British merchant Peter Durand invented the tin can in 1810.
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 7333596 | Casual usage alternate billing The present invention relates generally to a casual usage alternate billing. More particularly, the invention encompasses a method and an apparatus for casual usage alternate billing. The invention intercepts a call, especially a dial-around call, to either verify t... | 02/19/2008 |
| 7295659 | Method and system for prepaid communications credit A method and system for prepaying credits to a user account for communications services provided. If a system detects a predefined condition associated with a communications connection, the system deducts the cost of the communications connection from the credit in ... | 11/13/2007 |
| 7295829 | System, apparatus and method for managing telephone call records A system, method and apparatus is disclosed for communicating one or more telecommunication call records associated with a telecommunication system, the one or more call records are transmitted from a remote telecommunication device. The system includes a telecommun... | 11/13/2007 |
| 7269251 | Method and system for billing subscribers in a telecommunication network The invention relates to a method of changing a balance of a subscriber (MS1 . . . MS6) belonging to a subscriber group (G1, G2) of a telecommunication network. The invention comprises forming at least one subscriber group (G1, G | 09/11/2007 |
| 7260195 | Call management service A system and method that enables a telecommunications consumer to define groups to be included in a monthly bill, and then periodically generate a bill in accordance with the consumer's specifications. In one embodiment, the invention includes a plurality of portabl... | 08/21/2007 |
| 7257207 | Method and system for paying prepaid communications credit A method and system for prepaying credits to a user account for communications services is provided. A system receives an origination number and a code. The code corresponds to a predefined payment amount for prepaid credit. The system credits an account associated ... | 08/14/2007 |
| 7155412 | Billing for use of a telephony device A method, system, and program for billing a caller for use of an origin device are provided. Usage, of at least one measurable element of a telephony device by an identified individual, is tracked, where the identified individual is distinct from an owner of the ori... | 12/26/2006 |
| 7151824 | Billing data interface for conferencing customers A billing data interface provides billing data to customers in an accurate and efficient manner. Billing data is processed to preserve client billing information and to meet a customer's individual data requirements. The billing data may be presented in such a way t... | 12/19/2006 |
| 7149296 | Providing account usage fraud protection A method, system, and program providing identification usage fraud protection are provided. A context for a use of an identification via a communication line is detected at a fraud protection service. The context for use of the identification is analyzed in view of ... | 12/12/2006 |
| 7099652 | Originating a billed transaction for an origin telephony device A method, computer program product, and program for originating a billed transaction at an origin telephony device are provided. A request to originate a billed transaction is received from an origin device. The identity of a callee answering a call originated by th... | 08/29/2006 |
| 7046988 | Method and apparatus for partitioning billing charges for calls handled by a wireless subscriber unit A wireless subscriber unit (200) determines (502) a billing mode applicable to a portion of a call, and generates (508, 518) partitioning information for the portion of the call, corresponding to the billing mode. The wireless subscriber unit an... | 05/16/2006 |
| 7042994 | Method and apparatus for making a long distance telephone call A method for making a long distance or international telephone call is disclosed. A subscriber calls an assigned telephone number to access a sign-up calling plan service billed to a home plan at the home plan rates, and responds to a service announcement by enterin... | 05/09/2006 |
| 6996216 | Compensating recipients of calls A method, system, and program for compensating recipients of calls are provided. A request to bill a caller a tariff for a call is initiated, wherein the caller originates the call. The caller is prompted to accept payment of the tariff to receive access to a destin... | 02/07/2006 |
| 6977998 | Destination device billing according to call recipient A method, system, and program for billing for service provided to destination device according to the calling plan of the individual receiving the call. An authenticated identity for a callee answering a call placed to a destination device is received at an intermed... | 12/20/2005 |
| 6975850 | Charging efficiency A method for performing charging in a telecommunications system, comprising: storing at a subscriber information store subscription information including charging arrangement information indicative of the charging arrangement for a first communication terminal opera... | 12/13/2005 |
| 6965667 | Method of accounting prepaid online internet service credit values A method of accounting for online Internet usage credit includes establishing an account identifier in a database for a selected user. A number of credit value block records are associated in the database with the account identifier. Each credit value block has a st... | 11/15/2005 |
| 6961412 | Method and system for prepaid communications credit A method and system for prepaying credits to a user account for communications services provided. If a system detects a predefined condition associated with a communications connection, the system deducts the cost of the communications connection from the credit in ... | 11/01/2005 |
| 6956935 | Origin device billing according to caller A method, system, and program for billing for service provided to an origin device according to the current caller billing plan. A trusted telephone network, including at least one service provider, receives a request for service from an origin device. The origin de... | 10/18/2005 |
| 6950506 | Method and system for paying prepaid communications credit A method and system for prepaying credits to a user account for communications services is provided. A system receives an origination number and a code. The code corresponds to a predefined payment amount for prepaid credit. The system credits an account associated ... | 09/27/2005 |
| 6925160 | System and method for managing cellular telephone accounts A computer implemented system and method of allocating costs of wireless telephone usage. Billing and usage information is received from at least one wireless telephone service provider related to calls made and received by a plurality of wireless telephone service ... | 08/02/2005 |
