Differentiated debiting in a gprs telecommunication and data communication system

Description of equivalent WO 02071788 A1

DEBITING IN A TELECOMMUNICATION AND DATA COMMUNICATION SYSTEM

0002Field of the invention The present invention relates to a telecommunication and data communication system including a debiting mechanism and a procedure for debiting, and particularly such a system which is characterized in that the debiting mechanism makes debiting variations possible which are depending on the information content in the amount of data which is transmitted, and on from/to which service provider the amount of data is derived/transmitted.

0003Background of the invention In connection with the introduction of communication systems based on GPRS (GPRS, General Packet Radio Service) new debiting mechanisms have been introduced, which make it possible to debit the user per amount of data instead of the time the user is connected to the communication system. The basic principle in these systems is that all data, irrespective of what they represent or from which server it is derived, will have the same price to transmit from the communication network to a mobile user and vice versa. With the systems of today it is further possible to vary the cost depending on, for instance, when at day and night data are transmitted.

0004In the international patent application WO 00/72571 a procedure and a system for IP-based telephony where the charge for a call is debited 'the called party, so called "called party billing", is shown. In the system, the called party must on each occasion confirm that he/she is willing to pay for the call in question.

0005In the abstract to the Japanese application JP,A,2000- 151811 a system for IP-telephony is shown which makes possible for an Internet-user to establish a connection by making so called "collect calls" and in that way free of charge get access to the home page of an advertiser.

0006A disadvantage of these systems is that the debited cost cannot be varied depending on the information content in the amount of data, or depending on from whom/where, for instance from which service server, the information is originating, or to whom/where the information shall be transmitted.

0007The aim of the invention

0008The aim of the invention is to provide a telecommunication and data communication system which overcomes said disadvantages, that is, to provide a system which makes differentiated debiting costs possible, or, in other words, to provide a system which not only debits a user or a service provider on basis of time connected, or transmitted amount of data, but a system which also can provide debiting variations based on the information content of transmitted amount of data.

0009Summary of the invention

0010The present invention relates to a telecommunication and data communication system including a debiting mechanism and a procedure for debiting, and particularly such a system which is characterized in that the debiting mechanism makes differentiated debiting costs possible.

0011The system according to the invention includes a base station BS, a service network node SGSN (SGSN, Serving GPRS Support Node) at which said base station BS is arranged. Further, one by an operator provided internal network is connected via said service network node SGSN. The internal network is connected with an external network by means of a network interconnection node GGSN (GGSN, Gateway GPRS Support Node) . At said external network, further a service server is arranged. The system according to the invention further includes a debiting mechanism which makes debiting variations possible which are depending on the information content in the amount of data which are transmitted, and on from/to which service provider the amount of data are derived/ transmitted. Further, said debiting mechanism debits a user based on the service provider' s specifications .

0012In the system according to the invention, the service network nodes SGSN (SGSN, Service GPRS Support Node) and the network interconnection nodes GGSN (GGSN, Gateway GPRS Support Node) , generate so called Call Detail Records (CDR) , which include information about users, service provider and service server and particularly information about the amount of data which is transmitted in up respective downlink, and under which conditions this is made. Further, the Call Detail Records (CDR) separately account for data amounts which have been transmitted to, respective from, the service servers of different service providers, at which a division of costs is made.

0013In one embodiment of the invention, said division of costs is performed by an after-treatment device, at which some costs associated to the user's Call Detail Record (CDR) are debited the user, and other costs are debited the service provider. In another embodiment, said division of costs is made by the service network nodes SGSN and the network interconnection nodes GGSN, at which the service provider is allocated an identity for which there is created a Call Detail Record CDR, which is arranged to include information about services which shall be debited the service provider, at which the user and the service provider are debited on basis of the information that exists in their Call Detail Records (CDR) .

0014Brief description of the drawing

0015The invention now will be described in detail with reference to enclosed drawing, in which Figure 1 schematically shows an embodiment of the system according to the invention.

0016Detailed description of the invention The present invention relates to a wireless telecommunication and data communication system including a debiting mechanism which provides differentiated debiting costs. The system according to the invention makes possible for instance, debiting variations depending on the information content in transmitted amount of data, and depending on from or to which server the information is derived respective transmitted. Further, the system makes possible for a user to, free of charge, or with a debiting degree the user and a service provider have agreed upon, transmit information between the service provider' s service server and the user in said system. Preferably said system is a packet switching mobile communication system.

