JP2000295378A - Telephone system and method for automatically selecting lowest charge line - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a telephone system which corresponds even to such a charge system where both talk unit times and unit charges are different and providers whose calling charges become cheap according to talk time are different and can select a provider whose calling charge becomes the lowest charge. SOLUTION: This lowest charge line automatically selecting method calculates calling charges in using respective lines of plural telephone communication providers about each talk performed within a term at every term of defined length on the basis of talk information such as a calling destination telephone number, talk time, calling day of the week and calling time and generates an each term charge result table obtained by connecting integrated results obtained by integrating the calculated calling charges in respective plural telephone communication providers for each telephone communication provider with the talk information. A reference charge result table is updated according to the each term charge result table. When a calling operation is made, the reference charge result table is retrieved on the basis of the talk information about the calling operation to select the line of a telephone communication provider whose calling charge is predicted to be the lowest, and a dial calling operation is performed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a telephone apparatus having a function of automatically selecting a line for which a call charge is predicted to be the lowest from lines provided by a plurality of telephone carriers, and a minimum-charge line. Regarding the automatic selection method.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art At present, when a user makes a telephone call through a telephone line, an arbitrary line can be selected from a plurality of lines provided by a plurality of telephone communication operators (hereinafter simply referred to as operators). In this case, each of the plurality of operators provides the user with a call rate system different from other operators to promote the use of the own line. A call can be made by selecting the lowest carrier line.

[0003] However, the call charge system is not simple. For example, it is often the case that the line carrier for which the call charge is lowest differs according to the distance to the call partner who wants to make a call and the call time. For this reason, in order for a user to select one operator who is considered to have the lowest call fee from among multiple operators, he / she must remember all the fee structures of the multiple operators. , Very troublesome.
Further, in order to use the lines for most of the plurality of operators, at the time of calling, each of the destination telephone numbers set and provided by the current Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation, You need to enter a different multi-digit number for each operator.

Conventionally, in order to automatically select a line of a carrier having the lowest call charge at the time of making a call without requiring the user to perform such a troublesome procedure, a conventional LCR is used.
A function called (Least Cost Routing; a function of automatically selecting a lowest-cost line) is provided in the telephone device.

[0005] The conventional LCR method uses a destination telephone number,
Talk time per call (call unit time) that differs for each business operator depending on the day of the week when the call is made and the time zone when the call is made
This is a method for determining the line of a business operator that will have the lowest call charge. For this discrimination, in the conventional LCR system, each day of the week when a call is made,
A data table of the unit call time when the unit charge per time is the same, or a data table of the unit charge when the call unit time is the same (hereinafter referred to as a map) is stored in the memory, At the time of transmission, the operator refers to all the maps for each operator and selects the operator with the lowest fee.

In the conventional LCR system, a call charge per unit (unit charge) is the same, and a call unit time is different.
Alternatively, it is assumed that a charge system is used in which the unit call time is the same and the unit charge is different. That is, the conventional LC
The R method is an effective method when either the unit charge or the call unit time is the same.

[0007]

By the way, in recent years, various services have been provided by telecommunications carriers, and a service of a charge system in which both the amount of one call and the unit time of call are different between the respective carriers is also provided. It is becoming. In the case of such a fee-based service, the conventional LCR system described above may not be able to correctly select the lowest-charge carrier.

FIG. 7 is a diagram for explaining an example of this. In this example, if the unit time and unit charge in a local call are set at 10 yen for 5 minutes for A company and 9 yen for 3 minutes for B company, It shows the relationship between time and call charges. FIG. 7 shows a case where the horizontal axis indicates the call time and the vertical axis indicates the call charge.

FIG. 8 is a table showing the relationship between the call time and the operator whose call charge is lower, read from FIG. As you can see from this table, the carriers that offer lower call rates differ depending on the length of the call time, so when making a call, which carrier has the lower
It is very difficult to unambiguously determine only the information on the unit call time and unit charge for each carrier as in the conventional LCR method.

[0010] In view of the above, the present invention, as described above, is compatible with a charge system in which the call unit time and the unit charge are different, and the call charge is reduced depending on the call time. It is an object of the present invention to provide a telephone device capable of selecting a business having the lowest call rate when making a call.

