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:
Feb. 04, 2014
Filed:
Dec. 26, 2001
Ian Maclean, Dallas, TX (US);
Donald Keeler, McKinney, TX (US);
Richard J. Bianconi, Rowlett, TX (US);
Douglas J. Reeder, McKinney, TX (US);
Ian MacLean, Dallas, TX (US);
Donald Keeler, McKinney, TX (US);
Richard J. Bianconi, Rowlett, TX (US);
Douglas J. Reeder, McKinney, TX (US);
Apple Inc., Cupertino, CA (US);
Abstract
A method of allowing content-based billing to a prepaid subscriber or subscribers is disclosed. According to one embodiment of the invention, the content-based billing is achieved by forwarding volume limit threshold data normally used by the Serving GPRS support node to the Gateway GPRS support node, which according to the prior art, counted all data bits at the same rate. According to this embodiment, by forwarding the volume limit threshold data to the GGSN, a modified data count is accumulated since billable data is monitored and accumulates, whereas free data does not accumulate. This modified data count is then provided from the gateway GPRS support node to the Serving GPRS support node, which then transmits the accumulated data count to the SCP.