Systems and methods to approve electronic payments

Abstract

Systems and methods are provided to facilitate online transactions via mobile communications. In one aspect, a system includes a data storage facility to store an account identifier of a user and a phone number of the user and an interchange coupled with the data storage facility. The interchange includes a common format processor and a plurality of converters to interface with a plurality of different controllers of mobile communications. The converters are configured to communicate with the common format processor in a common format and to communicate with the controllers in different formats. The interchange uses the converters to communicate with the mobile phone of a user to confirm the identity of the user using a user terminal separate from the mobile phone for subsequent payment requests from the user terminal to be fulfilled using the account identifier.

Description

[0001]This is a continuation of prior U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12 / 406,084, filed on Feb. 20, 209, which claims priority to Provisional U.S. patent application Ser. No. 61 / 154,318, filed Feb. 20, 2009 and entitled “Systems and Methods to Approve Electronic Payments,” the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference.FIELD OF THE TECHNOLOGY[0002]At least some embodiments of the disclosure relate to mobile communications in general and, more particularly but not limited to, mobile communications to facilitate online transactions.BACKGROUND[0003]Short Message Service (SMS) is a communications protocol that allows the interchange of short text messages between mobile telephone devices. SMS messages are typically sent via a Short Message Service Center (SMSC) of a mobile carrier, which uses a store-and-forward mechanism to deliver the messages. When a mobile telephone is not reachable immediately for the delivery of the message, the SMSC stores the message for l...

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