[0011]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a telephone device according to the present invention comprises a telephone device having a plurality of telephone communication service lines having different telephone charges depending on a call time, a distance to a communication partner, and the like. A telephone terminal having a function of automatically selecting a lowest-priced line, and for each period of a predetermined length, for each call made within the period, a destination telephone number, a call time, a transmission day, Based on the call information such as the calling time, a call charge when each of the lines of the plurality of telephone carriers is used is calculated, and the calculated call charge for each of the plurality of telephone carriers is calculated by the telephone. A period-based charge result table generating means for generating a period-based charge result table in which the integration result integrated for each communication carrier is associated with the call information, and the period generated by the period-based charge result table generating means According to the fee table A reference charge record table updating means for updating the reference charge record table, and when a call operation is performed, the reference charge record table is searched based on the call information about the call operation, and the call charge is determined to be the minimum charge. Means for selecting a line of a telephone carrier that is expected to become a telephone call and performing a dialing operation.

[0012]

According to the present invention having the above-described structure, for each of the calls made during a predetermined length of time, a call made when the call is made using the line of the telephone carrier is used. Charges are calculated, and the call charges are accumulated for each telephone carrier to create a periodical charge table. The charge table for each period is created as reflecting call information such as a destination telephone number, a call time, a call day, and a call time.

Thus, for each of a plurality of telephone carriers,
The per-period charge performance table accumulated as call charges for calls in the past predetermined period reflects the user's habits in that period. For example, whether the user has a tendency to make a simple telephone call or a long-term telephone call during the period is reflected. In addition, depending on the user's day and time period, there are many brief and short calls on certain days of the week, and relatively long calls on other days and times. Habits are also reflected.
Then, the user's behavior during the predetermined period appears in the accumulated fee for each business operator in the period-by-period performance table.

[0014] In other words, in the case of a carrier having a low per-call rate but a short call unit time, an integrated call fee for completing a call in a short time is lower than that of another carrier. Relatively cheaper. Conversely, in the case of a carrier with a high fee per call but a long call unit time, the accumulated call charge for long-time calls is relatively higher than that of other carriers. Become cheap.

[0015] When the accumulation of the predetermined period is completed and the per-period charge performance table is created, the reference per-formance result table referred to when making a dial call is updated to a new per-period performance record table. You. When the user performs the dial transmission operation, the line of the business operator whose telephone charge is predicted to be the lowest is selected from the reference fee record table, and the dial transmission operation is performed.

In this way, by making a dialing operation with reference to the reference fee record table, it is possible to select a business line in consideration of the length of the call time as a habit of the user at the time of calling. A more accurate LCR function can be realized than the conventional method.

Further, since the reference fee record table is updated every predetermined period, even when the user's habit tendency changes, the reference charge record table corresponds to the change. .

[0018]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of an embodiment of a telephone device according to the present invention. In FIG. 1, a double line is a line through which control information and other data information are transmitted.

The telephone device of this embodiment is a telephone 1
, Telephone interface circuit 2 and line switching circuit 3
Network control circuit (NCU) 4, PB signal and audible sound transceiver 5, CPU (microcomputer) 6
And a clock circuit 7 and a memory 8.

Although not shown, the telephone interface circuit 2 includes a loop detecting section and a dial detecting section.
The line switching circuit 3 switches between connecting the telephone interface circuit 2 to the telephone line 9 and connecting the telephone interface circuit 2 to the telephone circuit. Although not shown, the network control circuit 4
It has a loop forming section, a dial sending section, a reverse detecting section, and the like.

The PB signal and audible sound transceiver 5
It has a function of receiving a PB signal from the telephone 1 and transmitting the PB signal to the line 9 and a function of transmitting an audible sound such as a dial tone for prompting the telephone 1 to proceed with the operation. When there is an outgoing call operation on the telephone 1, the clock circuit 7 sets the outgoing time (time) and the outgoing day on a CP.
U6 is used when detecting.

