Importance

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Abstract

A method and system in which calls made by customers who are members of a group of customers having a group calling plan, but who have separate billing accounts, are priced based on the group calling plan and on the usage by other members of the group. Typical groups may include customers in specific geographic locations, such as residents in an apartment building or in a residential neighborhood, and offices and stores in a commercial building. Other groups may include customers in widely separated geographic locations, such as members of a nation-wide club or organization, alumni association members, etc. In order to price a call made over a network by a customer of the network, the customer being a member of a billing group, information specifying a group billing plan of the billing group is stored. A call made by a member of the billing group is priced based on the group billing plan. Information specifying a plurality of members of a billing group, the members selected from among the customers of the network, is also stored. The call is then priced by generating a record that describes the call, receiving the record at a billing analysis system; and determining a priced call value for the call based on the record, the information specifying members of the billing group, and the information specifying the group billing plan based on the group billing plan.

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First Claim