Network-based electronic commerce system incorporating prepaid service offerings

摘要

An intelligent network-based e-commerce system 100 contains one or more service control points (SCPs) 122 for maintaining account information associated with a plurality of prepaid subscribers. The account information is accessible by service providers 108-120 or subscribers via a gateway server 104. The electronic commerce system supports transactions including subscriber authentication, balance request operations, debit request operations and credit request operations.