The memory 8 includes a plurality of data storage units 10, 1
1, 12, 13, and 14 are provided. First data storage unit 1
0 stores the telephone number (destination telephone number) of the other party to be dialed in at the time of dialing, the dialing time, and the dialing day.
The second data storage unit 11 is for setting data, and stores, for example, a telephone number of the own station. The third data storage unit 12 stores a period-by-period fee actual table described later, and the fourth data storage unit 13 stores a later-described reference fee actual table. In this example, a plurality of period-based fee performance tables and reference fee performance tables are generated and stored in accordance with the distance from the own station telephone number and the destination telephone number to the detected destination. Further, the fifth data storage unit 14 stores the above-mentioned map of each business operator.

The reference charge performance table stored in the fourth data storage unit 13 includes a destination telephone number, a call time, a transmission day, and a transmission time in a predetermined period T such as three months or six months. The minimum toll line based on user behavior based on call information such as a transmission time zone is indicated by an integrated call fee. That is, the reference fee record table indicates which carrier's line is the lowest fee when the user makes a call under the same call information conditions. .

As will be described later, this reference fee record table is
When the period T elapses, it is updated to the per-period fee performance table created during the elapsed period.

The per-period fee performance table stored in the third data storage unit 12 is generated as follows. That is, after each outgoing call made during the period T, the call is calculated if the call uses each of the lines of a plurality of operators, and the calculation results are calculated. In accordance with the call information, the total is added to the corresponding columns of the plurality of businesses in the period-by-period performance table that is being generated.

Therefore, when the period T has elapsed, the third data storage unit 12 stores a period-based charge performance table reflecting the telephone user's habits regarding the call information during the period T. It will be.

When the period T has elapsed,
The reference fee performance table of the fourth data storage unit 13
Is rewritten to the per-period performance table in the data storage unit 12, and the per-period performance table in the third data storage unit 12 is cleared to generate the per-period performance table in the next period T.

Each of the period charge record table and the reference charge record table can be created for each call destination telephone number which is one of the call information. In the case of this embodiment, the call destination call number and the self It is created according to the distance from the destination determined by the office phone number.

FIG. 2 shows an example of the reference fee record table. This is one of a plurality of reference fee performance tables provided for each distance. As shown in FIG. 2, this fee record table includes:
For each day of the week and for each time zone, the integrated value of the call charge for each business operator after each call is written. In FIG. 2, for simplicity, specific accumulated charges are described only on Mondays, but it goes without saying that the accumulated charges are actually written in all the columns.

In the reference fee table of FIG. 2, for example, the company A has a high call rate per call but a long call unit time, and the company B has a low call charge per call but a low call unit. If the time is short, as shown
In the case of Monday afternoon, if the company B has a lower totalized call charge, the user's tendency is that during the afternoon on Monday, there are many calls with shorter talk time. are doing. Therefore, in this embodiment, when the user makes the next call during the noon time on Monday,
The line of the company B is determined to be the lowest-priced line and is selected.

In FIG. 2, the company A has a lower integrated call charge on the Monday night.
This is the propensity of the user, on Monday night,
This means that there were many calls with long talk times. Therefore, in this embodiment, the next time the user makes a call on Monday night, the line of company A is determined and selected as the lowest-priced line.

In FIG. 2, the time zone is only divided into day and night, but it is needless to say that the time zone can be further subdivided. This subdivision is to reflect the user's habits more finely in the actual fee, so it is not necessary to correspond to the difference in the fee for each time zone in the operator's fee system, but it is possible to do so Of course.

Next, the operation at the time of transmission in this embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

When an off-hook operation is performed on the telephone 1,
The processing of the flowchart in FIG. 3 is executed. That is, first, the telephone 1
Is detected by its loop detector,
The detection result is transmitted to the CPU 6. The CPU 6 switches the line switching circuit 3 to the internal circuit side of the device, and
Prepare to receive dialing from. Further, under the control of the CPU 6, the network control circuit 4 captures the line 9 by the loop forming section (step S101).

Next, the CPU 6 receives a destination telephone number from the telephone 1 by a dial input operation of the user through a dial detecting unit of the telephone interface circuit 2 in the case of a DP (dial pulse) line. Also, P
In the case of the B (push button) line, the signal is received through the PB signal and the audible sound transceiver 5 (step S1).
02).

Then, the CPU 6 reads the time and day of the week when receiving the destination telephone number from the clock circuit 7 and, together with the received destination telephone number, sets the time and the day as the transmission time and the first day of the memory 8 as the transmission day. Data storage unit 10
(Step S103).

