摘要 |
The invention includes arrangements for providing credit to customers via cellular telephones. In one embodiment, a customer seeking credit for the purchase of goods and services from a merchant (at 30) activates his or her cellular telephone (10), authenticates the cellular telephone with his cellular service provider's base station (20), and proceeds to establish a connection (to 40) to obtain credit. Credit is obtained by sending a unique sequence to the cellular service provider that is different from the normal sequence of numbers that correspond to a telephone number of the called party. That sequence may include a merchant ID code and the amount of credit desired. <IMAGE> |