The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Dec. 13, 1988
Filed:
Oct. 21, 1985
William C Sand, St. Charles, IL (US);
American Telephone and Telegraph Company, AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ (US);
Abstract
An arrangement is disclosed for charging a credit card number for a call extended from a calling customer line to a called destination via a toll telecommunications network. Calls including supervisory and traffic information from a plurality of calling lines are multiplexed for extending the calls over a time division multiplex communications channel through the call charging arrangement to the network. The arrangement includes a time slot separator for separating the supervisory information from the call information and a switching network for switching the remaining call information to a traffic information receiver. A central processor in the arrangement receives the credit card number from the traffic information receiver and forwards the number to a data base for call charging authorization. When authorized, the processor utilizes the supervisory information to make a record charging the credit card number for the call. In addition, a transmitter in the arrangement forwards the supervisory information to the toll network. The switching network also switches the call information which is combined with the supervisory information to the toll network. Periodically, the call records are sent to a billing system for processing.