Systems and methods for selecting a billing group in an internet protocol environment

摘要

A IP telephony service allows customers to form user groups. Each user group can include multiple members, each of whom have their own telephony device. Each user group is assigned a unique group identifier, which can be a telephone number. As a result, a single telephony device belonging to a member of a user group can be associated with its own unique telephone number, and the telephone number of the user group. This also means that a member's telephony device could be associated with multiple different billing accounts. The system allows a user to select which of multiple different billing accounts that are associated with his telephony device are to be billed for outgoing communications.

主权项

1. A method of billing for an outgoing communication in an Internet Protocol (IP) environment, comprising:
receiving a communication request for an outgoing communication from a communications device that is associated with a plurality of billing groups; receiving an indication as to which of the plurality of billing groups should be charged for the costs of the outgoing communication when the outgoing communication originates from the communications device, wherein the plurality of billing groups correspond to a plurality of originating telephone numbers, and wherein the receiving step comprises receiving an indication as to which of the plurality of originating telephone numbers is to be used for a particular outgoing communication originating from the communications device; and charging the indicated billing group for the costs of the outgoing communication, wherein the charging step comprises charging the billing group corresponding to the selected originating telephone number for the particular outgoing communication.