0017One embodiment of the telecommunication and data communication system according to the invention now will be described with reference to Figure 1. The system 10 according to the invention preferably is a packet switching GPRS GSM communication system or a UMTS system (UMTS, Universal Mobile Telecommunica tions System) which provides wireless packet switching communication with mobile stations 12, such as mobile telephones including protocols for wireless communication, for instance WAP (WAP, Wireless Application Protocol) and portable computers, for instance lap tops and palm tops, which can communicate wirelessly with base stations BS 14 (BS, Base Sta tion) included in the system 10. Base stations BS 14 constitute a wireless communication interface between the mobile stations 12 and the communication system 10. Further, the base stations BS14 are connected to an operator's internal network 18 via so called service network nodes SGSN 16 (SGSN, Service GPRS Support Nodes) . To the internal network 18, further so called network interconnection nodes GGSN 20 (GGSN, Gateway GPRS Support Nodes) , are arranged, which connect the internal network with the external network 22. An example of an external network 22 is Internet, but a second operator' s internal network 18 can of course also be connected by means of network interconnection nodes GGSN 20 to a first operator's internal network. Preferably are at the external network 22 a number of service servers 24 arranged, which are provided by service providers. The service servers 24 provide information to user via his/her mobile station 12. The information can be presented to the user by the user by means of his/her mobile station 12 indicating/stating the address which makes the service server 24 accessible via the external network 22. When the external network 22 is Internet, the user indicates/states an address according to HTTP (HTTP, HyperText Transport Protocol) which is the protocol that is used to connect servers to a web-server. Further, each service server 24 is identified in a TCP/IP network (TCP/IP, Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) by means of its IP- address.

0018In the system 10 according to the invention both the service network nodes SGSN 16 and the network interconnection nodes GGSN 20 generate so called Call Detail Records (CDR), not shown in Figure 1. The Call Detail Records (CDR) contain information about users, service providers and service servers 24 and particularly information about the amount of data which has been transmitted in up respective downlink, and under which conditions this is done. In one embodiment of the system according to the invention, traffic to/from certain in advance defined service servers 24 is caused to be free of charge for the user, whereas the service provider is caused to pay for this traffic. This is done by in the Call Detail Records (CDR) separately accounting for data amounts which have been transmitted to/from these service servers 24 separated from the amount of data which has been transmitted to/from other service servers 24. For this^' purpose it is sufficient to identify these service servers 24 by means of their IP- address. This separate accounting makes a cost division possible. This is done by means of an after-treatment device (not shown in Figure 1) which divides the costs associated to a user so that some services are paid by the service provider who via his/her service server 24 has provided the service, and other, or parts of other, costs are paid by the user. In the after-treatment device, the prices of the traffic to/from a user consequently is fixed by an in advance decided price-fixing.

0019In another embodiment of the system according to the invention, the cost division between the service user and the service provider is managed by the system which creates the Call Detail Records (CDR) , that is, the service network nodes SGSN 16 and the network interconnection nodes GGSN 20. This can be done by the service provider being allocated an identity for which there is created a Call Detail Record (CDR) which includes information about all traffic to respective from the service provider' s service server 24. At services free of charge for the user, the user's Call Detail Record (CDR) will not include information about the amount of data that is transmitted to/from the service provider's server 24, but this information will instead be in the service provider's Call Detail Record (CDR) and the cost for these services will be debited the service provider.

0020By means of the debiting mechanism according to the invention, a user consequently can utilize certain services free of charge and other services at reduced or full charge .

0021The for the user costless services can with advantage be supplemented with functionality at the user's which provides evidence to him/her that he/she is visiting a costless service. Preferably is for this purpose a dedicated application used at the user side, or an additional function in an existing application (for instance a plug in a browser) which receives information about which IP-addresses that are free of charge from one by the operator controlled master.

0022In a further development of the invention, it includes a debiting possibility which corresponds to the pay call of the circuit switched world. In this further development it is possible for the service provider to, according to his/her own choice, decide the cost of his/her services.

0023This can be done in such a way that the traffic to/from the service provider's service server 24 is not zero-debited but by the price the service provider wants per data unit. This further development of the system includes devices to make the user aware of that he/she is going to load down data with a higher price.

0024In another embodiment of the system according to the invention devices are included for so called step debiting. By means of these devices all users are debited a fixed basic fee, and only when the user is exceeding a certain communicated amount of data per period he/she is debited an extra cost.

0025Further, the system according to the invention is suitable to create simple pay-services for downloading of electronic wares, for instance software. The system is also well suited for, for instance, banks, loan institutes, insurance companies, electronic commerce companies, travel agencies and other companies which want to make their customers to change to web-based customer services and ordering mechanisms .

0026The present invention has been described by means of exemplifying embodiments, but it should be realized that other embodiments are conceivable without landing up outside the scope of the frame of the invention, which is only limited by the enclosed patent claims.