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:
Jan. 02, 2001
Filed:
Apr. 26, 1999
Peter C. Gorham, Chatham, NJ (US);
Michael Edward McCarthy, Great Meadows, NJ (US);
Sandip Mukerjee, Jackson, NJ (US);
James A. Tavares, Eatontown, NJ (US);
AT&T Corp., New York, NY (US);
Abstract
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.