The present invention relates to a system for widening the usability of pre-paid telephony suite.
The invention relates, more particularly, to a system of pre-paid telephony service in which the same telephone line number can be attached to more than one pre-paid account associated with a user. The invention also facilitates attaching the same pre-paid account to many telephone line numbers,
The existing pre-paid service system enables associating a pre-paid account to a user and supports the following types of calls based on the access type used by the user and the Service Access Code dialed by user to identify each access type:-
1. Explicit Access Calls -In this type of call the user is asked to enter his
pre-paid account number, authentication number (PIN); after which the
system verifies and then allows the user to make calls accordingly.
2. implicit Access Cells - In this type of call the pre-paid account number,
associated with the user, is attached to the telephone line number
being used for the call. The system automatically detects the pre-paid
account number of the user based on the telephone line number and
may ask subsequently for authentication PIN number.
3. Dynamic Access - In this type of call, the user dials the service access
code assigned for the dynamic access. If the system finds that a pre-
paid account is attached to the telephone line number used by user,
then call flow is same as in implicit access call; if the
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system finds that no account is attached to the calling telephone line number, then call flow is considered as in explicit access call.
4. Direct Access- In this type of call, the user dials the service access code and the called party telephone line number. The pre-paid service detects the pre-paid account number attached to calling telephone line and routes the call to the called party telephone line number.
The existing system in the pre-paid telephony suite allows only one pre-paid account to be attached to a single calling telephone line number as well as one calling telephone line is to be attached to a single prepaid user account. This causes each user to have a separate telephone line for enjoying the implicit access type facility of the pre-paid telephony service.
The above mentioned constraint prevents the usage of the pre-paid telephony suite across different segments of users like offices, hotels, etc., where one calling party telephone line number is shared amongst more than one user. This is a restriction to the usage of the pre-paid telephony service in residential market where one user would like to attach his prepaid account number to his fixed telephone line number as well as to his mobile telephone number.
Therefore the existing system has the drawback of requiring too many telephone lines for using the pre-paid telephony service and thereby reduces the scope of pre-paid telephony service.
The objective of the present invention is to increase the scope and usability of the pre-paid telephony service across different market segments like corporate, residential and hospitality sector as well as to facilitate better utilization of the telephone lines in the use of pre-paid telephony service.
The invented system provides the following features in the pre-paid telephony suite:
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1. The system allows more than one pre-paid account to be attached to a single calling telephone Line number. The pre-paid account is attached to the calling telephone line in the following ways :-
A) The pre-paid account is attached statically where the service provider
adds an entry in the table of telephone line numbers. Each row in the table has
fields : 1) Pre-paid account number, II) Calling Telephone Line number and III)
a Flag for multiple authentication numbers.
B) The attached account is dynamically added by the user through the
Interaction Voice Response (IVR) in the call flow as given below: -
i) The user dials the service access code-defined explicit access, ii) The system asks for account number and authentication
number, iii) The system verifies the account number and the authentication
number. If the account number and authentication number are
correct, the system asks for the destination number, iv) The user enters the feature code for the calling telephone line
number Attach/Detach, upon being asked for the destination
number, v) The system then plays announcements "Dial 1 for Attach or 2 for
Detach", vi) The user selects option 1 for attaching the pre-paid account to
the calling telephone line number. vii) The system attaches the prepaid account used by user with the
Calling Telephone Line Number obtained from the message by
creating a new entry in the table of telephone line numbers, viii) The system also verifies if authentication number of the
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account being attached matches with authentication number of any other account already attached to the calling telephone line. If the system detects the above scenario, then it sets the flag for multiple authentication numbers to indicate combination of calling telephone line number and account number. 2. The system also enables to detach a pre-paid account from calling telephone line number by removing a particular entry from the flag.
The invented system allows attaching more than one calling telephone line number (for example a user's fixed telephone line number and mobile telephone number) to a single pre-paid account. The service provider in the system does this statically by creating a new entry of calling telephone line number and account number in the flag.
Thefore the invented system allows multiple users (each having a pre-paid account) to make implicit calls from a single calling telephone line. It also enables a single user (associated with one pre-paid account) to make implicit or direct access calls from multiple calling telephone lines. With respect to the former scenario, if more than one user account is attached to a single calling telephone line, the system always asks for authentication number for identifying the pre-paid account number. Thus the direct access type call is not possible in this scenario.
The call flow in the invented system takes place as follows: -
t) The user dials Service access code number for implicit access or Dynamic access.
n) The system finds the calling telephone line number from the message.
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iii) The system checks if the calling telephone line (CTL) is NULL or NOT
NULL iv) If the CTL is NULL, then the flow moves on to that of explicit access
call. v) If the CTL is not NULL, then the system calculates the number of
accounts attached to the CTL. vi) If the number of accounts is not greater than one, then the system
treat the call in the same way as done by the existing system. vii) If the number of accounts is greater than one, then the system asks
the authentication number of the account. via) The system obtains the pre-paid account number attached to the
CTL from the attached table of pre-paid accounts one by one, based
on row number of the table. ix) The system checks if the Flag is set in the said table for that
particular CTL + pre-paid Account number combination;
If yes, then
a) the system plays announcement "(Account Blocked)", and
b) the call flow moves to authentication number Selection Menu,
and
c) the system then unchecks the flag in the CTL + Pre-paid
Account number,
If No, then
d) the system obtains the encrypted authentication number from
user entered authentication number.
e) The system matches the encrypted authentication number
with the authentication number stored in the said table by
verifying if the combination pre-paid Account Number and
encrypted authentication number is present in the table.
