a telecommunications network and for billing telecommunication services

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Bad Honnef, Germany

Uwe Michel