Dynamic reallocation of subscribers to data plans to minimize total cost in a cellular telecommunications network

Abstract

Described herein are methods and systems for enabling retail subscribers to dynamically reallocate their individual subscriptions to different retail data plans in a billing cycle. In one embodiment, a plan grid and a corresponding cost grid for each subscriber are generated prior to the start of a billing cycle based on predicted daily data usage over the billing cycle. Then, on each day of the remaining days in the billing cycle, the plan grid and the cost grid for each subscriber are reconstructed based on actual data usage of each individual subscriber as well as for all subscribers included or eligible to be included in a family pooled plan with the subscriber. On any day of the billing cycle, there may be some reconstructed plan grids that include a cost-reduction time window that can reduce the total predicted cost of some subscribers. These subscribers can then be reallocated to a retail data plan associated with that cost-reduction time window.