A cellular mobile radio credit card system

Claim 2

A cellular mobile radio subscriber station comprising: a standard cellular mobile radio subscriber set including means for generating call signaling and supervisory signals, display means for displaying station status information and station operating instructions; and a radio transceiver for communicating with a cellular mobile radio system and connected transmission, switching and terminal facilities of the public switched network; characterized in that for billing of individual accounts of transient customers for their use of the cellular station (232) and connected facilities said cellular station further comprising means (423) for generating control signals and billing data defining said individual customer accounts; station control means (403) for controlling said station comprising: register means for storing said billing data; first control means (413) responsive to said control signals for generating administrative call request signals; second control means (413) responsive to said administrative call request signals for originating and conducting bi-directional administrative message communication exchanges between said mobile station (232) and an administrative processor (140) via said mobile radio system; third control means (413) responsive to certain of said administrative messages from said administrative processor (140) for selectively enabling and disabling said station for the origination of calls by customers from said station.

Claim 3

A cellular mobile radio subscriber station in accordance with claim 1, wherein said means for generating control signals and billing data is a reader (423) for cards having billing data indicia stored therein.

Claim 4

A cellular mobile radio subscriber station in accordance with claim 2, wherein said station control means (403) further comprises: means for screening said billing data for plausibility, means for selectively disabling said station for the origination of calls by the customer who proffered the card if the billing data is determined to be implausible and for generating signals for selectively enabling and disabling said second control means (413).

Claim 5

A cellular mobile radio subscriber station in accordance with claim 3, wherein, if said billing data is determined to be implausible, said second control means (413) is disabled until a card with plausible billing data is presented.

Claim 6

A cellular mobile radio subscriber station in accordance with claim 1, wherein said station, when enabled by said third control means (413), remains enabled until the occurrence of a significant control event.

Claim 7

A cellular mobile radio subscriber station in accordance with claim 1, wherein said station (232) further comprises: a source of dial tone; means operative when said station is enabled to permit origination of calls for coupling said source of dial tone to the receiver of the station handset (401); and means responsive to registration of the first digit of a called telephone number for removing said dial tone from said receiver.

Claim 8

A cellular mobile radio subscriber station in accordance with claim 1, wherein said station (232) comprises means for monitoring the time between registration of call signaling digits and for generating a send signal for transmitting the registered digits to the serving cellular system (2) when a standard interdigital time period is exceeded.

Claim 9

A cellular mobile radio subscriber station in accordance with claim 1, wherein said administrative messages exchanged between said stations and said administrative processor comprise formatted, coded data messages which each comprise a message type identifier and data.

Claim 10

A cellular mobile radio subscriber station in accordance with claim 1, wherein certain of said messages which are transmitted from said stations (232) to said administrative processor comprise (140) customer registration messages which contain, as data, said billing data defining customer accounts; and others of said messages transmitted from said stations to said administrative processor comprise station registration messages which contain, as data, a summary of station activity between the preceding station registration message and the current registration message.

Claim 11

A cellular mobile radio subscriber station in accordance with claim 9, wherein said summary of station activitiy data comprises: the telephone number of the last call placed under the immediately preceding customer registration, the number of calls placed by the station between the time of the immediately preceding customer registration message and the current registration message, and the total time duration of those calls.

Claim 12

A cellular mobile radio subscriber station in accordance with claim 9, wherein among the messages transmitted to said mobile stations (232) are positive and negative acknowledgement messages to respectively indicate that a customer's request to accept responsibility for billing of subsequent calls to and from the station has been accepted or denied.

Claim 13

A cellular mobile radio subscriber station in accordance with claim 11, wherein said station control means (413) in response to a negative acknowledgment message terminates the registration call, activates appropriate displays to advise the customer of the rejection of credit, and rejects further efforts to register the customer's card that was rejected by said negative acknowledgement message.

Claim 14

A cellular mobile radio subscriber station in accordance with claim 11, wherein said station control means, in response to a positive acknowledgement message, terminates the registration call, activates appropriate displays which advise the customer to proceed with a call and "unlocks" the station to permit a customer to complete a call.

Claim 15

A cellular mobile radio subscriber station in accordance with claim 9, wherein said administrative processor (140) from time to time initiates calls to a selected one of said stations (232) for the purpose of bi-directional data communication with said station; and said station comprises means for differentiating between calls from said administrative processor and calls from other stations and for initiating a "handshake" procedure between the station processor (413) and the administrative processor (140) if a call is found to be from an administrative processor.

Claim 16

A cellular mobile radio subscriber station in accordance with claim 1, wherein certain ones of the administrative messages transmitted from said administrative processor (140) to said stations comprise station "set-up" messages which, as data, define station operating options and parameters; and said stations in response to said set-up messages selectively enable and disable the station operating optins in accordance with the received data, and establish station parameters of operation in accordance with the received data.

Claim 17

A cellular mobile radio subscriber station in accordance with claim 1, wherein said stations comprise a repertory dialer (421) including a memory for storing calling numbers of telephone stations to be called by use of said repertory dialer; and wherein further one's data messages transmitted from said administrative processor (140) comprise "load repertory dialer memory" messages which, as data, define telephone numbers; and said stations, in response to said load messages, store the defined telephone numbers in the memory of said repertory dialer.

Claim 18

A cellular mobile radio subscriber station in accordance with claim 1, wherein said stations further comprise a printer for making hard copies of data messages received from said administrative processor.

Claim 19

A cellular mobile radio subscriber station in accordance with claim 1, wherein data messages transmitted from said administrative processor (140) to said stations include "telephone number of administrative processor" messages which define the telephone numbers of primary and alternative administrative processors; said stations in response to said messages store said telephone numbers; and said stations utilize the stored numbers to originate data communication with said administrative processors.

Claim 20

A cellular mobile radio subscriber station in accordance with claim 18, wherein said stations further comprise means responsive to signals from said cellular system for indicating that a station has physically moved outside the serving area of its home cellular system and is in the "roam" state, and said station whein in the roam state uses the telephone number of an alternate administrative processor to originate data communication.

Claim 21

A communication system comprising: a plurality of cellular mobile radio subscriber stations, a cellular mobile radio system for serving said cellular mobile radio subscriber stations for the origination and termination of calls; said cellular mobile radio system comprising: a first plurality of trunk circuits; means for selectively interconnecting said cellular mobile radio subscriber stations and said trunk circuits; and automatic message accounting means for storing detailed data about said interconnections for establishing detailed billing records for said cellular mobile subscriber stations; a public communications switching system comprising: a plurality of line circuits, a second plurality of trunk circuits, certain of said trunk circuits of said second plurality being coupled to at least some of said trunk circuits of said first plurality, a switching network for selectively interconnecting said lines and said trunks in response to calling and supervisory signals, characterized in that: at least certain of said cellular mobile subscriber stations (231, 232) are stations according to one or more of claims 1 to 19, said administrative processor (140) is connected to said public communication switching system (1) and can be reached by a direct dial telephone call for receiving, storing and processing administrative data from said certain subscriber stations (232) and for selectively generating and transmitting administrative messages to said certain subscriber stations.