Unrestricted Calling Circle For Telephone Service

Abstract

Subscribers of a telephone service can define a calling circle, which includes a group of other telephone subscribers with whom the subscriber receives preferential billing rates. The members of the calling circle may include customers of a telephone service provider other than the subscriber's telephone service provider.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 11 / 560,125, filed Nov. 15, 2006. The content of this application is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.BACKGROUND[0002]This invention relates generally to telephone communication services, including wired and wireless telephone services, and more particularly to discounted calling groups for subscribers of such services.[0003]Many telephone service providers—both wireless and wired service providers—have offered special “family circle” or “calling circle” plans. In a calling circle plan, a subscriber receives preferential calling rates for telephone calls to and from other members of the subscriber's calling circle. A strong motivation for calling circle plans was to provide an incentive for groups of people to subscribe to the same telephone service provider—namely, the to service provider that was offering the calling circle discount.[0004]A significant limita...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

"The invention is a calling plan that allows subscribers to create a circle of people they can call without needing permission from their own service provider. This results in better billing rates for calls with those people. The plan is unrestricted, meaning that any person can be included in the circle, and the service provider tracks the subscriber's activity to determine who they're calling. The service provider can also charge a fee for the plan. The invention allows for more flexibility and personalization for each subscriber, and it prevents fraud by limiting the number of changes to the circle."

Problems solved by technology

Moreover, because the members of a particular subscriber's calling circle need not be subscribers of the same telephone service provider, many members may not have the ability to define an unrestricted calling circle because their telephone service provider does no offer that option.

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