Next, the CPU 6 calculates the distance to the destination from the own telephone number stored in the second data storage unit 11 of the memory 8 and the received destination telephone number (step S104). Then, a fee record table corresponding to the calculated distance is searched from the plurality of reference fee record tables in the fourth data storage unit 13 of the memory 8 (step S10).
5). Then, from the retrieved reference fee record table, a business operator with the lowest fee for the corresponding transmission day and transmission time zone is selected (step S106).

Next, the first data storage unit 10 of the memory 8
The access number of the selected business operator is added before the destination telephone number stored in (step S107).
When Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation is selected as the operator, it is not necessary to add an access number for each operator.

In the case of the DP line, dial transmission is executed from the dial transmission unit of the network control circuit 4 to the line 9 from the PB signal and the audible sound transceiver 5 in the case of the PB line. (Step S10
8). After this dial transmission, the CPU 6 controls the line switching circuit 3 to connect the telephone interface circuit 2 to the line 9.
Side, and the line 9 is directly connected to the telephone 1 (step S109).

Thus, the operation at the time of transmission is completed. Then, each time the call by this transmission is completed, the integration processing to the period-based charge result table as described below is performed each time. FIG. 4 is a flowchart for explaining an operation in which a call state is set following the above-described calling operation, and an integration process is performed on the period-based charge result table after the call is ended.

As shown in FIG. 4 and FIG.
At 201, it is determined whether or not the user input operation is an outgoing call operation (off-hook operation). If not, the process proceeds to another processing routine according to the user input.
If the call is an off-hook operation, step S20
Proceeding to 2, the transmission processing routine described with reference to FIG. 3 is executed. Then, after that, when a call is in progress (step S203), the end of the call is monitored in step S204. If the end is confirmed, step S205
To read the time at the end of the call from the clock circuit 7,
Based on the destination telephone number, time, and day of the week stored in the first data storage unit 10 of the memory 8, the time during the call (call time) in step S203 is calculated (step S2).
06).

In step S202, the CPU 6 stores a map of each business operator corresponding to the distance calculated in the transmission routine of FIG. 3 in the fifth data storage unit 14 of the memory 8.
, And calculate the call charges for each operator,
The process of adding (integrating) to the corresponding part of the per-period charge result table stored in the data storage unit 12 is performed as follows.

That is, in the next step S 207, after performing an initialization process for a process of accumulating the charge result table for all of a plurality of businesses that can select and use a line,
Proceeding to step S208, the map of the first operator of the plurality of operators is stored in the fifth data storage unit 14 of the memory 8 according to the calling time of the ended call, the day of the week, and the distance to the destination. Search for.

Then, in the next step S209,
A call time per call is retrieved from the retrieved map of the business operator, and in the next step S210, a call charge for the case where the terminated call is made using the business operator's line is calculated. Then, the calculated call charge is integrated in the third data storage unit 12 of the memory 8 with the corresponding company in the period-by-period charge table in the process of generating the distance to the corresponding partner in the third data storage unit 12. (Step S211).

Then, through steps S212 and S213, the process returns to step S208, and by repeating step S208, the above-described integration processing to the fee record table is performed for all of the plurality of businesses. .

This processing routine ends when the above-described integration processing of the charge performance table is completed for all of the plurality of businesses.

In parallel with this integration process, a process of updating the reference fee record table is performed. FIG. 6 is a flowchart for explaining the update processing of the reference fee record table. The process of FIG. 6 is executed, for example, at predetermined time intervals.

First, in step S301, the period T
Then, it is determined whether or not the accumulation for the period has been completed and the generation of the period-based charge performance table has been completed (whether or not the period T has elapsed since the last update of the reference fee performance table). If the integration for the period T has not been completed, this processing routine ends as it is.

When the integration for the period T is completed, the process proceeds to step S302, where the entire reference fee actual table in the fourth data storage unit 13 is stored in the third data storage unit 12. In all of the period fee records
Rewrite and update the reference fee record table. Then, the process proceeds to step S303, in which the period charge result table of the third data storage unit 12 is cleared.