| 6889059 | Multi-card device for telecommunications, and process for automatically managing telephone communications A multi-card cellular telephone apparatus includes a central processing unit and a plurality of SIM cards connected to the central processing unit through slots. The plurality of SIM cards are selectively managed by the central processing unit employing an active ti... | 05/03/2005 |
| 6788927 | Financing party payment for calls with a wireless subscriber A telecommunication call service is provided that directs incoming and/or outgoing cellular call charges to be billed to another payment party when placed to a telephone number specified by the payment party. The payment party has pre-established a list of telephone... | 09/07/2004 |
| 6700962 | System and method for creating a call detail record A method of creating a call detail record is provided. An input signal is received. An account identification record is created in response to the input signal. An event jacket is created. The event jacket is associated with the account identification rec... | 03/02/2004 |
| 6639977 | System and method for reverse billing of a telephone call The present invention is a system and method that allows a calling party to call a destination number and, upon approval of the called party, reverse the billing of the telephone call so that it is deducted from an account owned and maintained by the call... | 10/28/2003 |
| 6597776 | Method and system for allowing extended connections to content providers via prepaid content provider accounts A method and system for connecting a caller to a content provider who provides a service to the caller over the telephone system is disclosed. In accordance with the invention, a transaction processor (i.e., debit card platform) is disclosed which general... | 07/22/2003 |
| 6546238 | Calling party pays system bypass Landline facilities are linked to a wireless mobile network for calling party pays (CPP) calls to mobile stations. In response to placement of a telephone call to a CPP subscriber station, a land line network data base is accessed to obtain a call process... | 04/08/2003 |
| 6542590 | Multiple user telephone accounting Businesses with a number of clients have a need to allocate communication costs to the client on whose behalf the costs were incurred. This invention provides a means whereby the telecommunication carrier can charge call costs originating from a single li... | 04/01/2003 |
| 6463137 | Toll-free telephonic communication method and device The present invention is a method and device for toll-free telephonic communications. According to a method of the present invention, a caller dials a toll-free number to establish a connection with a telecommunications platform. The caller then enters an... | 10/08/2002 |
| 6453031 | Method and system for billing remote calls if made from a primary line A method and system for billing remote calls includes the provisioning of an active terminating attempt trigger on a subscriber's primary line. To make a long-distance call from a remote location, the subscriber calls a service control node and provide a ... | 09/17/2002 |
| 6445783 | System and method that provides specialized processing of communications based on automatically generated identifiers A system and method that provides specialized processing based on the source of the communication and/or type of communication being made. The system includes at least one user device connected to at least one network through a communications link. The ne... | 09/03/2002 |
| 6381315 | Universal exchange for making least-cost non-local telephone calls A method and an apparatus for making least-cost non-local telephone calls. In accordance with this method, an identification code of a customer and a plurality of carrier codes associated with the identification code are stored in a memory which is access... | 04/30/2002 |
| 6285749 | System and method for providing universal telecommunications service and third party payer services A method of operating a telecommunications device wherein the telecommunications device is used to detect an outgoing call from a calling party to a called number. The calling number is used to determine whether or not the calling party is a universal ser... | 09/04/2001 |
| 6282274 | Selectable billing options for a single communications account The present invention, referred to herein as Personal Billing Selection, enables a telecommunications service subscriber to designate billing options for outgoing and incoming calls on a per-call basis, even if the subscriber's account includes several nu... | 08/28/2001 |
| 6263056 | Calling-party-pays call processing for cellular and paging An enhanced Calling Party Pays (CPP) or Paging Party Pays (PPP) system that enables 1) billing of calls originating from traditionally non-billable sources, 2) routing of incoming calls to voicemail if the caller does not wish to incur the additional char... | 07/17/2001 |
| 6246755 | Method and system for connecting a caller to a content provider The invention relates to methods and systems for connecting a caller to a content provider who provides a service to the caller over the telephone system. In accordance with the invention, a caller establishes a prepaid account with an intermediary, terme... | 06/12/2001 |
| 6240402 | Charge allocation in a multi-user network A communication network includes a communication monitoring point arranged to monitor user identifiers in source/destination identifier fields to determine a charging scheme.... | 05/29/2001 |
| 6236851 | Prepaid security cellular telecommunications system A cellular telecommunications system having a security feature which allows only pre-authorized users to complete cellular telephone calls. The system and method recognizes a cellular radiotelephone's pre-programmed and pre-selected telephone number and a... | 05/22/2001 |
| 6195419 | Subaccount direct billing method and apparatus A method and apparatus are provided to support the direct billing of various subaccounts within a subaccount bill to a variety of billing payment mechanisms including calling cards, credit cards, prepaid cards, debit cards, and third party numbers. Additi... | 02/27/2001 |
| 6009156 | Method for accommodating multiple calling cards during a single call in a telecommunications network A method for automatically billing multiple calling card accounts during a single call by an operator services system (OSS) is disclosed. Multiple calling card account numbers received in the OSS are validated and a maximum call duration is determined. Pr... | 12/28/1999 |
| 5864609 | Method for establishing customized billing arrangements for a calling card in a telecommunications network A method for automatically converting a promotional calling card to a permanent calling card by an operator services system (OSS) is disclosed. A promotional calling card call received in the OSS is validated by obtaining card product-type data and card i... | 01/26/1999 |