Billing system

Claim 2

A billing system for a telecommunications network including a plurality of service switching points in communication with a service control point arranged to control network services, the system comprising: a respective call monitor at each of said service switching points arranged to monitor messages between the service control point and the respective monitored service switching point; a respective local database associated with each said call monitor for storing data derived from the monitored messages; a central database for storing call records relating to a plurality of said service switching points; and a mobile updating agent which can move between the central database and each of the local databases to transfer data from the local databases to the central database.

Claim 3

A billing system as claimed in claim 1 in which the messages comply with the C7 protocol, part of the International Standard SS7 signalling protocol.

Claim 4

A billing system as claimed in claim 1 including a remote operator interface for providing access to information in the central database.

Claim 5

A billing system as claimed in claim 3 in which the operator interface includes an interface agent for interpreting instructions from an operator and for constructing therefrom a query for the central database.

Claim 6

A billing system as claimed in claim 4 including a searching agent for searching for customer billing information in response to a query from an operator, and for producing a search output representative thereof.

Claim 7

A billing system as claimed in claim 5 in which the searching agent is mobile and can move between the operator interface and the central database.

Claim 8

A billing system as claimed in claim 5 including a report-building agent for building a report from the search output.

Claim 9

A billing system as claimed in claim 7 in which the report-building agent is mobile and can move between the operator interface and the central database.

Claim 10

A billing system as claimed in claim 1 including a fraud-detection system arranged to interrogate the central database, to determine a list of numbers to which possibly fraudulent calls have been made and to instruct the switching service points to block calls to the numbers in the list.

Claim 13

A method as in claim 10 further comprising: (d) extracting data pertaining to a specific customer from said central call records database using a mobile searching agent, said mobile searching agent moving between the central call records database and an operator position.

Claim 14

A method as in claim 11 wherein said mobile searching agent is responsive to control information supplied from said operator position.

Claim 15

A method as in claim 11 further comprising: (e) building a report from data extracted by said mobile searching agent using a mobile report building agent, said mobile report building agent moving between said central call records database and said operator position.

Claim 16

A method as in claim 13 wherein said mobile searching agent is responsive to control information supplied from said operator position.

Claim 17

A billing system for a telecommunications network, the network comprising a plurality of service switching points in communication with a service control point arranged to control network services, the system comprising: (i) a respective call monitor at each of said service switching points arranged to monitor messages indicative of individual calls on the network, each of said messages passing between the service control point and one of the service switching points, each said respective call monitor storing information indicative of the monitored messages in a respective local call record database; (ii) a central database; (iii) a remote operator interface; (iv) a mobile updating agent arranged to update the central database from the information stored in each of said local call record databases; (v) a mobile searching agent responsive to a query from said operator interface for customer billing information to produce a search output in respect of said customer billing information; and (vi) a mobile report building agent for building reports from said search output; wherein said mobile searching agent and said mobile report building agent can each move between said operator interface and said central database, and said mobile updating agent can move between said central database and each of said local call record databases.

Claim 18

A billing system for a telecommunications network, the network comprising a plurality of service switching points in communication with a service control point arranged to control network services, the system comprising: (i) a respective call monitor at each of said service switching points arranged to monitor messages indicative of individual calls on the network, each of said messages passing between the service control point and one of the service switching points, each said respective call monitor storing information indicative of the monitored messages in a respective local call record database; (ii) a central database; (iii) a remote operator interface; (iv) a mobile updating agent arranged to update the central database from the information stored in each of said local call record databases; (v) a mobile searching agent responsive to a query from said operator interface for customer billing information to produce a search output in respect of said customer billing information; and (vi) a mobile report building agent for building reports from said search output; wherein said mobile searching agent and said mobile report building agent can each move between said operator interface and said central database, and said mobile updating agent can move between said central database and each of said local call record databases.