As described above, according to the telephone device of this embodiment, the destination telephone number, the transmission time, the transmission day,
For call information such as call time, create a reference fee record table taking into account the user's habits for multiple operators,
By selecting a line at the time of outgoing call based on this reference fee record table, it can be expected that a carrier line with the lowest call fee will always be selected.

The reference fee record table is updated every predetermined period. Therefore, even when the user's usage tendency of the telephone device changes, the reference charge record table is made to correspond to the change. It becomes.

For example, in the case where the call charges for each carrier for each call are accumulated without being updated every predetermined period, if the accumulation period is long, the user's user fee will be increased in the latest period. Even if the habit of using the telephone device changes, it does not easily appear in the charge record table, but as in this embodiment, a period charge record table is generated for each predetermined period and the reference charge record table is updated. In such cases, changes in the user's habits of using the telephone device in the most recent period appear in the period fee record table in an appropriate manner, and therefore, based on the rate record table according to the user's habit and use tendency, It will be possible to select the line of the business that has the lowest call fee.

In the above description of the embodiment, a plurality of fee record tables are provided according to the difference in the distance from the destination.
Although prepared, a charge record table may be created for each destination telephone number if a large-capacity memory is available.

In the above description, after each call, the call charges for each business operator are added to the per-period actual charge table during the generation of the third data storage unit 12. For a predetermined period of time such as one day or one week, it is stored, and the stored call record is used to calculate the total of the call charges in units of one day or one week. It may be.

Further, the period charge record table and the reference charge record table may be appropriately cleared by the user in consideration of the case where the user changes.

[0056]

As described above, according to the present invention, the call charge per call and the length of the call unit time are different from each other, and depending on the length of the call time, the lowest call charge is uniquely determined. Even when the operator to be determined is not determined, the line of the operator who can expect the lowest fee can always be selected at the time of calling.

Since the reference fee record table is updated every predetermined period, even when the user's usage tendency of the telephone device changes, the reference charge record table is not adapted to that. There is also an effect that it becomes.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a telephone device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a reference fee record table according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of an operation at the time of calling according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a part of a flowchart for explaining the operation of the call charge accumulation process in the period-based charge result table at the time of outgoing call and after the end of the call according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a part of a flowchart for explaining an operation of a call charge accumulation process in a periodical charge result table at the time of outgoing call and after the end of the call according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a process of updating a reference fee record table according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a relationship between a call time and a call charge.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a relationship between a call time and a service provider whose call cost is lowest.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Telephone 2 Telephone interface circuit 3 Line switching circuit 4 Network control circuit 5 PB signal and audible sound transceiver 6 CPU 7 Clock circuit 8 Memory

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A telephone device having a function of automatically selecting a lowest-charge line from a plurality of telephone communication carrier lines having different call charges according to a call time, a distance to a call partner, and the like, For each period of the defined length, for each call made during that period, the destination phone number, call duration,
Based on the call information such as the calling time, a call charge when each of the lines of the plurality of telephone carriers is used is calculated, and the calculated call charge for each of the plurality of telephone carriers is calculated by the telephone. A period-based charge result table generating means for generating a period-based charge result table in which the integration result integrated for each communication carrier is associated with the call information, and the period generated by the period-based charge result table generating means A reference charge record table updating means for updating the reference charge record table by the per charge record table, and when there is a call operation, searching the reference charge record table based on the call information about the call operation, Means for selecting a line of a telephone carrier whose telephone charge is expected to be the lowest and performing a dialing operation. 2. The telephone device according to claim 1, wherein the reference fee record table is prepared for each distance from a communication partner. 3. A method for automatically selecting a lowest-price line from a plurality of lines of telephone carriers having different call charges according to a call time, a distance to a call partner, and the like. For each call made during that time period, for each call made during that time period,
Based on the call information such as the calling time, a call charge when each of the lines of the plurality of telephone carriers is used is calculated, and the calculated call charge for each of the plurality of telephone carriers is calculated by the telephone. Generating a period-based charge performance table in which the integration result integrated for each communication carrier is associated with the call information; updating the reference charge performance table with the generated period-based charge performance table; When there is, by referring to the reference charge record table based on the call information about the call operation, select a line of a telephone carrier whose call charge is predicted to be the lowest charge. A method for automatically selecting the lowest-charge line.