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x) If the system successfully matches the encrypted authentication
number in the said table it increments the counter C1, and xi) Checks if all the Pre-paid account numbers have been mapped with
the encrypted authentication number. If yes, then the flow moves to
next step; else,the flow moves to step (ix) xii) The counter C1 is analyzed for' finding if C1 is equal to 1 or C1 is
greater than 1.
If C1 is greater than 1, then
a) The system plays Announcement "your Account is booked"
and sets the flag. If C1 is equal to 1, then a) The call is treated as the normal implicit access type call.
If C1 is equal to 0, then
b) The system increments the authentication number Fraud Counter for all the accounts attached to the calling telephone line, and checks if the authentication Fraud Counter has reached its maximum limit,
c) If authentication number Fraud Counter has not reached its
maximum limit then the flow goes to step (vii)
d) If the authentication number Fraud Counter has reached its
maximum limit, then the system plays the announcement
'Maximum Limit Reached' and call is dropped.
Thus the present invention provides a system for widening the usability of pre-paid telephony suite, characterised in that the system is capable of supporting many-to-many mapping between the calling telephone line number and the pre-paid account by allowing attachment of a number N of calling telephone lines to a number M of pre-paid accounts, N and M each being a positive integer.
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The invention is described in further detail without restricting the scope of the invention in any manner with reference to the accompanying drawings in which -
Figure 1 is a NXM mapping network between Calling Telephone Lines and pre-paid Accounts; and
Figure 2 is a flow chart of the call flow for an implicit access type pre-paid call.
Referring to Fig. 1, the terminals of N calling telephones, marked CLI, CL2....CLN are attached to M pre-paid accounts, marked Account 1, Account 2,
Account 3 Account M, in a manner as shown, for increasing the usability of the
telephone lines in the system, N and M being each a positive integer. Also each calling telephone line can be attached to two or more accounts in the network.
Referring to Fig. 2, the pre-paid service call is customized according to the steps depicted in the flow chart to achieve an enhanced utilisation of the existing telephone lines, and to enable many customers from a given locality to use a common telephone line for contacting their respective accounts in a pre-paid telephony service.
The invented system has the following advantages over the existing systems :-
1. It provides scope for extending the pre-paid telephony service to a
larger number of customers without increasing the number of telephone lines for
connecting the customers to their Account numbers.
2. It is expected to make the pre-paid telephony service more
competitive.
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3. It has the scope for extending the pre-paid telephony service to mobile telephones.
If however two or more accounts attached to a common telephone line have the same authentication number, it will be necessary to change the authentication number so that the accounts attached to the line do not have the same authentication number, and to take precaution against any fraudulent use of the authentication number by guessing the authentication number of the account.
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We claim:
1. A system for widening the usability of pre-paid telephony suite,
characterised in that the system is capable of supporting many-to-many mapping
between the calling telephone line number and the pre-paid account by allowing
attachment of a number N of calling telephone lines to a number M of pre-paid
accounts, N and M each being a positive integer.
2. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein each calling telephone
line is connected to 2 or more accounts.
3. The system as claimed in 1 or 2, wherein each account is connected
to 2 or more calling telephone lines.
4. The system as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the pre-paid
service call logic is programmed for attaching the pre-paid account of many
customers staying in a locality to a single calling telephone line.
5. The system as claimed in any preceding claim, providing a pre-paid service database which comprises of a table (X) containing account numbers corresponding to the calling telephone line numbers, each row of the table being identified by pre-paid Account Number, calling telephone line number; and a flag for identifying if the fraud situation of more than one pre-paid account being attached to a calling telephone line having the same authentication number exists, and for functioning in following cases : i) when a user attaches his account to the calling telephone line through interaction voice response and authentication number of the user's account is the same as that of the authentication number of any other account already attached to the same calling telephone number, and
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ii) during the implicit access type call flow, when the call detects that the authentication number entered by the user of the calling telephone line matches with the authentication number or more than one pre-paid . account in the Account table of its Service.
6. The system as claimed in claim 5, wherein the pre-paid call is
adapted to shift to the authentication number selection Menu in case the system
detects that flag for multiple authentication numbers is set to pre-paid Account +
calling telephone line number combination in the table (x).
7. The system as claimed in claim 6, wherein the call is provided with
a counter Cl which is incremented if the system finds the combination of pre-paid
Account Number and the encrypted form of user entered authentication number
is present.
A system for widening the usability of pre-paid telephony suite, characterised in that the system is capable of supporting many-to-many mapping between the calling telephone line number and the pre-paid account by allowing attachment of a number N of calling telephone lines to a number M. of pre-paid accounts, N and M each being a positive integer.