Payment Gateway for Wireless Prepaid Accounts
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing mobile payment systems exclude 'unbanked' users who do not have credit or debit cards, limiting their ability to make online purchases using mobile devices, as these systems rely on credit/debit card infrastructure and do not facilitate payments from pre-paid mobile accounts.
Innovation Solution
A gateway system that processes payment requests by converting HTTP messages from websites into GSM-based USSD messages to debit pre-paid mobile accounts, using the International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) to authenticate and charge the user's account, enabling pre-paid mobile users to make purchases directly from their wireless operator accounts.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If credit card or debit card infrastructure is used for mobile payments, then payment security and reliability are improved, but accessibility for unbanked users deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a mobile operator as an intermediary between the merchant and the unbanked user. The mobile operator leverages its existing infrastructure for authentication (IMSI) and account management (pre-paid accounts) to enable payments. This intermediary allows unbanked users to make payments using their mobile phone account without needing credit or debit cards, while the mobile operator handles the authentication and payment processing, bridging the gap between users and merchants.
2Measurement precision
If wireless carrier authentication infrastructure is used, then identification and verification capability are improved, but payment processing capability for non-carrier merchants deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent makes the mobile operator's authentication infrastructure universal by enabling it to serve multiple purposes: not only authentication for wireless services but also payment processing for online purchases from any merchant. The mobile operator's existing authentication mechanisms (IMSI-based identification) are extended to handle payment verification, allowing the same infrastructure to support both telecommunications services and commercial transactions.
Solution Approach 2:
The mobile operator acts as an intermediary that bridges the gap between merchants who need payment processing capability and users who have authentication capability through their mobile accounts. The operator receives payment requests from merchants, authenticates users using existing carrier infrastructure, and processes payments through the user's pre-paid account, thereby extending payment processing capability beyond the carrier's own services.
3Ease of operation
If pre-paid mobile account infrastructure is used, then convenience for users is improved, but integration with external payment systems deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The mobile operator serves as an intermediary that handles the complexity of integrating pre-paid mobile account infrastructure with external payment systems. The operator's payment gateway receives HTTP requests from merchants, converts them into USSD messages compatible with mobile network infrastructure, processes payments through the pre-paid account system, and returns results to merchants. This intermediary layer shields the simplicity of the pre-paid system from the complexity of external payment integrations.
Data Source
AI summary
A Payment Gateway interfaces, in one embodiment, with a merchant's website or a payment aggregator used by the merchant's website, for facilitating purchases made at the website by a wireless user. In one embodiment, purchases at the website are paid for by charging the wireless user's prepaid account maintained in the mobile operator. The Payment Gateway accepts messages in an HTTP based message from the website or payment aggregator and provides a gateway function to the wireless user's service provider, which is accessible only using SS7 based MAP protocols. The mobile gateway ascertains the proper message syntax to use in a MAP based USSD message based on the wireless carrier. The mobile gateway also receives messages from the mobile operator, typically using a GSM MAP based protocol and initiates HTTP based messages back to the merchant's website.